Bell House, Brooklyn; Vampire Weekend at Smith.

last night, we ’secretly’ opened for Vampire Weekend at the John M. Greene Hall, Smith College.  a bit of a last-minute booking, and we could not promote it because of our big upcoming benefit show this saturday, april 25th at memorial hall in shelburne falls. nevertheless, the hall was packed and the kids enjoyed the set. VW were really good, energetic and unpretentious, and there was a very positive vibe to the whole evening. 

we played more of a ‘rock’ set and had much fun doing it, leaving off the super-fragile numbers in favor of more sparkle and soar. it was pouring rain out. here are some pictures of this evening:

a fan picture of our set. we were well-lit. my legs look skinny.

after the show, the Folding of the Vampire Weekend signature image. a sacred moment, done in silence.

a panoramic shot of the VW show in full effect, from the balcony.

a panoramic of the green room/winterpills pre-show mealtime in full effect.

testing the lights at soundcheck.

the view from my head during soundcheck.

the banner.

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last saturday the 18th, we played at the amazing Bell House in Brooklyn, with our dear pals KaiserCartel and new friends Lucinda Black Bear. his venue is not to be missed for it ambience, sound, and general incredible friendliness to an audience and artist. somebody got this place right.

it was the first of three shows that we are playing with Dave Chalfant playing electric guitar in place of Dennis, who severely burned his hand doing a Mark Bittman recipe last week (no fault of Bittman’s). Dave C played great, as usual, and the show was wonderful all around. KC and LBB’s sets blew our minds. a great night.

THe next day we made it out to Williamsburg with Benjamin Cartel to eat Bahn Mi at Silent H. Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Ben waits for his grilled pork Bahn Mi sandwich, patiently, with a touch of anger perhaps.

the violinist and cellist of Lucinda Black Bear.

during soundcheck: a view of the Bell House.

Indianapolis, birdies

Birdies: another cavernous rock club. The band members were all carded upon load-in. No drink deal. Owners do not like musicians.

Vess Ruhtenberg (lemonheads) opened with rough-hewn, nihilistic charm on a scrappy acoustic. The friendly crowd cheered him on and welcomed us next.

Our set started rough but settled in a few songs. I was rushing, but still got lost in a soary ‘laughing’, and when Ben and Courtney joined us for ‘folded cloth’ a new height had ben scaled. We made some friends.

KaiserCartel had a charming set as usual made more lively by this show basically being a hometown gig — Courtney grew up here.

Fervor played perhaps the best show of the tour, filling the room with their swoony druglike sound.

Chicago, the darkroom

Another show where we played to a small crowd and where there was a sense of impending doom but somehow ended up being exhilarating. A weird mismatched bill, a loud rock room, but once onstage we were loose and soaring. Afterwards a gent named Rick washed our van windows and spoke of his dead mother.

Then we went to our hotwired 4 star hotel called Aloft that was crazy and amazing — rather like an Ikea hotel. Super modern, sleek and minimal and $20 cheaper than the crappy hotel we stayed in the night before. Go hotwire!!

Here’s some images.

Nashville, the end.

The End: basically a smelly rock club. Gene Ween was playing across the street, though I doubt he cut into our fanbase at all. Also, we played on New Band Nite, which we thought was funny at first, then depressing, then, we realized, all too true.

Another show with the Fervor, who played beautifully. And Pete & Jay, who were Crowded House-ish popsters of a high order.

Our set was mostly fine but hampered by a poor monitor situation that near deafened dave. In future, we will try to avoid these situations. Happy to meet new fans Dave and Kelly.

Austin part 2

Ah sxsw where does one begin? How do you tell the tale of a love that fills and depletes, fills and depletes with such rapidity and tragedy?

We played 4 showcases. The four of them were all good, some better than others. We peaked early with the Septembergurl/Organic Entertainment party at Threadgills on weds. Ended up doing two shows with buddies KaiserCartel and doing a good bit of singing on ‘okay’. Weds night brought to the Velveeta Room at 1 am and a modest but vibrant crowd. The other two shows were Friday; at the first one at Mother Egans (sig sounds/red house part). I came out from a dizzy low-blood sugar moment to witness both our keyboards collapse and hit the ground hard onstage from the high energy foot stomping of the first performer (name withheld for tactful reasons — more the fault of the wobbly stage setup). We carried on with broken keyboards as we shall for the rest of the tour.

Last show was the GreenRoom Booking Cashmoneyapolis show, which was good in a unique way, though sparse. Then we were free to wander.

Third time here and so many bands and I’m always amazed how little music I end up seeing. 4 solid days and here is the meager list: Devo, Tricky, Bus Driver, Blitzen Trapper, The Silos, Japan Nite (two bands), and then some very good comedians. And of course KaiserCartel and bands we shared bills with but couldn’t focus on their sets because of pre-show preparation mode. Sprinkled in are a few ‘glimpses’ of unknown bands; heads stuck in club doors, heard over outdoor venue walls, etc.

Fold in: tons of free beer, drinks and food, miles of walking, amazing Mexican, amazing BBQ. No sleep.

Here are some pictures.

The ides of memphis

Our first show in Memphis TN ever was marked by dreams: 100 cats in a store window, a dream of a walk to Ardent studios (where one of the best albums ever recorded happened: Big Star’s ‘radio city/#1 record’) that never happened; a dream of an expensive visit to Graceland that never happened; and the dream of a packed house at the Young Ave Deli. That didn’t really happen either, but that’s ok.

