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Florence and the Machine: In Manchester with Shoes

February 6, 2023

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There is a back story of sorts.  Way back in the summer of 2022 in Virginia, we decided it would be fun to see Roxy Music and also Florence and the Machine when we could.  Happily, we managed to do both, but only with some doing.

The plan for the Florence show was to get to the UK on business in November, skip American “dead turkey day,” meet up with our best British friends, and catch the show in Manchester.  But somehow Florence broke her foot in London (while we were there) the day before the Manchester show.

We vowed to return.

Here are some bits from the show, an emotional powerhouse led by a charismatic master of the stage.  What a show.

The AO arena is a great place to see a show, mostly because the crowd is fantastic.  But the best reason to see a show there is because Noelie and Lisa are excellent hosts and are really fun to hang out with.

The crowd gathers.

We don’t even remember who the opener was.

Then, it was showtime!

Heaven is Here was the first song of the night.  Florence had shoes on.

 

Ship to Wreck

 

Free

Dog Days Are Over.  This is my favorite Florence song, and I was psyched it made the setlist.  The fucking phone diatribe was captured in bits.  Here it is in all its glory.

Of course the real Florence fan (and the reason we were all here) is Romey.  She knew all the words to all the songs and had a huge smile on her face.

Romey dances.

 

Morning Elvis

My Love

You’ve Got the Love is Romey’s favorite Florence song.  She was super psyched that it made the setlist.

The encore song Never Let Me Go had 20,000 people singing along.

Never Let Me Go, performed for the first time in a decade.

 

 

Shake it Out

2023 Second Gig: Clark Hansbarger in Front Royal

January 30, 2023

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Somehow COVID put a mega-hurt on the Bitter Liberals.  We stopped playing shows for all of the obvious reasons, and eventually we also stopped practicing together.  For whatever reason, we haven’t managed to restart yet.

Clark to the rescue!

Bitter Liberal Clark Hansbarger is one of two master songwriters in the band.  As you may know, all of our songs have stories behind them.  Read about some of Clark’s excellent songs here.

We played a gig at the Blue Wing Frog, a restaurant in Front Royal that has been hosting a songwriters series of small shows.  Clark agreed to play a show, and Allen Kitselman and I sat it as side men.  It was magical playing this music again.

We brought our own sound system and lit the place up with crystal clear sound.  The venue was sold to capacity (around 50 people came on a very rainy evening). The crowd listened intently.

 

Clark opened the first set with 6 or 7 songs performed solo.

Eventually Allen and I joined in.

 

It was a rewarding and magical evening.  Thanks to all who came.

 

 

Furnace Mountain at Home: Berryville, Virginia

January 30, 2023

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One of the great bands from this area, Furnace Mountain counts the Barns of Rose Hill as its home venue.  They consistently sell out their shows at the barns, and for good reason.  Here are some pictures and videos from the Dave’s Birthday Bash show.

 

A superb song like Suzanne showcases the band’s high level of talent.

 

Of course there is classic old timey music to play as well.

 

 

There were some non-standard parts of this show, it being a birthday bash and all.

 

Doritos were served, but only to select teenagers.

 

As the show happened on the Lunar New Year’s Day (welcome to the year of the rabbit), a Chinese folk song or two were offered from the stage.  Normally, the band sticks to Americana.

 

 

Danny plays a mean mando.  Of course he plays everything else too.

 

The medley.

 

A crowd favorite and one of the band’s best songs, Bluebell.

 

So next time Furnace Mountain plays, get your tickets early.

 

 

Storied Strings (or rather Guitars) at VMFA

January 12, 2023

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The Strings exhibit at VMFA is devoted to the guitar.  If you like guitars, guitar history, and historical curation you need to see this.  We’ll ignore the fact that the most important strings are usually on a violin for now (LOL).

Romey and I learned about this exhibit by watching a video shot to promote and expand on the show with some live music featuring my friend Charles.  Both Stephen and Charles are way better guitar players than I will ever be!  Check out their session here.

Here are some pictures and commentary about the exhibit.

Charles as guitar.

In one of the rooms, there were a couple of guitars.  So we just had to play them. They were squishy and hard to play.

The master goofs off.

Proof that I should stick to the violin.

Bill got into the act too.

Guitar versus violin.  What turns you into a geezer faster?  Guitar of course!

The dog is named Fay Ray.  We knew another one of those once.

 

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Fond memories of a session?  Charles in front of the recording studio.

The world’s smallest guitar.

 

2023’s First Gig: JOBIE in RVA

January 10, 2023

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Tonite Only

JOBIE!

The Southside Lounge is a private juke joint situated at a non-disclosed location just south of Richmond, Virginia.   And it’s a damn fun place to play a gig.

My good friend Charles Arthur’s daughter performs as JOBIE mostly in Boston.  Her first CD “grendel” is available on Spotify.  It’s excellent work.  The show was a CD drop party in Richmond where JOBIE grew up.

First comes sound check.  (I played fiddle on one song.)

This was Romey’s birthday gig present to me.  Here’s the birthday girl herself.  All we need is…LOVE.

And then come the people.  The place was packed with an engaged, raucous crowd.

Family gathering on the stage.

Behind the scenes from the green room.

The star of the show, herself.

Mandolin.

Cello

Drums

Here we go.

Irish Goodbye included some fiddle and pole dancing

 

Loudoun and Romey had a great evening.

Y’all come back now, ya hear?

