4 shows, 3 nights. ONE INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.
Too big of an entry, so I put in those LJ-cuts for your convenience.
Destination #1: Tristan Prettyman playing at some GAP store in the City, 7/20/06
I busted out of work early to walk on over to the GAP. I walked around to see if I wanted to get anything, and everywhere I went, different sales associates kept being so customer-service oriented that it got to the point of annoying. One of them dared mention that, after mentioning the show, that he was a Tristan Prettyman fan. I bet he wouldn't be caught listening to her w/ his friends around. But at least they were serving free drinks and popcorn! Nevertheless, Tristan came out a bit early to set up and all, and she definitely remembered me and my MySpace comment. Her set was short, but definitely chill. Put me in the mood to grab a coffee and sit down and just stare at her. Seriously.
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552483901UYdUvK
After her set, I waited a bit to talk to her and have a reason to keep the show flyer, and off I went, midway through Mike Doughty's set.
I grabbed dinner, hung out w/ my Starbucks buddies, and for the nightcap, it was off to...
Destination #2: Jason Mraz at Joe's Pub, 7/20/06
Long line? No problem. Joe's Pub is one of those places where, if you don't have table reservations and you show up just before showtime, you get a kickass spot. Fortunately, I sat all the way to the side of the place where the 2-drink minimum was not enforced. And then Jason came out, tuned his guitar and started playing the classic version of "Gypsy MC"
He played for nearly 2.5 hours, mostly doing stuff that requires one to be internet savvy and good w/ encoding and decoding music files not ending in .mp3. His set included the following:
Gypsy MC (acoustic)
Spinning
Eyes Open ==>
On Love In Sadness ==>
Dead End ==>
Galaxy ==>
Running ==>
The Darkest Space
Did You Get My Message sing-a-long
Childlike Wildlife
Plain Jane
Please Don't Tell Her
Fine Dining
You and I Both
Mr. Curiosity
Tonight, Not Again
Plane
One Find
The Longest Day of the Year
Life is Wonderful
10,000 Motherfuckers
courtesy of the folks posting at RKOP
Seriously, I was BLOWN AWAY by Mraz. Not only did he have ultimate control over his voice, but he also had that ability to transition from one song to the next effortlessly. He did this twice or so, putting about 5 or 6 songs together each run. I was smiling all throughout the night, even as I got a cab home at 2 in the morning.
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552481636dpRFnC
Friday morning, I slept through my alarm, threw some clothes on and rushed into work. And a good thing I rushed in...it was raining on and off ALL DAY! I phoned into an underground radio station in Chicago to tell my friend Rikki the low-down of Thursday night and what not, and she even let me cut a promo for her show!
Like the Thursday, I took off early, but the rains kept pouring as I was uselessly trying to find a cab. Eventually I got in to a "Gypsy MC" cab and moved on to Irving Plaza, all drenched, while the line was under the scaffold all dry and stuff. Which brings us to...
Destination #3: Jason Mraz at Irving Plaza, 7/21/06
Thanks to Sam, I got a nice prime spot in line, good enough to be within the first five rows. Anyhoo, with no opener, Jason came out at about 9, tuned his guitars, and basically repeated last night, just with the songs in a different order or different songs altogether:
Running into
Spinning into
Eyes Open (Remember My Name) into
On Love, In Sadness into
Dead End into
Galaxy into
Darkest Space
Did You Get My Message? sing-a-long
Childlike Wildlife
Plain Jane
Please Don't Tell Her
Sleeping To Dream
Fine Dining
Mr. Curiosity
Tonight, Not Again
One Find
Hey Love
Plane
You & I Both
I'm Yours
10,000 MFers
again, courtesy of RKOP
The running time of the set was just a little over 2 hours.
Oh yeah, after the show, the old crew (me, Val, Sam) had to part ways again, not knowing when we'll be doing another show together...
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552485895VlksgF
I got home a bit after midnight, and fell asleep. To the point where I slept through my alarm Saturday morning...
I get up at 6:47am, with only 43 minutes to catch a 7:30am Greyhound bus to Washington, DC. I showered, threw on some clothes and ran for a cab. Fortunately, the bus was still loading and it wasn't full (thus why I chose to leave early).
