May 3, 2003 - Harry's - Northampton Music Festival May Day Party

HENNING: The Northampton Music Festival May Day Party. As Lesa and I were driving over to Harry's for this show, I got a frantic call from Brian. "Harry's is full of people! But they're not the right people!! What is going on?!?" As we pulled up in front of the club we saw a confused and flustered looking Bruce Tull standing out front. It turns out that even though the NMF show was slated to start at exactly 8:00, the owner of the club had booked a wedding reception that was slated to end at 8:00. Nobody was told. So, here we all were lugging our equipment passed the drunk well-dressed folks, while one-by-one the Harry's staff start showing up, only to stand around outside. Poor Bruce is trying to set up the sound system while not scaring away the rowdy crowd of wedding folk. (Who has their wedding reception at Harry's? What, was the Papa Gino's all booked up?) It's really not a very big issue but for some reason it seemed like one at the time. I guess because everyone was so caught off guard by having a full room at 7:00. The wedding folks were lured into the pool room by a spread of pizzas and, since it was already passed 8:00 we decided we should go ahead and start the show since there was a full schedule ahead of us (or so we thought). I made a little announcement inviting listeners up to the front and encouranging talkers to head over to the pool room. Tnias started off the night and put on a nice set of Arjuna's songs. They sounded quite good and were the perfect volume for kicking off the night, not crazy and loud and not too quiet to compete with the party. One gentleman from the wedding group came up to me and said, "I like the sound of this band, but I guess I am old, because it is just too loud." I wanted to say, "It has to be at least this loud to drown out the yelping of your drunken jovial nuisance of a friend there." But I just said, "This?! This isn't loud." and he said, "Yep, well, I'm forty and I guess that is the difference." I guess when he saw all the youngsters, like Marty, up there on the stage, he just felt out of place. I really shouldn't make fun of the wedding folks, is not their fault that the place was double booked. After Tnias, Patty Magill played a nice set of quieter music with her JRR Tolkein guitar. She was supposed to be followed by Matt Hebert and then Josh Crane but neither of them were there, so Josh from Los Diablos played a very long and excellent set. His irish-flavored easy-to-digest music was perfect to fit in with the still noisy but gradually thinning crowd of people who weren't there for the music. After Josh played his extended set, Hebert and Crane still weren't there so I recruited George Lenker to play a few songs. He called himself Mudpony and using my guitar and amp played a couple. It was great. The songs came through a little better than they do with the full band and he looked like a seasoned star up there. It was a super bonus and a treat. By this time, most of the wedding gang had left and now only the music fans were there. It meant that there was a smaller crowd but it meant that there was a better audience. The evening in general was very poorly attended. I don't know if people weren't aware of it or if they just didn't care or if maybe the Drunk Stuntmen show the night before had worn everyone out. I ran into a few area regulars the day of this show and none of them knew about it. Either way, the crowd that was there was there to see some music and they were great. The Fawns took the stage and we played a short set. Brian filled in on drums and, of course, did an excellent job. Bruce made fun of me through the talk-back monitors when I flubbed up a solo. An anxious Lori Mac yelled out for "Boy Crazy". People seemed to dig it. It was the most relaxed Fawns show to date. Group Deville went up next and put on a very good show. They sounded better than ever. Rick's new guitar is super cool. There was a rumour that they were going to be a three piece, but at the last minute, their keyboardist arrived and surprised everyone. Sugar Giant played next. What a band of valley pros. Paul Roche, Paul Pelis, John LaBarr, Chris Brewery, and I don't know the keyboardist. They are all amazing players. As they played, the hectic energy of the last few hours started to sink in and I fell back in a plush sofa and closed my eyes. It had been a very long night. Because, I am the self-appointed manager of the town, I couldn't help but kind of take over as stage manager and I wore myself out in doing so. Sugar Giant announced their last song and I remembered that we still had a School for the Dead set to play. We were the last band of the night and after spending many hours hearing music, I guess we were all pumped up or something, because we played the most rock-show show that we have to date. Ken wasn' t with us and we really became a guitar band. I could hear my guitar in my left ear and Tony's in my right and we had a great rhythm counter-rhythm thing going all night. Max and Brian were dead-on. Maybe we were making up for the ethereal sounding nothingness of our Mt. Holyoke show the night before, I don't know. We played all of our