Here we go--three more. Lots of time in the van.
Thursday: The band flew to Washington, DC, where we met the van and trailer. From there, we drove two hours to Dewey Beach, Delaware.
The Bottle and Cork has been around for a long time, and attracts some pretty big groups. I'd only heard of it because Mark Bencuya has a t shirt from there. They had a t shirt with us on it, but they misspelled Revue. Not impressive.
Before the show, we had a quick photo session for AARP, led by these two hipsters. It's unclear why this happened to us, but it did.
Ticket presales were very good, and then the last three hundred or so sold, and all of the sudden, we were at capacity. How about that?
This was a pretty great gig--the sellout, the energy of the people, and probably because the place looks like some shitty bar in a beach town in Delaware (of all places) that they clean out every night with a firehose that suddenly became this epic night. When it was going down, I reminded myself that tonight was probably going to be the best night of the run because the other two would be private parties.
To top everything off, the green room was extra nice! Showers, pool table, laundry. Well done.
At the end of the night, we got back in the van and drove two hours to Philadelphia, where we spent the night.
Friday: We were supposed to fly from Philly to Boston at maybe 11:30 AM (I can't remember exactly), but the flight was delayed before we even left the hotel, and then once we got to the Philadelphia airport, it was delayed I think twice more, and we ended up leaving around 2:45 PM, which was bad. Delta upgraded us, though. First class, but I still had to sit next to Monkeyboy.
Once we made it to Boston, we got in a van, and the driver drove 100 miles and hour for almost three hours straight until we got out to Chatham (on the cape of Massachusetts).
Our gear had been driven up from Philadelphia much earlier in the day and loaded in, so we finished setting everything up, changed clothes, and launched head first into the gig. I think we started around a half hour late after all the travel delays.
This one was some sort of private party for members of the club, and once we got going, there were lots of people in this tiny room. It was one of those nights where rich people get drunk and misbehave because the only musicians they've ever encountered were in a bar.
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| stage diver |
Saturday: We spent the night in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Scenes from my run...
Around the time that we were supposed to head off to the next gig, it was discovered that the leaf springs on the trailer were broken. We emptied its contents into a Uhaul, dropped the trailer for repair, and took the van (with a few things like saxophones and luggage) to New Hampshire for show number three.
We played this gig two years ago (you can relive it here, if you wish). Same kind of thing--late summer party, band on a barge in the lake. We were fortunate that we'd rented most of the gear instead of using our own stuff because 1. The weather didn't look good, 2. We were trying to leave as soon as our time was up.
We made it about halfway through the night before the weather began to deteriorate, so we packed up all of our stuff (mostly my stuff) and hopped off the barge. The backline guys packed as much of their stuff up as they could and tarped everything. Rain followed shortly thereafter.
Inside the house, we set up around the NINE FOOT STEINWAY! and played a half dozen more songs. I think the party attendees enjoyed this even more than the outdoor show--it quickly turned into a Yacht Rock sing-along in the living room. Easy night. This part was especially fun.
From here, we drove the two hours to Boston, spent the night, and flew home Sunday morning.
