The Year In Shows Part 1
It being almost the end of December, I thought it might be fun to look back at the year month by month and pick out the shows I remember best from each month. So here goes the first half of 2010:
January
Saturday the 23rd: Gathering of Fiddlers and Fishermen #11
The year got off to a rousing start with Fiddlers & Fishermen #11 at Common Fence Point Community Hall. (Some photos from the show can be found behind this link.) Lots of musicians played a couple of songs each, with me on second to last. By the time I went on a chunk of the audience had left, but plenty remained, and they gave me a huge response and got me to play an encore; I've said since that if I wanted to convince someone I was a rock star this is the show I'd have wanted them to see. I'm looking forward to returning to Fiddlers & Fishermen later this month!
February
Ooooh, some great shows to pick from -- my first NYC show, a Killdevils show with Marty Ballou ... but I have to go with:
Monday the 22nd: 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives' viewing party
An excellent local diner, the Liberty Elm, was featured on the Food Network show 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives' (you can see the segment here, and they had a party to watch it at the (lamentably now closed) Everyman Bistro. Before the show came on, there was live music by Mark Cutler, Lucky 57, and me and Chris Monti. Chris and I only had time to do a few songs together, but one was a rousing acoustic version of the Black Flag song 'TV Party' which we spent a lot of time deciphering the lyrics of. "Saturday Night Live! Monday Night Football! Dynasty! Friday's!"
March
Monday the 29th: Everyman Bistro open mike
John Windle used to run the Everyman Bistro open mike on Monday nights but he got a new job that conflicted with it. I had been a semi-irregular regular at the open mike for a while and he asked me if I'd be interested in taking it over. I discussed the situation with the owner, Leah, and took the job, which lasted until October 18 when Everyman closed its doors. In a mild panic I had contacted most of the musicians I knew to see if they'd be up for being a featured act at the open mike, and quickly booked myself ahead six months. It was kind of an exhilarating time.
So March 29th was the first night of my stint as open mike host, and the featured act was Stevie Lightnin', who put in a spirited performance. I have a couple of blurry cellphone videos from the night. Here's my favorite:
April
Sunday the 11th: Harpers Ferry
This show was the craziest damn thing. The afro-beat/dance band I'm in, the Double Decker Dance Band, had tentative plans to open for the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars at Harpers Ferry in Allston, but we had not succeeded in actually confirming with anyone that this was actually going to happen. Finally, on the day of the show, Chris Monti and Joe Paye drove up to talk to the All-Stars and to the folks at Harper's Ferry. The Harper's Ferry folks' initial reaction was: "No way." But Chris, Joe, and Ruben (one of the members of the All-Stars) managed to talk them around, and by the time the rest of the band arrived we were all set. We played a short set, then stuck around to hear great dance music by the other (official) opening act, the Macrotones, and finally by the All-Stars. It ended up being a great night.
May
Friday the 21st: Birthday show at White Electric
This was an early birthday present to myself and I asked a couple of friends whose music I like very much to share the bill with me (we played acoustic because of the venue). Allysen Callery and Kate Katzberg both agreed to do it, and I backed up Kate on piano on a couple of songs - Shel Silverstein's 'Vanilla' was a highlight. Lots of fun!
June
Thursday the 17th: Open mike featured act in Maryland
I decided to try out a mini-tour down to Maryland, so I booked a couple of shows and headed down. Rob Hinkal of ilyAIMY booked me to be the featured act at the Java Mamas open mike in Reisterstown, MD and I played to a group of mostly strangers. They enjoyed the music, I got a nice amount of money passing the hat, and I sold a few CDs -- a great way to start the mini-tour and an encouraging sign that maybe it wouldn't be crazy to try having a larger tour sometime.
