Hallooo! It was a fun mini-tour. We’d never played Woodstock before. The Bearsville Theater is a cool venue. You can sit at the bar and watch the band through glass if you want to converse, and there’s a fireplace in the dressing room. Also heard that Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, is buried in the back yard. Our friend Thoma Semence, who played with Keren Ann on our bus tour back in February, caught a ride with us up to Woodstock and we dined with him and Chris Porpora (aka Cheval Sombre, one of two new artists we’ll be releasing on our new label, Double Feature Records, next year) before the show. There was quite an interesting mix of people at the show. A wide variety of ages and outfits. Dean and I met Jonathan’s parents while we were selling t-shirts.
Boston was a great show - the Boston fans are the best! Nate showed up even though he had a broken heel and we talked to oodles of people after we played. Next day, we stopped at Rein’s New York Deli on the way back to NYC - always a tour highlight - for corned beef Rachels, bread pudding and halvah. Our drummer, Anthony had never tasted halvah before. He described the taste as a cross between a Butterfinger candy bar and a falafel. Yummmmm….
The Highline show in NYC was a mini-disaster, technically. We had to leave the stage after our first song when my microphone died. After 20 or 30 minutes, we came back to a much fuller room and finished our set, but my mic died again before our last song, Bonnie & Clyde, so I had to share Dean’s mic. It hard for us not to laugh because we had to almost kiss every time we sang the chorus together, but the crowd really enjoyed it. A little drama always make a live show more interesting and memorable. Tony Visconti came to the show! It was great to hang out with him after not seeing him for more than a year. And we met a whole slew of lovely people after the show, including a friend of Matt’s (our keyboard player) named Kuki Kooks.
Next morning, we drove to Montreal. We were relieved to see the sidewalks when we arrived (the last time we played in Montreal, everything was covered in ice and snow) but by the time our show was finished it was 2 degrees outside. We did some shots to warm ourselves and headed back to the hotel. When we awoke the next morning, Montreal was covered in snow and it didn’t let up until about half-way to Toronto - when it turned to rain and fog.
We’d never been to the Opera House in Toronto. We tried playing Car Wash Hair at sound check, but decided we needed more practice. I picked up some gloves at a truck stop on for Mercury Rev’s sound man after seeing him pick up a 4 x 10 bass cabinet with his bare hands the night before. I hope he found them. We didn’t really get to say a proper good-bye to all of them because we had to leave before their set was finished and begin the drive homeward.
What a lovely bunch of guys, and their whole crew, too!