My arrival into DC gave me time to head over to Bethesda and grab lunch and beer w/ my old buddy Kate before she headed off for work. We caught up on some old times, shared some memories, and talked about where people are now.
After lunch and parting ways w/ Kate, the rains came down and I decided to head down to NoVA and hang out in Pentagon City. Surprisingly, I was able to kill off enough time at Starbucks, Borders and Best Buy to head back into DC and grab dinner at Hooters, in the hopes I'd see the crew I was so used to seeing while I was living there. But no luck. So after grabbing some wings, I went over to the 9:30 Club...
Destination #4: Honor By August at the 9:30 Club in DC, 7/22/06
I got there in time to see HBA do a photo shoot before the rains came back down again. Michael, the lead guy, offered me his car to sit in while the rains came down, but I refused, citing I came prepared w/ an umbrella.
Anyhoo, the guys had only a 30-minute set, but they started beautifully and slowly w/ "Better," my favorite HBA song.
Michael first came out onto the stage, started the song w/ some chords and sang that song in such a way as to captivate the audience (ok, it was more like me, but there were others into it as well!). And then, Evan, the lead guitar dude, comes out of nowhere onto Stage Right and does his sweet guitar riffing solo...
Then Michael does the third verse and the chorus one last time, and just when he sings that chorus, Joe comes in on bass to set up the climax and then BANG! Brian comes in with some passionate drumming to close out the song. Just a beautiful moment.
The rest of the set was great, while Michael kept commenting about places to go in Raleigh, NC, where they recorded some tracks for the re-release of their current album:
Better
California
Waking Up
Good Enough
Body, Mind, Heart and Soul
Only in Photographs
The Quiet Sky
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552483242ClExcY
Oh yeah, I caught up w/ my old buddy Erin (we go WAY BACK...to 2003!)...
And I was reunited w/ Romi and Elena, both fans of The Red Hat...
Well, being pooped and all, I took off way before the show was over, and I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself as the Greyhound took off at 12:27am, Sunday morning.
Destination #1: Tristan Prettyman playing at some GAP store in the City, 7/20/06
I busted out of work early to walk on over to the GAP. I walked around to see if I wanted to get anything, and everywhere I went, different sales associates kept being so customer-service oriented that it got to the point of annoying. One of them dared mention that, after mentioning the show, that he was a Tristan Prettyman fan. I bet he wouldn't be caught listening to her w/ his friends around. But at least they were serving free drinks and popcorn! Nevertheless, Tristan came out a bit early to set up and all, and she definitely remembered me and my MySpace comment. Her set was short, but definitely chill. Put me in the mood to grab a coffee and sit down and just stare at her. Seriously.
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552483901UYdUvK
After her set, I waited a bit to talk to her and have a reason to keep the show flyer, and off I went, midway through Mike Doughty's set.
I grabbed dinner, hung out w/ my Starbucks buddies, and for the nightcap, it was off to...
Destination #2: Jason Mraz at Joe's Pub, 7/20/06
Long line? No problem. Joe's Pub is one of those places where, if you don't have table reservations and you show up just before showtime, you get a kickass spot. Fortunately, I sat all the way to the side of the place where the 2-drink minimum was not enforced. And then Jason came out, tuned his guitar and started playing the classic version of "Gypsy MC"
He played for nearly 2.5 hours, mostly doing stuff that requires one to be internet savvy and good w/ encoding and decoding music files not ending in .mp3. His set included the following:
Gypsy MC (acoustic)
Spinning
Eyes Open ==>
On Love In Sadness ==>
Dead End ==>
Galaxy ==>
Running ==>
The Darkest Space
Did You Get My Message sing-a-long
Childlike Wildlife
Plain Jane
Please Don't Tell Her
Fine Dining
You and I Both
Mr. Curiosity
Tonight, Not Again
Plane
One Find
The Longest Day of the Year
Life is Wonderful
10,000 Motherfuckers
courtesy of the folks posting at RKOP
Seriously, I was BLOWN AWAY by Mraz. Not only did he have ultimate control over his voice, but he also had that ability to transition from one song to the next effortlessly. He did this twice or so, putting about 5 or 6 songs together each run. I was smiling all throughout the night, even as I got a cab home at 2 in the morning.
