OKAY! Man, it’s been a while! No, we did not give up on the blog to all you fans that keep up with us here. Like most of y’all we’ve been hard at work this fall, diggin that hole!
I believe where we left off was right before we went to play the New England Culture Fest in Lowell, Mass. on Sept. 1st ! This was a great opportunity for us! We thoroughly enjoyed being a part of a program with so much talent. Our set was a lot shorter than most of our shows (and all of you out there who have seen us do our thang know that we just get warmed up after 30 mins.) but it was still sweet! We played the standard tunes from ‘UPROOT THE ISLAND’ which went over pretty well with the very attentive crowd. Good responses all around! We will also have some photos and some quality video from the performance soon so keep an eye out at the website and myspace for the material!
(On a side note: This is message for other groups out there. If you are ever booked along side the Boston Horns, play before them! These guys were so klutch. The years these guys have been playing live is very apparent when they are on stage! Be sure to check them out at www.bostonhorns.com! Organ in Orbit was another great trio of performers that played that day!)
In the few days after the NECultureFest we slipped back down to eastern Kentucky for a double header at Morehead State Univ. and Eastern Kentucky Univ. Two shows in 3 days, 5 states away! It was kinda crazy only because we drove for 12 hours the first day, slept. Woke up, played two shows, slept. Woke up, drove 12 hours home, slept. (Some drinks were omitted from that schedule.) But it was a valiant effort! It was our first time at Morehead State! (At least it felt like the first time.) The show for their out door event on a beautiful day was well received and all had a good time! We had some free time before the gig so we left Morehead to take a drive down to Red River Gorge further south. Not only is Kentucky great for a drive in the middle of the day but it’s also enhanced by Little Feat. Check em both out!
After the Morehead gig we made it on time to play our show at EKU, which was the 3rd pleasant experience we’ve had in Richmond, KY. Thanks to Lonnie and his crew and all the staff at EKU for making it fun! As well, to a small group of our fans down there in Richmond led by Sam the bassist; we will be back to conquer at Guitar Hero! Prepare to be impaled on a plastic guitar!
On Sept. 14th we drove back up 87 for two nights of shows at the Dancing Bear and more romping through Lake Placid. Every time we go back to LP there are more and more fans. GOOD TO HAVE YOU! Another delight was being interviewed over the radio that night by a local radio station! Thanks for the plugs! All day long at the venue they were promoting the show for that night! We did leave them a few cd’s to be archived at the station but damn it all if we don’t have any of the info for which station it actually was that aired us! DuhhhhHhHH,…..uhhhhhh.
On the 15th of Sept. we had a second night of wonderful performances from both us and the MOST TALENTED MAN IN THE WORLD; yes, Phil Olejack. With his own small set of tunes he entertained the audience between our final sets for the weekend but when we all got back on stage he pulverized the crowd with nothing less than pristine vocals and challenged the viewers to believe that the voice coming from the speakers was actually coming from his mouth!
The following weekend we were back in Queens for a spot down at Cronin’s on
the 21st, which was more than a blast with a little help from the magic of Dave Cremin between sets! IT NEVER FAILS to have a Dave Cremin perform. And the night after we hit up a local spot out in KINGS PARK, LONG ISLAND called D.S. Shanahan’s. The room was great for our sound but our draw came at an inopportune time for the locals celebrating holidays and vacationing.
On the 27th of Sept. we played another college in Worcester, Mass. named Assumption College. This gig was another great experience of handing out the rock for many students who piled in at the beginning of the show. But once again our attempts to spread our music to new ears was thwarted. Around 2/3s of the way through the show we lost a good portion of our audience to the most tumultuous enemy of music, yes; TV. With weeknight clinchers on like Grey’s Anatomy and other shows with pleasing plot lines college shows sometimes suffer from this unexpected audience thieves. FOILED!
On the first of Oct. we played our second show at New England College in Henniker, NH. We changed venues from the coffeehouse to pub on campus for another well attended show. Thanks to the students who came out that night to help us sing! There’s nothing quite like having a group of people sing your songs for you at your show! Beautiful!
Last week we played another ‘2nd show’ for the students and staff up at Paul Smith’s College in Paul Smith, NY. Only this time it wasn’t buried under 5 feet of snow. Once again, every time we head back to a venue for a repeat show the audience just grows and grows! It was great to have everyone out and dancing that night! Thanx to all the students and Jill Susice! After the show we enjoyed stepping into the DJ Booth for the school’s radio station and giving them an impromptu live performance of ‘Hoppin’ a Train to Richmond’. To all you students up there: keep an ear out for songs from ‘UPROOT THE ISLAND’ on your school radio! We gave some cds to the station’s archive to be played in the future!
The first weekend of Oct., Jason, Fitz, & I started attending the regional conferences for the National Asso. Of Campus Activities (NACA) 2007 to book the next year’s tour of colleges. We have taken a little time away from New York but we will be back in the city for a show on HALLOWEEN! Join us at the pig!
As I write this we are leaving St. Charles, Ill. from NACA Mid America where we had a great week getting interest together for another great season of shows out here in the Midwest! We had a lot of great responses from the schools and expect to be out here quite a bit in the Spring of 2008! Another venue that we have now broken in to and expect to visit again was where we played a show at 6 days ago in De Kalb, Ill. We played the underground venue at Otto’s for the first time. That night, we were lucky to have our sound taken care of by Eric, an engineer who frequently tours with the phenomenal band; the Legendary Shack Shakers. Thanx dude for makin it sound great! We were also DOOBLY pleased to have old friend Andrew Livingston attend the show with his crew who also sang our songs even though this was their first PBF show ever! THANX!!! We had a blast out here and we’ll most definitely be back around the Chicago area FOR YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep it cool y’all!!!!!
Patrick
NEXT UP: On our way back to the city we'll be stopping by Evansville, Indiana to play the Univ. of Evansville which most likely, we'll be playing again in the spring! ......Evansville.
Also we'll be hangin at the pig this HOLLA-WEEN with a bunch of NEW SONGS and a couple of old tunes that will light up the night!!!!!
BE THERE!!!!!
