So I guess day one of the tour was our gig at the Stone on the Lower East Side the other night. We set up in a circle with our amps all facing each other in the center of John Zorn's tiny performance space. We made them help us drag the grand piano out, which almost fell through a hole in the floor. I also had my pick of the cool 60's jazz dude drumsets they have piled up in the basement. Set it all up real quick and sound checked while a crowd gathered in the freezing cold outside.
After the crowd settled in we took down the lights for Aaron Rosenblum's super cool projection show. We started playing some piano based songs.. Bad Dream, Ballad of Harry A. .. and let that stuff get all free and bleed into a mix of wild jams and a few new and old songs. Super fun free wheeling set. Thanks to everyone who traveled to check us out and sorry to those who couldn't get in.. but we're playing another New York gig in like 2 days.
Chilled in the basement for a bit with my main cat Tom Surgal who, along with his partner Lynn, is curating events at the Stone for the next several months. There's about a million good gigs in their series so check out their schedule here. Six Organs of Admittance played the 10 o clock gig, and holy shit, this was some of the best guitar playing I've ever seen in my entire life! This guy has total mastery of his instrument. Truly inspiring to see someone making such complex and beautiful art right before your eyes. Dude has some hits too! He managed to weave tons of awesome acoustic guitar shredding throughout the whole thing and by the end the crowd was screaming for an encore. Awesome show.
The next night we didn't have a gig.. but Elisa and John came over and hung out with my wife and I for a pizza party. I made a kind of Margherita pizza with a bit of Spinach.. It's all I had but the second pie turned out pretty good I think. We all stayed up telling stories and jokes till like 1 in the morning.
Yesterday's gig was in Baltimore. Everyone came by my place in the morning to pack and work on a tour cdr consisting of the gig we had just played at the stone. We had a really good recording and with a few tight edits it was all set! I grabbed a Captain's Daughter sandwich from Saltie for the road. It was a strange sandwich with anchovies, hard boiled eggs, capers, onions, I can't remember what else. It was really good tho. It caused much ire with Elisa however who thought that it was just dumb and not funny at all to name a fish sandwhich after The Captain's Daughter. I thought it was also dumb but funny. I asked Elisa to come up with a better sandwich. Her idea was top bread dark rye walnut bread... bottom loaf light rye with sunflower seeds.. filled with Iberian ham, prosciutto etc. It would be called the Knut Hamsun. I think this is a better name. Not sure about the 2 types of bread.
Our gig in B more was great. Afternoon Penis ruled hard in a dreamy synthy way. Old School Nautical Almanac was confusing and very good. We played a tight but free rock set including such numbers as Taste and You Buy It. Lower Dens was very cool. Their guitarist was temporarily playing drums but their great songs still shone through the less tight sound.
Tonight we're playing with Sic Alps in Durham so come see us! Gotta go cause the battery is dying.
