Mystic, CT engineering. 
Sunday we took a day trip with Mike, Ari and Andy to Mystic, CT to wander and eat. They took us to Mystic Pizza where we sat across from the James Bond wall! And their pizza? Yes – everything they claim it is – a little slice of heaven indeed! OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Mike and Andy of White Rose Confession with Heather looking like a lump of urban awesome. This car was bad ASS!!! From the front it looked like a flaming Batmobile! Flaming like my boots, not flaming like gay. Shut up with your smartassery now. Sheesh. The wrath of the wharf rat, hey? I fear nothing. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The drawbridge in Mystic, CT went up twice while we were in town. I liked the little lamp posts in the sky!
It’s a good day. Hell, the last couple of days have been good days. Putnam, CT always treats us kind (with just a couple of cruelties here or there so we don’t get TOO complacent) and I Love the calm here. We’ve been spending our nights up at Dave’s old Victorian home and our days down at his Victoria Station Cafe, working and playing. Playing is working.
Wednesday, after struggling towards consciousness and packing up the tent, we fought our way through Massachusetts into Boston to visit our friend Gwen who’s just moved up to Jamaica Plain. We had an incredible Mexican lunch (that’s funnier but less factually accurate if I state we had an incredible Mexican for lunch- hee!) and then headed out to the Atwood Tavern to play as part of Teresa Storch’s singer/songwriter showcase there. Gorgeous little bar, unfortunately, by the time we played (she’d snuck us in at the last minute – which was great but…) the bar was pretty empty. After the early-evening trivia games (I only got one answer, really – I knew 3 2 1 Contact was the show on which the Bloodhound Gang used science and logic to solve mysteries!) and then the showcase itself (Teresa, Danielle Miraglia and a woman I’d never met before named Lisa) people seemed disinclined to stick around for ANOTHER musical act. Especially after the very soothing sounds of the chosen triumvirate. We played to about eight people including Teresa, Danielle, Gwen and the bartender and then made our way sleepily home.
Boston is a bad town to make no sales in – it’s an expensive place to be – and an exotic one. There’s always something around the corner that you want to either take home with you or consume, but Boston is an EASY town to make no sales in. We tend to go there more on visitation than on attempts to break into any scene or another. The fact that we’ve also been confining ourselves to singer/songwriter / folk events I think is also pretty deadly. Boston has a very closed folk community (I’m going to take heat for that) and we don’t fit in there. There’s a pretty specific sound that we don’t have, a very specific style – I can think of few exceptions but it’s a sort of rewriting of and in classical folk styles. It’s not the cross-genre rock-folk that you encounter a lot of other places… it’s sort of like the 60’s rock revolution never happened, and 70’s funk thing passed them by, 80’s pop didn’t make a dent nor did 90’s grunge, rap, metal… they’re still very Americana / traditional folk / blues-oriented. I like it – but it’s just not me….
In any case, beside the point. I’m looking for excuses for why we’ve never managed to grow our audience in the area. It’s also possible we just don’t rise to the top in SUCH a competitive area.
Thursday night was diamond.
We played at the Grog in Newburyport, MA with Dan Blakeslee who continues to be one of my absolute favourite people. Both as a performer and as a human he just radiates… at the moment we’re driving up I-395 listening to Orange Nichole’s CD, which was the other band on the roster for the evening. They write these very surreal tunes about spiders and Tums and dying. They sort of remind me of the Cure but without Robert Smith’s warbling wail.
Dan’s show on Thursday night was just incredible. Solo, he’s a crooner, but with the band you see a bit more of his Stray Cats / rockabilly roots and they’re pleasant support structures. I especially Loved Mike, his drummer, who on top of being a powerful rhythm creature was just a weird and charming individual. I want to play with HIM!
Friday night we played at the Brooklyn Coffee and Tea house in Providence, RI – had a good time with that and I think we’ve finally found a home for Providence. We actually had people there to see US (other than Eddie – who’s been faithful since the beginning!) and I really liked that intimate little space. Afterwards we met up with Sonny and his girlfriend Pam and the owner of the Brooklyn over at Filini’s for Heather’s favourite pizza in the whole wide world. After which we stayed at my friend Sonny’s, which was really cool cause he’s got lots of cool stuff and likes to show it off, but we stayed at Sonny’s and that wasn’t really that great because it’d been a hot day and he Lives over a bait shop.
The bridge in Portsmouth, NH looks good in the rain. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA While waiting to start up at the Red Door I took a walk around Portsmouth and ran across beayoooootiful gardens.
The next morning we went and had breakfast with my friend Mary (oh she of the late night grave shift, oh her of the never-aging beauty, oh Lovely lady of Monopoly!) and had AMAZING food – I had scallops and eggs benedict with a chipotle hollandaise sauce that just about added my own man-juices to the table it was SO good. Luckily, we departed before I expressed this properly and I was over my swoon by the time we got in front of a microphone again.
Tim Williams at the Hush Hush Sweet Harlot series at the Red Door in Portsmouth, NH. Boy. is a girl! Go fig. She was frustrated with the sound at the Red Door and just decided to have herself a little party in the middle of the floor. See the Lovely Dan Blakeslee in the background! Lots of Chucks were worn at the Red Door in Portsmouth, NH. There was a time when I’d NEVER have worn the damned things… thank you Susan, for opening my eyes… well, to FLAMING Chucks at least!