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552481636dpRFnC
Friday morning, I slept through my alarm, threw some clothes on and rushed into work. And a good thing I rushed in...it was raining on and off ALL DAY! I phoned into an underground radio station in Chicago to tell my friend Rikki the low-down of Thursday night and what not, and she even let me cut a promo for her show!
Like the Thursday, I took off early, but the rains kept pouring as I was uselessly trying to find a cab. Eventually I got in to a "Gypsy MC" cab and moved on to Irving Plaza, all drenched, while the line was under the scaffold all dry and stuff. Which brings us to...
Destination #3: Jason Mraz at Irving Plaza, 7/21/06
Thanks to Sam, I got a nice prime spot in line, good enough to be within the first five rows. Anyhoo, with no opener, Jason came out at about 9, tuned his guitars, and basically repeated last night, just with the songs in a different order or different songs altogether:
Running into
Spinning into
Eyes Open (Remember My Name) into
On Love, In Sadness into
Dead End into
Galaxy into
Darkest Space
Did You Get My Message? sing-a-long
Childlike Wildlife
Plain Jane
Please Don't Tell Her
Sleeping To Dream
Fine Dining
Mr. Curiosity
Tonight, Not Again
One Find
Hey Love
Plane
You & I Both
I'm Yours
10,000 MFers
again, courtesy of RKOP
The running time of the set was just a little over 2 hours.
Oh yeah, after the show, the old crew (me, Val, Sam) had to part ways again, not knowing when we'll be doing another show together...
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552485895VlksgF
I got home a bit after midnight, and fell asleep. To the point where I slept through my alarm Saturday morning...
I get up at 6:47am, with only 43 minutes to catch a 7:30am Greyhound bus to Washington, DC. I showered, threw on some clothes and ran for a cab. Fortunately, the bus was still loading and it wasn't full (thus why I chose to leave early).
My arrival into DC gave me time to head over to Bethesda and grab lunch and beer w/ my old buddy Kate before she headed off for work. We caught up on some old times, shared some memories, and talked about where people are now.
After lunch and parting ways w/ Kate, the rains came down and I decided to head down to NoVA and hang out in Pentagon City. Surprisingly, I was able to kill off enough time at Starbucks, Borders and Best Buy to head back into DC and grab dinner at Hooters, in the hopes I'd see the crew I was so used to seeing while I was living there. But no luck. So after grabbing some wings, I went over to the 9:30 Club...
Destination #4: Honor By August at the 9:30 Club in DC, 7/22/06
I got there in time to see HBA do a photo shoot before the rains came back down again. Michael, the lead guy, offered me his car to sit in while the rains came down, but I refused, citing I came prepared w/ an umbrella.
Anyhoo, the guys had only a 30-minute set, but they started beautifully and slowly w/ "Better," my favorite HBA song.
Michael first came out onto the stage, started the song w/ some chords and sang that song in such a way as to captivate the audience (ok, it was more like me, but there were others into it as well!). And then, Evan, the lead guitar dude, comes out of nowhere onto Stage Right and does his sweet guitar riffing solo...
Then Michael does the third verse and the chorus one last time, and just when he sings that chorus, Joe comes in on bass to set up the climax and then BANG! Brian comes in with some passionate drumming to close out the song. Just a beautiful moment.
The rest of the set was great, while Michael kept commenting about places to go in Raleigh, NC, where they recorded some tracks for the re-release of their current album:
Better
California
Waking Up
Good Enough
Body, Mind, Heart and Soul
Only in Photographs
The Quiet Sky
More pics here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552483242ClExcY
Oh yeah, I caught up w/ my old buddy Erin (we go WAY BACK...to 2003!)...
And I was reunited w/ Romi and Elena, both fans of The Red Hat...
Well, being pooped and all, I took off way before the show was over, and I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself as the Greyhound took off at 12:27am, Sunday morning.