First Music of 2023

January 10, 2023

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An important new year’s resolution for me this year is to play more music.  We started things right with a session on January 2nd.  Rhine came into town for a day.  Clark popped by for some music.  Our best audience was lulled to sleep.

Playing in the living room.

We had some Scot Toddy’s in Romey’s xmas cups and kept the bar open late.

 

 

Music in Madison with Ritt and Wilder

October 17, 2022

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We had so much fun playing for the Hinge release in Virginia and in North Carolina that we did it again!

First things first, though, the violin must be transformed into tip top shape.  Thank goodness Josh Henry, my esteemed bow guy, also doubles as a violin guy.

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And then we were ready for some action!

Sound check in the street.

Load in and a fabulous bar.  Real drinks and intimate music.  Yes please.

The opener.

Ritt and Wilder pre-fiddle.

It was pretty fun watching, but way more fun playing!

We rocked the house.

And the best part other than performing?  Visiting the Wilder Dietz School of Music!  Walking for hours in Madison (one of the prettiest university towns in the US).  Spending quality time with the extended family of Ritt and Vic.

Monarch Crysalys

My seatmate on the way home was a dog.

Lets do it all again!

Get Hinge here.

 

Roxy Music in Washington

September 11, 2022

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The Roxy Music show in DC was excellent and fun.  St Vincent opened up (and not many of the audience members knew her stuff). We rocked out.  Here are some bits.

We parked at the arena (though it cost some $$$ it was way worth it as we drove directly out in under 2 minutes).  We arrived early enough to buy a very bad gin and tonic from the sports betting center on the corner before the show.

We were in the venue about 30 minutes before the show.  Row 12!

St Vincent played lots of material from her new album.

New York

Only mother fucker in the city…

Slow disco.

 

The stage change took about 25 minutes.  And it was worth the wait.

ROXY MUSIC in the house!

The show began with Avalon interstitial into Re-Make/Re-Model.

 

A guitar solo by Phil Manzanera.

Bryan Ferry was full of energy during this show.

 

Andy Mackay on woodwinds.

The guitar gets wild

While My Heart is Still Beating

Roxy gets psychedelic.

As does Romey!  You go girl.

Many of the interludes were beautiful in just the right Roxy way.

One of our all time favorites To Turn You On


The Main Thing

The crowd was into it. And the visuals were just as much of the experience at the music.  One guy in front of us knew every word of every song.

An all time favorite (though honestly I would rather play this than listen to it), More Than This.

Romey captures some bits.

And a very much great version of Avalon (though, don’t be the asshole who talks over this song).

The Warhol set was awesome

Jealous Guy

Congrats on 50 years of being a band, Roxy Music!  You guys still rock.

 

 

 

Porchfest in Bridgeport

August 28, 2022

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Lets play music in Connecticut.  The Greyhounds welcome you to the house.

But first a dip in the pool.

And then it’s off to the porch.

George, gig one of three…

Sound check

And then another dip in another pool, between gigs.

Gig the next.

All we’re missing is the drummer.  George, gig three…

 

 

Lets Get COVID in New Hampshire!

July 22, 2022

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We thought we had narrowly escaped COVID with our collective departure from Italy.  But it was not to be.

Everything was looking good, from the could-have-been-worse schlep through the Zurich train station with the enormous guitar case (no carts?!  no humans who help?!), through wine tasting in SwissAir First Class, to smooth arrival in Boston.

My trusty ally and friend Spoolia was there to scoop me.

And driving into Newton it was as if we hadn’t even left Italy!  Heck, dinner even was Italian, but pronounced incorrectly.

Mabel was impressed, and this is a dog not really impressed by much!

So it was off to New Hampshire for some music.  And a side of accidental COVID.

Oopstock has been going strong for 29 years.  Many of the usual folks were in attendance. But get this: there was a professional sound guy, and there were high school kids manning the grill.  Holy cow, so upscale!!

This made my life much easier (not to mention Rhine’s).  Here are my feet on the table where the sound board USED to be positioned way back when I was the sound guy.  The hombre to the right is Steve.  He ran great sound.

The usual instrument pod.

The East German Gold Medal Swim Team Captain.

New blood with high charisma.

Where’s Aubrey did an iteration of the Into the Unknown game.  We all missed Sogol’s dancing.  But here is the picture that April made.

 

The Moose Hut guys also got whacked by COVID.  Chris was down and didn’t make the party.  As a result, a game of musical chairs around who plays what instrument resulted.  Zack played drums?!

Everybody missed Romey.

There was, in deference to Italy, a Negroni session mid-day.

The sun set.  The babies went to bed.

And the bands came out under the actual light show.  FWIW, LED lights still attract shit tons of mosquitos.

Guy Ferrari played some original music.  Tight.

Moose Hut became Moose Nut or maybe Moose Butt.

And then it was the Grayhounds (a quasi-iteration on Splatterfoot with a new guy named Paul whaling on guitar).

Sadly, Rhine was infected the whole time.  He started feeling symptoms Sunday.  And I got it from him.  I am pretty sure this all started with the Italian villa art collective (and I secretly wonder about their self-reported negative test results before our performance).  So many years of top notch risk management come tumbling down when you change your risk stance.  WHOMP.

A view from the stage.  We played electric until 10 then shifted to the campfire where this year’s highlights were a complete treatment of one side of the Pink Floyd Animals record, and a coveted iteration of Hangin.

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Then it was off to Spain to become a vector.  Unknowingly. Alas.

Special thanks to Spool for making this all possible and to Rhine and April for persisting with the music party even in a summer crammed with art and fun.

 

 

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