Day two of our posting every day blogathon.
I am at the Poisson Rouge right now with about twenty minutes left till kick off. Drew Brees just got referred to as “Breezus” as in the savior of New Orleans. I’m rooting for him. Jews for Breezus. Hyde is meeting me here in a moment. Gonna drink and eat chicken wings.
This is an important space for me in my New York history. The former site of The Village Gate, it is the site of my first musical experience with the great Bob King. Bob was built for football and in high school he got a lot of satisfaction from crushing opponents on the line. The first time I saw him play piano was upstairs almost exactly 20 years ago. The piano was on wheels and he was such a powerful and intense player that the piano kept rolling away from him inch by inch as he banged away. Every forty seconds he’d look up from the piano like a school kid and pull the piano back toward him with his burly forearms.
I was on stage with him at the time. We were playing “scrapple from the apple.” At the top of my chorus I chose to play a very sour note. Bob immediately responded by playing a chord so complex and rich that I sounded like a total bad-ass. He looked at me slyly as if to say, “so that’s how it’s gonna be.” It was awesome. We had an immediate and intense connection and that moment was the beginning of a twenty year friendship.
Today has felt great all day. I can’t explain it and don’t want to. It’s about time to drink beer and watch football. Who dat.
Who took/who is the picture from this post?
Hi Owen, I remember you. We met earlier today at Union Square! That photo is of my friend Bob that I talk about in the post. The photo was taken by a Scandinavian friend of ours in her studio about 18 years ago! I can’t remember her name but she was a pro.
Fantastic! Can’t get enough of you guys. I am a swing dancer… more accurately, I really enjoy swing dancing! I live in Sherbrooke, Quebec and we have a small but enthusiastic swing community of about 60 people… mostly University students so the turnover is pretty constant (I am old enough to be the father of most of the dancers but I don’t advertise it). Caught you guys on YouTube doing Oh Lord in the park about two weeks ago and now I am obsessed with the band! Love the music,love the videos, love the blogs… no worries I am too cheap to be a real stalker but I will stalk your stuff on the web! Keep it up guys! By the way I will dj at our weekly dance in about 6 weeks and I will definitely have Swing Sherbrooke swingin’ to the Tin Pan!
Thanks Jesse, if you ever talk to your Scandinavian friend tell her that photo is spectacular! You guys were tearing it up yesterday and it was great to come across that kind of energy unexpectedly. Hope to catch you boys again and it was a pleasure to meet you.