Buy Ambien Online Overnight Delivery Buy Ambien Online Paypal Can You Buy Zolpidem Online Zolpidem Buyers Buy Ambien Online Usa Zolpidem Tartrate Buy Online Uk
 

Second to last show

from Friday, August29th of the year2008.

We just played the second-to-last show of this tour, in Toronto. We compressed our show (which, in its ideal format is two sixty-minute sets) into a lean, mean, 75-minute set of highlights all in the service of being a good opening act for Final Fantasy, which is a one-man band and some of my favorite music being made today.. He played some new material, which is really, really exciting to me always.

One of the totally fascinating things about doing these shows has been the various interpretations of start times, end times, set lengths, curfew etc. All of this is new to me; I’m used to the formality of seated concerts that start either at 7:30 or 8. An example of this chaos: we rolled into Montréal. On our little sheet that the booker sent us, there was one start time, something like 8 PM. A girl who was interviewing me for CBC Radio texted me and was like, “are you crazy, nobody in Montreal goes out before ten!” “” whoops! Then, through a series of phone calls, questions, all that, we decided to push the show back ninety minutes. Nobody seemed to mind this; the venue is in the same building as the most delicious tapas I ever et.

Another fascinating thing is the idea of people Promoting Shows and the whole idea of there being somebody whose job it is to make people buy tickets. I guess I always assumed that the venues or institutions took care of this kind of stuff behind a veil of secrecy that the artists never have to think about (as would be the case with, say, Carnegie Hall or whatever). We had a very interesting (albeit unfortunate) situation happen to us in Washington DC which is, I think, illustrative of this cultural difference. About a week before we were meant to play there, we started getting phone calls from our booking people in Chicago talking about, “the promoter in DC is anxious because he hasn’t sold any tickets.” Now, what is one supposed to do with that sentence? Is it not the promoter’s job to sell tickets? Is it our failing as musicians, is that the problem? Is it a PR issue? Is this man’s anxiety my issue? Has it become my issue now that it’s in my inbox? It’s a fascinating moment for me: should I have been more performatively aggressive on my Webternet Spaces about getting the good people of our nation’s capital out to this man’s venue, for to relieve his anxiety? Should I have FedExed him an Ativan?

What ended up happening is even more amazing, though. The man became convinced that we were not going to be able to be worth his while, so he paid us One Thousand USA Dollars to not play. Genius, right? We figured out that Sam and Thomas and I were each worth $333.33 of awful; we’re going to take each other out to dinner when we’re back in the city. And then drunk dial that venue. Anyway, we changed the show to a great church in Silver Springs, Dan Bora, our Soundguy pulled the show out of his ass in a truly heroic fashion, with the help of the Contradance community of greater DC. It was a much better feeling than dealing with even the specter of Anxiety Dude (hope you’re feeling better!) “” it felt like dealing with a community of people who were excited to see the show, rather than these amounts of money floating around that directly influence people’s happiness. We were happy because we were staying in a big old house with WiFi:

Some other promoters, on the other hand, were completely laid back. We played a show in Philadelphia in a beautiful church, and our promoterdude was this totally laid back blondie (pictured) who was so nice that we offered him our Signature Backstage Cocktail (a Coriander Cervix, which is Hendricks Gin muddled with cucumber, coriander, a lot of limes, and poured over ice with a pinch of black pepper; at my momma house this is modified to include cracked dried juniper berries, but we didn’t take a mortar or its attendant pestle on the road). Thanks, Philly Blondie! A relaxed team of people behind a show makes for a better show; I ended up playing their beautiful old pipe organ during Keep in Touch which was such an emotionally appropriate addition. We were all really happy. We had bought Dan Bora celebratory wine as a thanks for the DC show, including Trump Brand Vodka. The vodka actually ended up coming into play the next day, on our drive from New York to Boston, when Dan & Nadia had the ingenious idea to buy V8 and put the Trump Vodka in it: Bloody Merritts! The perfect way to acknowledge Sunday. I listened to plainchant psalms on the subway ride up to Thomas’s house, where I interfaced with Putney the Dog:

I celebrated my birthday on the tour, and Nadia and Dan gave me an amazing gift which occupies the vesica pisces between Edutainment and Sex Toy. Behold:

