My friend and long time musical partner Rich had a big 40th birthday bash at his house yesterday. Lots of people brought their families. Rich had made a heck of a stage in his backyard complete with luau decorations and lighting. I brought PA, and got there early to set up sound. The whole band came and we did a nice, relaxed 90-minute show to an appreciative packed “house.”
We used the opportunity to wave goodbye to our friend and cellist Okorie, who is moving to the ATL in a few weeks. He brought totally unexpected parting gifts for everyone in the band — wait, isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? — and I had a lingering gift from the holidays since I hadn’t seen him in several months. Also we were gifted by the presence of our good buddy Tom Hnatow, who we expect will become increasingly more difficult to nab as his other project, These United States, takes off. (I coined the new description, “trippy Americana,” to describe them, in case you hear it later in Rolling Stone or something.)
The kids were real troupers and stayed up until after 11:00 with very few problems or meltdowns. Ethan even took over the drums and Evie the bass at some point after 9:30, and our friend Mike has pictures which I’ll post when I see them.
Between the heat, packing and unpacking gear, the setup, playing, breakdown, wrangling the kids, packing and unpacking (again), and general merriment, we are just exhausted today. I helped fix a bug or two this morning but am taking the rest of the weekend off — too much celebration for one week for this cat!