Room itself was huge and boomy but charming and funky. See below some photos of the décor. Hank the soundman’s childhood tale of walking with his dad to go fishing in mornings and stopping to buy fresh baked bread and chocolate milk and dipping the bread in the milk and then fishing stood out.

There were about 10 people in the room the whole night, not counting the steady traffic in front of the stage of waitresses serving people outside and others walking past on their way to the restrooms or whatever. Love that, we do.

Fervor played first and sounded great. We were on second and after a couple of songs that felt like flying an airplane blindfolded with no arms, we found our bearings. The set flew by and as usual when playing to a huge almost empty room it’s a battle with self-consciousness and trying to get lost in the moment. For me this finally happened during ‘gentleman farmer’ when a feeling of ‘we are what we are and that’s wonderful’ came over me. Caring/not caring. The song rolled over me like a heavy wave. Flora and I sang ‘I don’t have to make you see/ I don’t have to show you anything’ with pride and openness. By the end, the songs won. But it was a hard one. Harder still when the acoustic guitar was squealing feedback all night because the sound guy gave up on trying to tame it.

KaiserCartel closed and as usual delighted. We were excited to jump up and sing/play on two songs.

Overall it was what it was. I bought a postcard of maureen stapleon for our baby collection on the ceiling of the van. Today we met with the KC at brand-new memphis Target for supplies and ended up wandering around for about an hour marvelling at the newness of it all. Dennis and Ben Cartel wrote a song on the keyboards in the music section (video to come). Brian bought a neck pillow. Today we roll down to new Orleans.

We are content with our lot.

First show: louisville ky with kaisercartel/the fervor

Our first show was last night was a relief and delight after a somewhat stressful couple days drive, highlighted by some good eats (Dogtown Hots in Rochester and Ramses in Louisville), the usual vast empty spaces of sameness that make up this strange land. As always the task is to look between the obvious around you but it’s especially hard when when there is so little time and you are isolated to the main highways where all the vicious commerce and prattle of modern life trap you in a corridor of concrete and shame. Next summer: a blue highway tour. We will only eat at people’s homes.

The venue, Vernon Club, was unique in that it is essentially the very nicely renovated basement of an active bowling alley. The tracks on which balls returning to their owners travel actually hang below the dropped ceiling height and you can watch (and hear) the balls roaring overhead. It’s great fun until you try to play a delicate acoustic number, like pals KaiserCartel did for some of their as-usual delightful set, which opened the night.

Aside from the loud balls, we loved the room. Kc opened; louisville local moody popsters The Fervor were next and it was great to hear their evolving sound bloom and grow, like eidelweiss. They made think of the dark vibe of a Low with a good touch of southern anthemic rock, and a smidgen of Guyville-era Liz Phair.

For our set, I was quite happy to be onstage in my new vest/jacket/tie combo, my new carefree demeanor, and fresh callouses on my fingers. We played a long and spirited set marred only by some monitor glitches. We’ve begun playing the Miracle Legion cover as a regular part of our sets, which is sounding so beautful. I was caught up in the sound and a great night; the room was pretty full for a Kentucky night when the Cardinals were winning the Big East championship.

Next are some random road pics.

colby college

the last show of our week-long tour with cake was at colby college in waterville, me. it was our longest drive of the tour, but somehow we made it through the nyc area quickly, and had a totally bearable drive. we stopped for lunch at rein’s deli in vernon, ct, near the town where i grew up, and arrived at colby just in time to load in and sound check. the key to our dressing room said “visiting hockey,” and was connected to the ice rink. at 8:15 pm, we started our set in front of a sold-out crowd in an enormous gymnasium. afterward, we sat in cake’s tour bus and talked talked talked about all kinds of crazy topics and flipped through movies on their tv, noticing a pattern of certain actresses (whom i now forget), and eventually we said goodbye to the cake gang and got in the van. in the end, it was a wonderful experience; we played some great shows in some amazing venues, and really enjoyed meeting and playing with cake. they’re off to finish up their new album, which by what we’ve heard so far is going to sound great. we winterpills are back at home now, getting ready for the release of our new cd. thanks to all who came to the shows, and thanks especially to everyone from cake.

the starland ballroom

last night we played at a venue that i expected to be some kind of majestic, shimmering ballroom, but was instead a nondescript brick building adjacent to an enormous junkyard. inside, it was a very rock-clubby rock club, with multiple bars and all the stereotypes you might think of, including the fact that guitar god/ultra-turd yngwie malmsteen is playing there soon… still, everyone was nice and helpful, the food was good (with a few vegan options for me), and once again there was a huge, energetic crowd. we played well, and the night was pretty normal… after the show, we hung around just talking for a while, and then went to a bar nearby (think ye old watering hole in northampton) to watch the rest of the red sox game, where xan from cake and our man brian (aka “jiggs”) took one game each in the otherwise empty billiard room. this morning, we have a little time to kill before heading off to baltimore to play at pier six, which looks like an amazing place.

albany

last night we played our second show of this week-long tour opening for CAKE. as you can sort of see in the photo above, the palace theater in albany is a large, incredibly ornate old theater. the hospitality was great and the staff was incredibly accessible. a bunch of friends came to the show, we had a great time playing, and CAKE was awesome once again. no real incidents to report, really, though i’ll ask for any strange anecdotes in the van today… no celebrity look-alike scandals like in rochester… anyway, today it’s off to new jersey, where we’ll stay in the same hotel for 2 nights in a row (nj show, baltimore show), which is kind of a luxury. wish us luck….