I have a bunch of pictures that require captioning. With a trip like this, and with the company involved, most of the fun we had related to language and not to, like, funny stuff we saw. That said, here are some images:

My score for The Only Tune and Sam’s score for The Only Tune are two very different objects:

My mother tried to do Modern Dance with me and Sam:

She picked an unreal amount of mushrooms for this party:

Nadia and I are sisters in draped clothing:

Thomas and Sam don’t partner well together in the Modern Dance:

But are good at being mad Country:

Sam and I continue refining the artform:

In Washington, DC:


Near the Shack in Vermont:

Backstage in New York (Wendy Whelan tribute):

Check out this review of our Boston show, with good pictures.

Back to New York tomorrow, back to reality.

18 Comments

  • Hey, there’s Putney! The most beautiful, hilarious dog in the world.

    I shot a whole roll of film at the NY show and, really, only a single frame turned out nicely.
    http://tinyurl.com/5ubu6s

  • hey, thanks, thanks, and million thanks for such an amazing experience!, I was sitting behind you and thomas at lpr last saturday and although I had no view of sam playing I was both delighted and a bit “embarrased in a good way” (for lack of better word) to be able to witness the playfulness, and intimacy that unites you all on stage. May it not be the last time!
    monika

  • the toronto show was fantastic nico..
    a real treat.
    come back soon!
    jonas

  • thanks for a splendid show (and for linking to my bostonist post)!

    superfluous photographs here, at higher resolutions: http://flickr.com/photos/sushiesque/2794620273/

    p.s. owen pallett hugged me once.

  • through an awesome string of absurd events i discovered your music this summer and i love it. i tried to plan a trip to chicago with some friends to come see your show, but i failed.

    please come to madison, WI, sometime!!

  • You should all drunk dial that DC-area establishment as much as possible – as far as I can tell, tickets never were available online (having tried unsuccessfully to procure them on a couple of different occasions), and since traveling to that establishment is a Pain in The Ass, it’s not as if people are going to go there to buy tickets before the night of.

    The Silver Spring version was very excellent, thank you. You can never have too many Contra dancers on your side.

  • I loved the peek at your score for The Only Tune. I have the scores from England; are any available here?

  • Tried desperately to get to the Chicago show…Didn’t make it in the end– maybe next time.
    Putney is a famous dog!

  • I saw the show in Chicago and it was great (I do not regret missing the DNC speeches!) Thanks to you all for a lovely evening.

  • Thanks for a great show in NY. I hope you’ll record that exploded folk tune some time…

  • Hey, Brad,

    The exploded folk tune (“The Only Tune”) is on Nico’s album, MOTHERTONGUE.

    xox

    C.

  • 1) happy birthday! like mushrooms for lambs….2) kicking myself for missing the NY show – i dumbly thought it was on sunday and on sunday realized it wasn’t. i plead convention-induced amnesia. 3) that promoter should get out of the biz! 4) i’ll modern dance w/bunny if you and sam won’t.

  • Please come to Minneapolis the next time.

  • 1) Since the entire post seems to be alcohol related I give you my recipe for Apploosa’s, which can replace Mimosas on Sunday.

    1 part organic apple chuice.
    2 parts you favorite champers or sparkly.

    Yum. And no hangover acid complex to deal with.

    2) Most importantly, I sell all your music in a shop in the East Village called Etherea on Avenue A. Y’all should come in and visit. Or do a signing. Or play. Or just sit and gab.

    3) Love you all.

    Brion

  • the backstage cocktail sounds so dope – i’m esp intrigued by the cracked pepper w/ the gin, i dont think i’ve ever done that.

  • Yes …. I can relate… when you bridge classical players with pop music venues … actually any situation where you bridge the concert and pop music worlds… interesting things happen. Especially with scheduling I’ve noticed. Can be frustrating from the performer’s end of things.

  • the toy is called a Speak ‘n Fuck

  • I thoroughly enjoyed this entry. Touring is a bitch.

    Oh god the amount of times we’ve had to deal with “worried’ promoters.

    Seriously what are you supposed to do, buy all the tickets yourself?