Amidst the slight chaos that started the evening off, everyone still managed to pull together to make an awesome night out of it.

Let me say for the upteenth time that The Ferns are friggin' awesome. Some of the outright best times I've ever had at a show have been with either these guys, Radio America, or the both of them. They're refining the direction the music is headed in, and it's really cool. I was having a conversation with Ryan (the singer) afterwards, and we're both just really excited about the place that these things are going. Things were running late, so we had to help them scurry and move their stuff offstage. I was worried their set would be cut because of the late start, but it wasn't. I was rocked for 45 whole minutes.

Afterwards, the Bon Savants hit the stage. It was the first time they've played Ralph's and the first time I've seen them on a proper stage (we played with them at Dodge St. Bar last month). Actually, that's untrue. Jen tells me we saw them at the Middle East Upstairs like two years ago, but I have only a vague recollection of said occurrence.. meh. The point is, they're really good as well. They've got a really, really great sound. It's got a kind of spacey quality without being pretentious. I think they're working on a record. Can't wait for that to come out. They've got a cool music video on their website you should check out: www.bonsavants.com.

Rebecca Nurse is a band I wasn't expecting to play with and was pleasantly surprised when the news was sprung on us. We hadn't seen these cats in ages. We've played with them a handful of times in the past and wish we could do it some more. It's the first time I've seen them with their new bass player. Last time we played with them was in Providence at the Green Room. They were headlining and they put on an amazing show. They covered a Zep song at the end of that one (forget which one), and I totally felt like I was in some kind of 70's coke party (minus the coke, of course) with Jimmy Page wailing over the loudspeakers. Which reminds me, Shawn is a hell of a guitar player.

Because of the delay at the beginning of the night, we wound up going on close to 1am. To my surprise, a good amount of people stuck around to hear us. We were trying out some new stuff with the set, messing around with the order of songs and whatnot. We've thrown Hey Now back into the set (you people happy now?? haha), and it was fun to play that again. We've been toying with throwing more of the songs off the EP back into the set as well and mess around with the arrangements some. Over the course of 100s of shows, you get tired of playing some of these songs and ultimately drop them from the set. However, it's easy to forget that everyone else really enjoys hearing these songs.

So, to everyone who was singing along: Thank You!

For those not familiar with guitarspeak, this is a bridge.

One hilarious moment I've gotta mention... So, we've started playing Slipped In Your Dream again. The problem with that song is that Jen's gotta use a capo on her guitar and retune a few things... all boring guitar stuff you shouldn't care about. So to compensate for that, Roy, Ross, and myself play some pretty little intro thing. It goes on for a little too long, and I walk over to Jen to see what the problem is. Turns out, she was hitting her guitar so hard on the song before (I think it was Don't Trust the Radio) that one of her strings completely came right off the bridge of the guitar. She fixed it quickly, but it detuned the entire thing and it sound like ass when she hit the chord.

Moment ruined.

We all stopped and "had a laugh at her expense" (or so the song goes). Good thing we weren't playing Madison Square, right? But screwed up bridge aside, Jen fixed the problem and everything else moved along very smoothly. Ryan from the Ferns even came onstage and joined us for the end of All I Can Do.

All in all, a spectacularly fun night.

Anyway, this has been long-winded enough. I hope you all have a great day and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Cheers,
Henry

Our trip this weekend was a blast. I think it's the first time in awhile where we were able to walk around New York instead of showing up, playing, and taking off immediately.

We were in Jersey the night before.. Asbury Park to be exact. Our friend from Republic, Brian, stopped by and we hung out for a bit. It was a much better show from the last time we were there (we were still in the studio at the time and were figuring out how the hell to play the new songs). A highlight of the evening was some dude who was likely high off crack tried to sell us some coke. We passed, naturally, and he went along his merry way. He tried to sell some to the Hot Dog guy parked outside, and was yelled at. A depressing anecdote, but noteworthy nonetheless. The four of us trekked to IHOP afterwards and made complete asses of ourselves at 3am. The waitress didn't seem to mind, and kept trying to sell us Pumpkin Pancakes.

The next day, we met up with Annie (our pal and booker in NYC) and walked around the city for a couple of hours. We ate at some diner (Cozy's??)... I can't really remember. Food was pretty good. The fries were outstanding.

By the time the night starts, the lineup is shifted at least twice (finally settling on Aloud/Radio America/Neutral Ground), which is cool. The other two bands scheduled to play did not show up, and the $50 deposit rule (which we did not pay) starts to make a little more sense. Apparently, Kramer-- the Kramer-- was there for a good portion of our set. I didn't get to meet him, but apparently he was there with a few friends grabbing a beer.

Radio America was a blast, as always. I really miss having those guys a lot closer by (for those not in the know, they recently moved to NYC). It wasn't anything close to the anitcs of the Indie Rock n' Roll Circus in March, but all seven of us wound up "on stage" (there was no stage) for the finale. The new songs sound really good, and they played an amazing cover version of T. Rex's Children of the Revolution. Hopefully another Aloud/Radio America gig will happen sooner rather than later.

Yep.. that's all that's going on. We've got Ralph's this Friday with the Bon Savants and our new neighbors The Ferns, and next Thursday we're headlining at T.T.'s.

Rock,
Henry