July 3 , 2004 - The Van Dyck - Schenectedy, NY - with: Bourgeois Heroes, Sean Rowe, Dave Strumfeld
Henning says: Tony and I played somewhere else last weekend, and it is long overdue that I mention it here. We had a gig up at the Van Dyck in Schenectedy, NY last Saturday. Also on the bill were the Bourgeois Heroes. Cool. The Heroes offered the services of their big old station wagon for the ride which made the whole experience way more fun and also more floaty. Those old American cars float like hoovercrafts, they make me woozy and confused. Lesa came along and the five of us squoze in with all of our equipment. Not a single one of us had ever been to Schenectedy before. It was a good ride, we made some nice stops at rest areas and bought crap to eat. Tony, got a pre-made sandwich, Jason got Crunch and Munch and Cheddar Pringles. I bought a bag of poison and a vat of sludge. Delish! We found our way into Schenectady and I told Tony this story: Years ago, I was in London with my brother. We were traveling around Europe, staying at youth hostels and being shy. We would spend the day walking around London. Walking, walking, walking all day long and in the evening, we would hop the train out to our hostel in the suburbs. I can distinctly remember being exhausted from the day and riding in the train. I would lean my head on the window, shivering in the train breeze, and listen to the rhythm of the wheels on the tracks. They said to me "Schenectady, Schenectady, Schenectady, Schenectady". I had never been to Schenectady before but that is the word that popped into my head. It's always stuck with me. Nowadays I rarely find myself on a train but when I do - the same thing happens, "Schenectady, Schenectady, Schenectady, Schenectady". And that's my story. Anyway, back to 2004. We found the Van Dyck and parked right out front. It's a beautiful venue. A huge multi-tiered place that acts as a restaurant and jazz club. We loaded in and soundchecked and had some half-off food. Awesome potato wedges (I hesitate to call them fries, as I think Ken would disagree). Soon people started filing in. I saw a few familiar faces from past shows I have played at the Larkin in Albany. A big chunk of the crowd were very young - high school age - it was cool. There were also some folks my age and a few older ones. It was grab bag of birth years. The Heroes took the stage and did an awesome job as usual. You can read about Jason's take on the evening here.Everything sounded great. Then Tony and I went up and played. It was fun. The crowd was very attentive and nice (except for the guy that Jason mentioned in his report). We were funny, we played well. We did a version of Dayjob in which I didn't play at all and just sang with Tony supplying all his cool jazz chords. For our last three songs, Dan Goodspeed (the fella who booked the show for us) stepped up and played bass with us. He had mentioned that he might if it was ok with us and I said, "sure!". He did a great job, following our tempo shifts and different live versions of Uncomfortable, One Lady Dancing, and Omnivore. Nice job, Dan. After our show, people mobbed around the merch table and bought four t-shirts (I only brought four), two cds, and two chain cds. All the kids took buttons. Oh yeah, the Activity Pages were hugely popular, too. After us was Dave Strumfeld, who just graduated high school (ah, so that's why all the bored looking teenagers were there.) Dave rights songs that are way better than mine ever were at that age. They were of a totally different style, though, so it's hard to compare. I was all morose shadows and he was all goofy sunshine. He was joined by a saxophonist who did a fine job, but it would have been better if he only played on one or two songs, I think. Anyway, nice melodies and silly lyrics. He sang one song about his mother finding something in his dresser drawers but he never said what it was. I can only assume it was an loaded AK-47. After Dave Strumfeld was Sean Rowe who was a very seasoned performer with a crazy voice. He was joined by a conga or djembe drum player. He was an amazing player, but again, it was too much all the time. Sean Rowe did a beautiful, beautiful cover of Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat". It made me wish that he spent some more time writing and singing in that style. His other songs, were fine, but they seemed like they might have suffered from trying to play them in noisy places too often. A lot of rhythm and funk and bluesy stuff that would carry really well through a noisy audience. He's got more depth in him, though, you could see. Jeez, who do I think I am? Anyway, overall, it was a fun time. The ride home was good, too - we stopped at the rest area where I met that guy once who had all the postcards lined up on the counter. Remember? Tony, do you have anything to add, so's I can make a gig diary? ant wes says: Sure, Henry, why not? One of the profound memories for me of the experience was this: Whilst loading the equipment into the car, Elise complained to Jason that his guitar had no case, thereby making it difficult to stuff it into the trunk, as one had to handle it daintily (such a nice guitar, too). Getting flustered, Elise barked at Jason, "This is B.S.!" Both Henning and I misheard her as saying, "This is The Ass!" Already the phrase has lodged itself into my lexicon. As Henning would say, "Delish!" Henning and Jason covered the events of the evening quite well so I'll do the librarian thing and list the songs. I'm sure I'm getting some of the song titles wrong and may be missing a few but here's what the Heroes played, to the best of my recollection: Everybody Wants You Judy Let's Build A Farm Television Elizabeth Is Bored Forgotten 45 Find It On The Shelf And the songs muh n hen did: Soup Of The Moment Disgruntled Lover Map Journal Of Lies Back To School Day Job Uncomfortable* One Lady Dancing* Omnivore* The last three featured Dan Goodspeed joining us on bass. As I sit here now, I can't help imagining an encore version of "Omnivore" with Henning singing and doing his arm wave gestures, Dan playing bass, Elise on drums, the high school kid playing piano and his friend on the sax, plus the funky guitar guy on acoustic, Jason on electric, and the conga dude all jamming together. I would just sit and watch and try to egg Lesa into getting up onstage and harmonizing with Henning. It would be the silliest version ever, wouldn't it? Everyone up there talented musicians in their own right but what a freakin' mess, huh? If only... What is this, a fantasy gig diary?