A Blur of East Coast
seedy yet glamorous- the Bowery Ballroom
This past week has been just that- a blur. We played five shows, slept very little, partied too much, walked many miles through the streets of New York, lived off of $3 pizza slices, and now we have a day off. Here’s what I remember:
In Hoboken, some of the band took a bus into Manhattan to be in the Colbert Report audience. Kati, Luke, and I stayed behind and spent the pre-show evening drinking beer in the venue’s restaurant and playing Pass The Pigs. At the beginning of this, the restaurant was empty, but by the time we finished our game and had some pints in our bellies, we were an island of chaos amidst a room full of Hoboken yuppies. The Mimicking Birds appear and disappear on our bills somewhat randomly throughout the tour, but they were present and in great form for this show. They got really excited about Pass The Pigs, and we ultimately had an inter-band game at the Bowery Ballroom in New York.
The next day we woke up in our hotel in Princeton and spent some time wandering around town before driving to Philadelphia. Having spent time in Princeton visiting my sister in the past, it was fun and a bit odd to be back, if only for an hour. The World Cafe venue in Philadelphia was the nicest place we have played to date- every aspect of the hall was perfect. Here’s some video. The crowd was a lot older though- it was essentially an NP-rock dinner theater- and were very polite but not too responsive. Afterward, the response in the lobby was surprisingly massive- it felt like we signed enough cd’s and posters to stretch back to New York.
We played two shows in New York this time, one at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan and one at The Bell House in Brooklyn. Both were fun shows- great, rowdy crowds and decent performances. I was quite excited to be able to meet up with some old friends from High School, both of whom are professional artists now, and show them my foray into pop music. Another fun diversion was the opportunity to do a video interview with Major League Baseball for their website. Apparently up and coming bands are Baseball’s new PR strategy and I was the only one available, so I got to tell them all about going to Brewers games as a kid and make lots of band-sports team comparisons. It was a lot of fun though- I’m curious to see how they edit my rambling into a coherent piece.
Leaving New York, all of us were a bit foggy and quite relieved to be heading west. The show in Pittsburgh was nice- Laura Viers’ band sounded especially nice- but the really amazing thing about the night was how unbelievably drunk people were in the streets. Everywhere we looked, there were groups of young people so drunk they could hardly walk: falling in their spiked heals, almost getting hit by cars, lifting their shirts, etc. Israel couldn’t get a slice of pizza because there had been a big fight at the pizza place and the cops had sealed everything off. Pretty crazy- people sure like to get wasted in Pittsburgh.
