Our 6-day tour with Mercury Rev! 12-11-08
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!
December 12th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] has written a post on the deanandbritta.com blog about the bands recent tour supporting Mercury Rev. After 20 or 30 minutes, we came back to a much [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 8:20 am
i hope one day your travels bring you back to Tucson Arizona! your sound is so amazing, we listen to you just about every weekend during cocktails!!! love ya.
that tall guy from the Congress Hotel.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Britta,
I came across info about your group in a magazine, some men’s magazine. Saw your name and photo and I remember you from 9th grade. A strange memory. You don’t know me, I’m sure, but I sat behind you in homeroom and you sat next to a girl with bad skin, very short curly hair, lots of make-up, maybe green eyeliner. She was your friend. You had the 80’s hair, the one big curl down each side of your face, you know the kind you could make with a curling iron. I was quite awkward in 9th grade, pimples, braces, glasses, just moved to Buckingham. I remember you would come to homeroom and put your mascara on. Now remember to look at this from the preteen 9th grade awkward girl perspective. You were not that way. You were blond and beautiful and had perfect skin, etc. But I remember admiring the way you put on your mascara, making your eyelashes longer and longer. I’m sure it was Maybelline. You were very pretty, not needing much makeup, but eventually, you started wearing more make up and it didn’t look as good. Looking back now, I assume at some point in 9th grade, you started doing some drugs, smoking pot (as we all eventually did in 1977 or so), because you changed the way you would put on your makeup. You started putting on so much more make up than was neccessary, just caked it on. I remember thinking, why would she do that? Anyway, you moved away or dropped out or whatever, because you didn’t go on to Central Bucks East with the rest of us, I don’t think.
I haven’t listened to your music yet, but I will. I write poetry and teaching writing and I hope you enjoy this bizzare little memory of mine from Holicong Jr. High School of you. That’s what happens when you get some fame; people have these other perspectives of you that you had no idea of. I just felt the need to tell you about this “mascara memory” : hey a good name for a song or a poem. Take care.