Crazy Weekend

So, this past weekend Dave and I had four shows in the span of two days. We were going to have 5, but we had to cancel one in order to pick up our house guests and get them settled in here at the AA albany outpost.

Yes, besides 4 shows, there were also two houseguests (amazing houseguests) from the UK. Bex and Em. Bex being a friend of mine from college, and Em being her girlfriend. So they served as our roadies for the weekend, and our excuse to actually have a homelife and have fun in between the madness.

Saturday we played at Art on Lark, a last minute gig we got through our good friend Erin Harkes. She's always looking out for us and getting us all the exposure she can. It's more than one can ask for in a musician/friend that is further along in their career than you, but it's also the norm in the capital region music scene. Everyone supports each other. I say it all the time, but it's much more familial than competitive. We applaud eachothers successed and lament eachothers misfortunes, and we help eachother out whenever we can.

Anyway, Art on Lark is a festival, you guessed it, on Lark Street in Albany, NY. Lark is six blocks (albeit a long six blocks) from our house, so with the help of our roadies, we were able to walk to the gig. It also helped that it was an entirely acoustic venture. I don't think the PA could have been carried there so well. We played on the corner of Lark and Lancaster, across the street from Shining Star, which is the local hippie store of choice. We were also right next to the sidewalk chalking contest taking place on Lancaster between Lark and Willett. A number of people stopped to listen and seemed to enjoy themselves, but it was hard to hear due to the large amount of busses and fire trucks that overtook Lark for what seemed like only the 3:00-4:00 hour. The next day, at the Pride festival, i was stopped by a few people who had seen us the day before. They just wanted to say that they liked what they heard and that we did a nice job. So, I guess the traffic didn't overtake everything after all.

Saturday night brought AA to Troy to play at the Ale House. In general, it was a fun show, as it always is when we split one with Maurizio. He had a hat with a rooster on it, and somehow that became the theme for his entire set. As for us, were very happy with Maurizio's role as sound man for the night. He brought a new, massive system, and after a few technical difficulties at the beginning, mixed us cleanly and beautifully. Despite the lack of monitor I could hear everything I needed to, and I think both of us performed better as a result.

On Sunday we played at the Cambridge farmer's market. We've been touting it as a place you can play and get so much produce as tips that you don't need to go to the market for three weeks. So, of course, all of our tips were monetary. No apples for AA this time. It also rained for about half the time we were there, causing us to take a very long break between the first and second sets. The people at Cambridge are fantastically friendly and helpful however. For example, the man next to us, who runs the tent for Something's Brewing (a coffeehouse in Greenwich) always gives us free coffee, and two people offered to lend their chairs to Dave, who left his at home. The two picnic tables near our tent were continually filled with people watching and listening, even during the rainy bits. The only real downside to the market was that Em somehow managed to drop my vocal mike into the speaker. My dad, who also sat in with us that day (and it was great fun) got it out though.

Sunday night was Jeremy James' CD release party. We were asked to open because we recorded a track for it with him. I sang backing vocals, as did Dave, who also played Djembe. The other band that was meant to open was forced to cancel at the last minute due to illness, so we played a longer set and started later in order to make it work. Gemma from the Bookdrop Bees, who is the one who was sick, sang on another track on Jeremy's album, and the Bees are also good friends of AA.

Valentines, where the show was held, was empty when we got there, but by the time we got to our last song there were around 30 people there. Our sound man was also quite good that night. I thanked him after we performed. On the business front, it was a dissapointing show, just because the way Valentines works isn't a way that usually works out for small, acoustic two-act shows on Sunday nights, but on the musical front it was one of the best shows i've participated in in a great while. I think everyone in the place was listening the entire time, clapping and cheering and charging the performers with energy that translated into stellar performances for us and for Jeremy. We sat in on "Home", the song we recorded together, which was a blast. Becky and Em also quite enjoyed Jeremy and ended up buying one of his CDs (and getting it signed) and talking to him for a while.

It was a ridiculously busy weekend, but a good one nonetheless. All i want to do now, however, is stay at home, write waltz songs on my ovation, sleep and read the newspaper.

C