We’ve been running hard for a couple of days now and my mouth tastes like too much coffee and my eyes feel like too little sleep. I-90 west has us driving with the morning sun at our backs on Easter Sunday to an early afternoon show at a combo “tea room and herbal apothecary”. I have no idea who goes to see acoustic-grunge shows on Easter Sunday, but whoever they are, we’ll meet them soon.
Monday I ran my open mic and we were just SLAMMED. A huge list with a LOT of female performers (both Heather and Acacia Sears were really excited to see so many ladies in the house!) and Matt Nakoa as my featured artist. I got home exhausted but exhilarated. Tuesday was the Board and Brew which also had one of its biggest turnouts ever. I’d pray this was the new normal if I prayed. As it is I’ll just hope. Wednesday Kristen and I played Justin Trawick’s “the 9 Songwriter Series” at Gypsy Sally’s in DC. That was ANOTHER long night with a LOT of performers and was a LOT of fun. So much good music! And Thursday was Firestone’s – a long night of too many drunk people dancing too close to the stage. There were very interesting social dynamics in play to say the least…
And then Friday we piled into the car and headed north to the Vanilla Bean in Pomfret, CT. As always I go through the various stages of Driving North :
1) denial (we can sleep another 15 minutes right? Let me just brush my teeth ONE more time. Sure, let’s stop for coffee.) 2) optimism (we’ve got plenty of time! What a beautiful day! Let’s turn the radio up LOUD!!!)
3) Boredom (fuck you New Jersey)
4) Traffic (fuck YOU New York!)
5) Pessimism (fuck YOU CONNECTICUT!!!)
6) Righteous Optimism (okay, looks like traffic is getting thinner, we’ve passed through all the major urban areas, GPS says we’ll make it with time to spare and the SCENERY is STUNNING!)
Kristen playing with Atoka Chase at Gypsy Sally’s, April 1st, 2015. Atoka Chase’s set up was pretty intense, especially for a three song showcase : a merch box the size of a large ice chest, a cart with two amplifiers, two cinder blocks, a huge rug, a banjo, an archtop guitar, a home made gas can guitar, a violin … and a cow skull – the latter being a welcome addition to the overall feel of the night, adorning the monitors and just giving that little extra EDGE to the night. Everyone gathering on stage to say good night, April 1st, 2015 at Gypsy Sally’s in Washington, DC as part of Justin Trawick’s The 9 Songwriter Series. Another favourite from April 1st at the 9 Songwriter Series at Gypsy Sally’s in Washington DC – the mutli-instrumentalist, funny as Hell duo the Capital Heights. One of the BEST aspects of the 9 is the social interaction, and hanging out in the green room backstage at Gypsy Sally’s may well have been just as much fun as hanging out ON it. Hanging out back stage with The Capital Heights watching Atoka Chase at Gypsy Sally’s in Washington, DC. Definitely one of the most spectacular finds of the night : Atoka Chase. When they were first sound checking I was kind of dismissing them as just another banjo-toting indie band, but as they barrelled through their set the evocative imagery and musical textures really blew me and Kristen away. Maya and Jared are stunning and charismatic performers on guitar, violin, banjo, suitcase… and then the vocals? Wow. Just wow.
There was a rough moment with stage 4 where we thought we’d taken a wrong turn and were definitely distracted by going through New York City. Normally we’ll drive about 80 miles out of our way to avoid the whole tangle, but maybe once every other year we’re feeling SO damn flush with both cash and patience that we take the direct route all up in the mighty tolls of I-95. My EZ-Pass statement hasn’t shown up yet, but generally I think by driving an hour and a half out of our way we not only avoid the spectacular stress of driving through New York City but about $30 in tolls. And you know? With about $30 in tolls from me it’d be great if they’d fix some of the absolutely terrifyingly HUGE holes in the road.
I mean – really – simply by percentages you’d think that some part of New York City would be aesthetically attractive but it seems that the architects of the Big Apple set out from the get-go to create a sprawling, grimy expanse that has all the frenzied activity of a kicked-over termite mound and none of the charm. Grit? I LIKE grit! But this is just GRIME. The soot and cinder of a hundred years of internal combustion and fast Living accumulated onto foul arterial motorways built of concrete and steel.
When the world collapses inward into a critical mass of arcology and overgrown mega-city THIS is what it looks like. And suicides will sky rocket.
Okay. I’m dour. But like I said… that was stage 4 and stage 5 all mixed together and the only REAL problem with Connecticut is that everyone’s running away from New York!
In any case, once we were out of NYC’s accretion disc of chaos and clusterfuck, the Merritt Parkway is a relatively idyllic drive of trees and whimsical bridges fading eventually into semi-rural rolling hills and the bones of New England. The ground is still partially covered in snow up here and all the lakes are half-frozen and in this first warming and sudden thaw all of Connecticut is smeared out into Stygian mists that make me wish I was able to convince Heather and Kristen to dress in long white lacey flowy things… yeah, the woods in this weather needs to be filled with beautiful women with long white flowy dresses running through the forests. Ghost nymphs and mysteries populate the sylvan greys right now and its breathtaking, more reminiscent of the volcanic calderas of Wyoming than our typical Connecticutian experience.
