Mike’s Tour Blog: Vol. III Issue II
NEW YORK CITY!!!!
Wait.
No.
Yeah.
NEW YORK CITY!!!!
So we finally got into New York City on Friday afternoon. I remembered this trip I took during my senior year of high school. I went to a Catholic high school, so Catholic in fact that it would really bug me not spell Catholic with a capital “C” or God with a capital “G”. We used to do these ‘retreats’ you know where you go somewhere and talk about how to be good leaders and counselors and vessels of goodness, that kind of stuff. So we had this trip up to New York, upstate, but we flew in and out New York City. One of the priests drove the church van into the city. My good friend Stu was with me on the trip. Always a sweet guy, he looked about 37 years old when he was 17, like some cliched 80s switcheroo comedy, err wait. I pushed his balding head against the glass of the van window.
“LOOK STU! IT’S NEW YORK CITY! NEW YORK CITY!”
“Yep. yep.”
I’m bummed that I can’t remember the priest’s name now, he was a great guy and a true New Yorker. He knew all the spots, knew how to drive in the city, knew how to joke around. Growing up in Central Florida makes you think that nothing is real. When buildings look distressed you think about what a realistic job the painter did. That first trip to New York was real, seeing something so massive and expansive and alive and human for lack of a better word was real and probably more spiritual than anything else I got on that trip.
8 years later, I’m here again.
We headed straight to the venue as we navigated our way through New Jersey, down into the tunnel and out into a mass of gridlock. “This should be much harder” I thought. You kind of expect things to go wrong, prepare yourself for the let down, sometimes you gotta let things go right. Our little GPS guided the way to the first club, the Living Room, we got a parking space right outside.
Sometimes you gotta let things go right.
We walked around Ludlow St. a cool little lower eastside walk. We saw a perfectly selected and organized (and reasonably price) guitar shop, Ludlow Guitars I think. I almost bought a Fulltone Full Drive II for $120, almost. Nathan heard about a place called McSorleys that had been around for a long time, since the Civil War, that served some interesting beers. That’s not a hard argument, we were very grateful to have Nathan with us on guitar and well… we like beer.
McSorleys was a couple blocks down, when we walked in the old building the place was packed. The walls were covered with old paintings and pictures, it looked like a dusty antique store, with beer. Hanging on a chandellier were about 30 wishbones, each coated with about an inch or two of dust. The story goes Civil War soldiers would hang a wishbone before going off to war and then remove it when they got back. Well, those are the ones that didn’t get back.
Epic.
We sat down at a table and ordered 4 pints of McSorleys Dark. An older guy with a big gray beard slammed 8 half pint mugs on our table held with one hand. We chatted for four blonds from Norway and two businessmen from the city. It was a fine introduction from the city. The girls ended up going to the show but got shut down because a couple of them were underage. Wait, how did they get the beer?
We downed some Mexican food with good friends we hadn’t seen in a while and headed to the venue. It was pretty packed by the time we got there. The Living Room is a cool place, I don’t know if it’s suited for rock n roll bands but we made it work.
“We just gotta do what we do man”
Let me explain. Right before we played there was an excellent New York band called Alice using all acoustic instruments, really quiet and pretty. We try to be pretty but we’re definitely not quiet. The room that held about 75 people was filled with people sitting at tables sipping on fancy beers and wine. Still trying to figure out playing for people that are sitting down, it doesn’t feel right. The boys did a fine job though and we headed back to Brooklyn to celebrate.
Daniel busted his ankle right before the show, we couldn’t tell what happened, we just heard him scream. “Are you gonna be ok?” “yeah, yeah I think” He played through the pain and crashed on our friend Rob’s couch while we hit the late night Brooklyn bars. It didn’t feel much different than hanging at BBQ bar in Orlando. In fact I think I’ve hung with the exact same people about 1000 miles south. We went to bed glad to be with friends, grateful for our blessings and excited for the main event, our sold out show with the Damnwells.
Oh yeah we got a $125 ticket too in that perfect parking spot outside of the video.
But still…
Sometimes you gotta let things go right.
