Woodstock, NY. Hippies, crystals, tourists, and tie dyes in every store front. The Colony Cafe, a block off the main drag, is a giant, gorgeous, charming building, and smells exactly how you'd expect a random cavernous Upstate NY building to smell. It smells like character. Also, it's DEFINITELY haunted.
It was a casual affair. I showed up early and spent nearly as much time looking around the venue (which was decorated with fantastic artwork) as I did soaking in soundcheck. Yep, definitely a Woodstockian vibe going on.
Aaron finds an offering in the credenza...
that's been in there since February.
A little Billy Joel.
One snag during soundcheck- something mysterious had been shoved into the input jack of Lo's acoustic guitar and the plug wouldn't stay locked in. The main suspect? One Lolo, aka Lil' Lo, aka Lo's youngest Guitar Tech. After some time trying to pry the foreign object out, an easier solution was reached: a 90 degree plug and a strategic amount of duct tape.
Showtime! K, so I missed the opening act because I was otherwise occupied, cursing Kendrys Morales name into the Upstate Night's Sky-- "KENNNNDRYYYYYYYYS!!!!!!!!" Eventually Lo & Aaron took the stage and rocked out a solid set, including the Dos Heteros debuts of Light My Candles and the Meters' Hey Pocky Way ( -> RU 4 Real?). Freakin' awesome.
Other highlights: Epilog, a beautiful Don't Speak of These Things, Big Papa, Tide (w/ Alex Mazur, of Maaze, on keys), Over the Rainbow, Angeline (there is something so crystal clear about Aaron's voice on this tune, he hits a pitch that leaves me with goose bumps and makes me say "wow" out loud, involuntarily, to no one in particular-- EVERY SINGLE TIME), and a positively stellar Nightingale to close out the set. Which was too bad, cuz they definitely could have kept that momentum going.
There was some interesting shit going on in with the crowd as well. A huge crew of Albany Maaze fans had made the trek down for the show (Maaze went on after Dos). These Children of the Corn included but were not limited to at least one Dee Snider lookalike and none other than Albany's very own Wookie Snooki. Weiss said they must have been on "The Jersey Tour". Spec-fucking-tacular! The whole lot of them spent the Lo/Aaron set dancing their butts off and a'hootin'hollerin'. Glad they dug it, cuz that could have gotten ugly! Strange Scenes from Upstate New York, indeed.
Maaze pulled in a good crowd, hit the stage, and the aforementioned Children of the Corn noodled their balls off from note one. The set started off strong, the lead singer has a great voice, horn section, groove, keys, funk. Our boys hopped on stage for a few Dead tunes which was cool/cute, despite not really being my thang, was still fun to watch.
It smelled like wet dog near the fireplace, but I don't think it was the fireplace. Quickly, that aroma became fused into the walls of my sinuses. You know what that means: time to hit the road! Couldn't wait to get home and Neti like there was no tomorrow. Ohhh, the Neti'ing that was Neti'd!
Psyched I headed up to Woodstock for Lo & Aaron. Am soooooo looking forward to the Almost GSW show at Joe's Pub on the 20th. Extra special thanks to the boys for keeping me entertained with preshow shenanigans. Great time had by all!
Lo & Aaron, 5/7/11, Colony Cafe, Woodstock, NY: 8.5 HUZZAHS! Deductions for the 2 mysterious bug bites to my face. Totes lame.
SETLIST
Poor Boy Long Way Home
Epilog
Light My Candles
Don't Speak of These Things
Get On The Train
Straight Line
Big Papa
Molly
Northern Sky*
Tide*
Borderline*
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Hey Pocky Way ->
RU 4 Real?
Wendy
Angeline
Nightingale
** Budke taped & when the link to DL the show from the archive goes up, it will HERE **
No comments:
Post a Comment