Thursday: This trip started with a flight to Newark, New Jersey.
 |
| Atlanta traffic has infected the airport |
 |
| I know it's practice, but it's still a bit unsettling to see this as you're taking off |
Gig number one: Sayreville, NJ at the Starland Ballroom. It didn't look like much on the outside, but this place turned out to be pretty OK. Denny Laine and the Bouchard Brothers (of Blue Oyster Cult) joined us. We had right around three hundred people in the audience, which actually felt like a decent crowd--they had good vibes.
 |
| Albert Bouchard sitting in |
From the airport, we made our way through Friday afternoon traffic and steady rain out to Long Island. Somewhere along this trip, a NYPD car pulled up next to us on the shoulder of the road and flipped on his lights. Zach (who was driving) tried to give him some room, but he stayed with us, so Zach pulled over. The officer then tried to yell at us through the PA bullhorn on his car, but no one could understand him over the traffic and the downpour. Zach tried to exit the roadway and the cop came flying around in front of us and cut him off, and then jumped out of his car screaming so much profanity that it was impossible to understand what he wanted. After he'd finished flipping out (and scaring us all to death), he let us go. From what we could gather, commercial vehicles with trailers were not allowed on the roadway/parkway we were on. We were in a van with eleven people--a passenger vehicle--which seemed to stump the NYPD when he was screaming "ARE YOU A FUCKING PASSENGER VEHICLE?? ARE YOU YOU A FUCKING PASSENGER VEHICLE???" and Zach said "Yes sir." What's the right answer here?
Anyway, we somehow avoided what felt like an inevitable physical confrontation, made it to the Paramount in Huntington, and set up for the show.
We love this place. 1100 people in attendance. If the weather hadn't been so bad (mid 40s and raining), we'd definitely have come close to selling it out.
 |
| with Denny Laine (far left) |
Saturday: After sleeping late, we opted to head into Manhattan early for lunch.
We played a sold out show at Irving Plaza. This one was particularly great--New York has always been excellent to us, but the energy was good and we played really well. Guests for this show were the same as the night before: Robbie Dupree, Denny Laine, and Albert Bouchard.
A few videos:
Sunday: Gig number four, and sell out number two. We drove to Washington DC and set up for our show at The Hamilton, another one of our favorite rooms. My mix sounded so good that I almost forgot we were on stage.
We broadcast this show on Facebook. Here's set one:
No big letdown in Saturday's energy--this was another really good gig!
Monday: The final show of this run was Night Two at The Hamilton--sell out number three. Everybody slept late and then headed into DC to hang out until soundcheck. I ended up walking from our hotel, which took me right past Reagan National Airport, across the Fourteenth Street bridge, past the Jefferson Memorial, and into town. It was a cold, grey day.
 |
| Indian food for late lunch/early dinner |
We were collectively pretty flat on this one. Nothing was bad, but the band was a bit fried. The crowd didn't seem to notice, though. Everybody had a great time.
Once again, the Hamilton announced our next two shows here (April 11-12), and they sold most of the tickets before the end of the night.
Tuesday: Seconds before I fell asleep.