Friday morning we set out from Baltimore City towards New England and stumbled across some cool art that I THINK was protruding from the old Copy Cat building – I didn’t get a good shot because I FAIL at having my camera ready before noon o’clock under the best of circumstances – but there was Batman and a Xenomorph and a couple of other frightening images towering over us in Charm City. New York City. I’m not a fan. Connecticut on the other hand is quite spectacular in the mists. Connecticut still has a lot of snow on the ground and the temperature struck up to close to 70 creating really marvelous mists flowing all around as we drove to the Vanilla Bean on Friday, April 3rd in Pomfret, CT. This is one of Kristen’s pics. She tends to do it best.
Yeah – we were all up in Stage Six by the time we rolled into the Vanilla Bean on Friday night. Their open mic feature hadn’t shown up so in addition to the afterglow of Stage Six, in addition to the fact that the Vanilla Bean is a truly Lovely venue with absolutely delicious food, ilyAIMY gets to play a full set of music to an unsuspecting room. The host, singer/songwriter Faith Montaperto semi-whispers “I can count my ‘favourite’ bands on the fingers of my hands – and these guys are one of them” – Kala Farnham is there showcasing her new return to performing on Celtic harp, the ginger lemon-ade is homemade and flowing strong – a couple of friends have come out to join us and all-in-all it is a gorgeous night.
After the show we went home with Mike Lussier of White Rose Confession and crashed at his new place. It’s walking distance to Victoria Station Café so that’s where we spent most of Saturday, getting work done and enjoying a beautiful day in Putnam, CT. Victoria Station’s second floor is in the midst of a massive remodel where they’re building a genuine stage and returning to Live music. I can’t wait. Even in the dust and construction it’s beautiful – it’s going to be the best room in New England!
Okay. I’m getting a little TOO excited.
I went to visit Wonderland Comics and narrowly escaped purchasing Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollett. Unfortunately, by the time it was time to head to the gig, Kristen and I were both vibrating from over-caffeination and we arrived at another favourite place, Stoughton House of Brews, feeling kind of ill. We got through a high-energy three hours of show thanks to a quick car-nap and the fantastic enthusiasm of the crowd. Absolutely great show – high points included our new songs (I’m getting to beatbox on Heather’s new tune “Good Heart” and “Glom of Nit” is shaping up nicely…. This week we’ll be looking at adding “Stay Close” to the roster as well) and the chili and the fabulous humans of Stoughton.
After the show we drove into Boston. Unlike most Bostonian visits, traffic was painless and I have the suspicion that both New York City and Boston have found the budget for new signage!
Contrary to the Big Rotten Apple, Boston has a beauty and grace to it and especially approaching it at midnight it’s a techno-fae city of neon and ground-bound starlight, sweeping curves and water and we quickly find ourselves in Somerville landing at the door of our friend singer/songwriter Laura Grill.
She even opens it for us.
Faith Eileen Ward hosting the open mic at the Vanilla Bean in Pomfret, CT. She was joined on stage by Andii Styron, another powerfully-voiced local. Faith ran the open mic with admirable ferocity DEMANDING music and receiving it!
Dizzy, the oversized, massively-built calico cat greets us aloofly and climbs on all of our stuff and attacks our toes and we’re quickly feeling at home, but though we’re swiftly in bed, sleep just doesn’t come. Last night I had lyrics and rhythms and songs in my head. Worries and concerns pushed through the noise but then were quickly consumed by the sheer musicality of my Life. I lay there in the darkness of a silent, frozen night in Boston as we crept towards Easter with the echoes of Stoughton ringing through my head…
Even though was still awake come dawn, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Saturday morning it was time to move on to Massachusetts and that beautiful contrast of bright sunshine and warm weather with ice on the water persists. Dizzy’s lost 4 pounds or so, but he’s still a BIG cat and craves the flesh of human toes in Somerville, MA. We passed all sorts of interesting places to celebrate Easter Sunday, but we had a gig so we pushed on…. Passiflora’s where our gig is on Easter Sunday – and it’s a beautiful building. As snow starts to sprinkle down upon us we realize we’re in for a Loverly show in New Hartford, CT. To the right, our new fan, local journalist Shaw caught us performing after much effort trying to dodge people’s heads…. Another new fan, CJ, caught this shot demonstrating how precarious our continued existence was in light of the massive air conditioner hanging over our heads. Still, the food and new friends of Passiflora in New Hartford, CT made such peril worthwhile. after Passiflora we retied to our hotel (THANK YOU MIKE!!!) where we were greeted by the Cyclops Elephant of Moist.
