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different-colored music, take two
Hello again, my lovely list,
Congrats, Drew and Bruce! Do you think I'll be able to catch your
show up here in Vemront? she says, half-smiling...
It's been almost two weeks since I tempted you all with my Wild
Colonials story, and I still don't really have time to do it justice,
but I figure I've made you wait too long as it is.
I found out about the first show only two days before it actually
happened. The show itself was in a little jazz bar called the Red
Square (let me emphasize that *little* part again). I had to work
until late-thirty, but my wonderful roommates secured a table right
by the stage which, incidentally, can barely hold a jazz-trio-sized
band on a good night. Around 10, the band (remember, this is a Wild
Colonials story. Over the Rhine? in Vermont? Maybe when cows fly.)
took the stage dressed quite stylishly in black-and-white. They
seemed a bit rough at first; the sound was ...well, bad, and no one was
really paying attention to the band. My roommate and I didn't really
care--we were dancing in our seats (those few of you who've seen this
phenomenon from me before will understand) almost from the get-go.
About five songs into the set, Angela notices that we're dancing and,
as Angela often does, invites us up to dance right by the band. So,
of course, we go, and ...this part is hard to describe. I wish you
could've seen it. The whole flavor of the evening changed. The
songs were faster, tighter, more emotional. The crowd started
listening, and later, some of the crowd started dancing as well.
After the show...well, I've never been thanked so much for dancing
before in my life. It was a beautiful thing.
In conversations with various band members afterwards, we found out
that they were playing again the following night in "Killington,
wherever /that/ is, at a place called ...um, I forget. Let me check
with Shark, he keeps all that stuff in his head." The place turned
out to be a bar-nightclub called the Pickle Barrel. Despite our
reservations about places called the Pickle Barrel, we said we'd try to
make it.
Some actual Wild Colonials information for you: The band was just finishing
a radio tour to promote their new CD, released in January and entitled
"Reel Life Vol. 1". The album is a compilation of songs recorded for
various movie soundtracks and includes originals by the whole band,
instrumentals by individual band members, and a few cover tunes including
Angela covering a Squirrel Nut Zippers song with John Lee Hooker and a
Grateful Dead cover with gospel singers. Its a fantastic album, even
if you're not already a fan of the Wild Colonials. Incidentally, this
album was supposed to be an Internet sale just to fans, but radio
stations have picked up one of the songs, Tower Records stuck it in a
bunch of their listening stations around the country, ...and they were
originally going to take 6 months off, but here they were in Vermont
playing in a little jazz bar at the end of a radio tour just so they
could play a live gig for real people.
They have an e-announcement list now: WildNotes at aol_com, if you care.
The following night, my boyfriend and I made the two-hour drive to
Killington--which is a space on a map, but not an actual town. Luckily,
we didn't get too lost in the mountain darkness. The Pickle Barrel,
despite its rather dubious name, looked like a transplant from Vail or
Aspen--somewhere beautiful and exclusive. It was supposed to be closed
for the summer season, but the band's agent convinced them to stay open
one more night. (In light of the Guinness conversation: All draft beers
were $1.50 a pint, yes, including Guinness.)
In a very small nutshell, the same thing happened this night. I never
really realized before how much dancers and musicians working together
can change the air in a building. By the end of the second set, lots
of people were dancing...it was amazingly lovely.
After this show (and between sets), I was blessed to talk to Paul, who
WC fans will recognize as the tall blond gorgeous voilinist. I learned
that he is really a classical pianist ... After much wonderful
conversation, he gave me a copy of his new CD. Oh...my.
If you have even a passing fondness for Linford's piano work, you must
own this CD. You can listen to it at
http://www.greatbigisland.com/paulcantelon , and even order it there
if you like. The CD is, incidentally, titled "Point No Point"...and,
honestly, I've never heard anything quite like it. If you're interested
in what I thought in more detail, e-mail me personally and I'll dig
up journal writings for you.
Ugh...must go get ready for work. Thanks for listening.
Hugs,
Raven
> Hi back.
>
> >
> >Last weekend, I got to spend two lovely evenings with the Wild
> >Colonials in Vermont. Details will be forthcoming, because
> >there's a musical tangent some of you might care about, but right
> >now I'm off to drink Guinness in a little Irish pub.
> >
> >Hugs,
> >Raven
> '
>
> And I am so frigging jealous.
> BTW>
> We got a cat...
> and some other things
> Oh, ah, I'll Let Amber relate some of that...
>
> Ta
> D.M.
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
--
Amy N. Macrellis
Department of Geological Sciences
206 Natural Sciences
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1115
(517) 353-5988 (lab)
(517) 327-8335 (home)
E-mail: macrell1 at pilot_msu.edu
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