hardest hitting songs and jumped form one to the other very quickly. Brian and Max did a great job of filling in on missing harmonies. Tony had ironed out a few of Ken's parts on the guitar and we felt really together. The crowd seemed really into it, too. It was incredibly hot in the room and I felt the old energy of a last-set rock show. It was a great performance and I felt like we ended the evening with an exclamation point. There is a music scene in this town. The Music Festival is a good thing, even if a lot of the music lovers and makers in town didn't show up for the May Day Party. Yee. MAX: Our show on Saturday as part of the NMF cd release party was lots of fun. While the attendance was kind of slim, enough friendly faces found their way to Harry's to make it a worthwhile evening. The Fawns' set was great, I thought, and Brian did a sweet job of filling in for Rob on drums. Other highlights of the evening included Group DeVille's rockin' performance, featuring Rick's gorgeous new red gee-tar, and George Lankar's (sp?) brief-but-great mini-set. I look forward to the next Mudpony show, as I missed their Snail Tour. Schooly D played a no-frills, all rockin', popalicious set, which felt great after Friday's strange Mt. Holyoke show. My favorite part of the show was the segue between "Something's Taking Over", with the new spacey Dark Star ending into "Thug" - good call Brian! (although Tony claims to have thought of it first, perhaps sending over the idea to Brian via telepathy). Henning said afterwards that it felt kind of like a Steamtrain show, since we came off stage all sweaty and pooped. TONY: smooth and rocking and pro and self-assured. Which was just what we needed. And yeah, the Taking Over to Thug medley was my idea- during the extended coda to that song, I just went over and tapped Brian on the shoulder while I left a guitar chord ringing and Brian was still flailing away and delivered the idea, shouted over cymbals and jangle, drums and wires. I thought of the idea about six shows ago and never once remembered to bring it up before a show or before we started playing "Taking Over" so this was the only way, I guess. One last thing- our new way of playing 1,000 Times has refreshed my zeal to play that song. I still hear Stone Roses in my head but in last night's rehearsal, we took it further down the U2 road (although Henning's Bono impression is much more of a dead-on Jose Ayerve impression, just like Brian's impression of Yoko Ono is just like Yoko Ono talking like Brian Marchese talking like Yoko Ono) and Ken's ominous keyboard chords in the quiet parts transported the song to someplace it must never, never go again. Funny, funny Kenny. BRIAN: I filled in on drums for the Fawns and had a good time. Prior to that, an early Margarita was the only thing that shut me up complaining about the annoying left-over wedding party guests and the lack of Veracruzana. I had a great chat with Nick, Group DeVille's drummer, who told me stories of having lived in Detroit ("pre-riots") and having gone to jazz clubs to see Coltraine, Monk, Miles and more. I remarked that to someone my age, it all seems like mythology. And he said, "you're right. it was the end of an era of innovation". I could have easily become disheartened upon hearing these words spoken directly to me by someone who was there (as opposed to Ken Burns or Pete Townshend on a PBS or VH1 special). But after mixing around for a while, they resulted in a very energetic, inspired SFTD performance. As beings with survival instincts, we who've come after are not just going to lay down and die, or become drones programmed with the knowledge that "it's all been done". The Victorian house is perfection to me, the studio drum sound of Hal Blaine in1967 is as well. Or women's fashion of 1966. And all those things are recycled and presented as "this year's model". I guess, then, we'll continue to pay tribute and hopefully, and inevitably stumble across something, or many things, new. But we can't admit it's all been done. Already people my age are looking wistfully at the 80's/early 90's as when things were good. Oy, I think I need to eat. I haven't eaten yet, I got so excited my computer was working. But I'm not thinking things through like I want. Closing May Day remarks: highlights--singing along with the Josh Lederman stuff. Does he know he's a radio star up here? That Philadelphia song is a total River hit . That's why I requested it--so maybe folks in the room would realize who he was. George Mudpony was great to watch. He's just a very cool, hip guy. One feels reassured when George is in the room. The song to his fiance was sweet and not sappy. GDV sounded excellent. I love the well-dressed rhythm section. Classy. And the yellow shirt with red guitar made Rick a great focal point. I love the guys in Sugargiant, but in order for me to have been able to play a good SFTD set, I had to take a 20 minute walk around downtown with Andrea to clear my ears, my lungs, my head, and stretch my legs. Walk off the Veracruzana and drinks. It did the trick.

Photobooth Curtain Soup Of The Moment Uncomfortable Talking Back Words 1,000 Times One Lady Dancing Something's Taking Over Thug Omnivore