May 24, 2003 - Ditto's (Tavern off the Green) - Litchfield, CT - with The Naomi Star - Henning Solo
HENNING: Ken was in texas, Max was in Montreal and The Naomi Star was looking for an acoustic solo opening act to play this show at a place called Tavern off the Green in Litchfield , CT. Sounds fancy huh? Lesa decided to come along for this adventure and we left somewhat early so's that we could just drive around in new territories. This meant that we had to miss Andrea's going away party entirely but it was that or just go for a half an hour so we opted to take advantage of the whole day. We drove off into the rain, not heading anywhere in particular besides south. We found ourselves in a strange little town called Chester that was chock full of huge houses and ritzy country art stores. What caught my eye was all the signs pointing to Gillette Castle. We followed them through the twisting and turning roads through the lush green rainy forests and pastures, stone walls and marshes lined the roads. Eventually we came to the state park where the castle is. Strange place built by, eccentric actor and director, William Gillette. We took the tour of the castle and enjoyed the snack bar and learned that we were there on the opening day of the season. When we left the castle, I knew we had to go North and West and so that's what we tried to do, eventually we ended up in Watertown, which is almost Litchfield. We killed an hour walking through a mall there to get out of the car and out of the rain. When we finally found the Tavern Off The Green, we discovered that that isn't its name. It is actually called, most unfortunately, "Ditto's". It looked like a road house. We went in and ordered a pizza and let our eyes dance around the strange surroundings. Tons of squeeking kids were running around, circling the pool tables, hanging from the indoor parking meter, and darting between the legs of early evening drunks. The place was a cross between Hugo's and McDonald's Playland. Time passed and the squeeking dwindled as mostly only adults were left. Steve from The Naomi Star and a large group of friends and fans walked in and we chatted for a bit about music and IPO in Los Angeles. Soon The Naomi Star had set up their PA and I took the stage. I was standing on a slant, they turned off the Molly Hatchet coming from the scary scary bar and I did my set. I had a great time. Appearantly there was a very loud girl playing pool who was loudly complaining about how bad I was and that she wanted her money back. I certainly would have paid her had I known, but I was ignorant of the issue and saw mostly smiling interested faces. At one point a juiced-up genious, leaned in towards me and told me to pick it up, it seems that I was "putting them to sleep" back at the bar. I bantered with him for a moment and played Day Job. Ha, put that in your John Deere cap and smoke it, pal. I finished my set and The Naomi Star took the stage. It was a welcome change of mood for folks, I think. They played their pop and I snapped a few pictures here and there, unfortunately none of the shots of the band came out. There's a good one there of the fish in the fish tank, though and you can kind of see some of The Naomi Star. After their first set the offered to have me play another short set again and I decided to go ahead, even though the people who I had met that seemed to enjoy me the most (they bought some shirts) had left. The Steam Heads were there and I wanted to play a few more songs for them, as they seem to like it when I do. Beth came up and danced to One Lady Dancing which was great. It became like a little full-on performance art piece and the room was all smiles. We had to take off part way through The Naomi Star's second set but I did get a chance to hear them do a killer version of Paperback Writer and thank them for having me down to the show. They were extremely generous and nice. The ride home was long and dark and rainy.