Went down to Bethpage, NY (better known as Long-Island), to play with The Fad yesterday afternoon. It also happened to be my birthday.
We left from Hooker St at around 3:30…it was a pretty nice, leisurely drive. Being my birthday, I was relieved from driving duties for the weekend, which was a very nice change of pace. So, in between navigating for Pru, I got some much needed sleep. Hadn’t done that in a few nights, partly due to drunken debauchery, and partly due to some bullshit weighing on my mind. Everyone seemed in relatively good spirits, myself included. The view from the Throngs Neck Bridge of the city was pretty gorgeous, but aside from that, there wasn’t much to look at. The old MA->CT->NY route is pretty routine at this point.
We were the first band to arrive at Mr. Beery’s, a nice little dive bar in the Framingham-esque downtown Bethpage. The staff was nice, and we were satisfied with the venue for a couple reasons.
1) the stage folded out from the wall
2) It was pretty much a slightly bigger Midway Café
3) There was free Budweiser on tap for us
We ate at the diner right next door, which was pretty underwhelming. I paid almost four dollars for a cheeseburger with no fixins. The deluxe cheeseburger, with Lettuce, tomato and fries would’ve been an extra three dollars. Fuck that. About halfway through our meal, Matt’s mom and her boyfriend arrived. They live right down the road, and apparently she grew up on Long Island and went to the prom with Eddie Money. Sweet lady and nice guy. We were glad they came out.
Went back to the bar after dinner, as the other bands were starting to show up. We were under the impression it was just us and The Fad, but we were glad to have another band. I forget their name now, but they were good. One of the dudes from ASOB, I think I heard someone say. They played straight up, fast rock and roll. No bullshit.
We went on a little before 11 I think. There were people there, but I guess it was a bit of an off night for Mr. Beery’s, due to other events going on in town. But people watched out set and responded nicely, and I had fun. Had my chops together, feel like my timing might’ve been a bit off though. My kit was set up weird and it threw me off a bit. People seemed to like it and we sold a couple t-shirts…not a bad show.
I had been informed earlier in the night that at Mr. Beery’s, for one’s birthday, it’s customary to take 5 free shots, all in a row. So, after we finished playing and I packed up my shit, I sold the bartender a tshirt, and then told her it was my birthday. It was right as The Fad was about to start playing, so she yelled at them to hold on, then rang a bell at the bar while they made an announcement. I put half a shot in my mouth, and she kept telling me to wait (for what, I have no idea.) So I sat there like an idiot for a mouthful of whiskey while Doyle said something and the crowd kind of cheered. Taking five shots of whiskey back to back wasn’t as hard as I expected. I didn’t feel sick after, or even all that drunk. I felt like I was waiting for mushrooms to kick in or something, but all I got was a healthy buzz. That’s probably a pretty efficient way to drink.
The Fad were great, as usual. I guess they’ve been practicing three times a week since they can’t tour right now…they had a bunch of cool segway’s between songs, and played all the hits, plus a couple covers. I really like that band. We hung around the bar for probably another hour after their set, drinking and fucking around. The bartenders were great to us and welcomed us back anytime, and one of the dudes from The Fad said we could crash at his house…definitely worked out better than the van.
We said goodbye to the rest of The Fad, and then followed them about 15 minutes to D’s house, a pretty sweet little apartment in a nice looking neighborhood. He had some friends from the show over, and we stayed up till three or four playing beer pong and taking shots of Jager with their guitar player. He was bad mouthing the patriots and that along with the Jager, got me a little riled up. The were some cute girls there but we were all well behaved. One of them was in college and said I needed to keep drinking because it was my birthday, and I agreed, because I was having fun and it was also getting my mind off of the issues from home that had followed me to Long Island, and had been swirling around in my head for the whole weekend. Finally, I ended up quite drunk, which seemed appropriate. Eventually Jon and Matt went to sleep in the van (Jon wanted to guard the van, responsibly, I don’t why Matt chose the van over the house…didn’t make a whole lot of sense.) I don’t really remember going to sleep, but it wasn’t too much later. I kind of just sat down in a reclining chair, and vaguely remember D throwing me some sort of blanket. I slept well, uninterrupted until the morning, which felt really good. R from The Fad was passed out on the floor next to my chair, and there were some other randoms scattered about the rest of the living room. It was adorable.
We woke up pretty early the next morning, mostly Jameson’s doing I think. I was pretty much still asleep, but made it to the van. We gave R a ride back to his car at the bar, and ate breakfast at the same diner. I was more satisfied with breakfast than I was with dinner. The morning is very hazy, and everyone was pretty haggard, but we had a good time. Mad enough money between the door and tshirts to cover our gas, so I can’t complain. Pretty solid for a one off in Long Island. Hopefully we’ll see those guys again soon.
We were going to play at Pearl St. in Northampton this Friday with The Stolen Records (Jameson and I’s old band), but I just got word that the show is cancelled. It’s a good club, and it would have been a fun time, but I wanted to go down to DC for the weekend anyways, so this makes my life easier. There will be other chances to play in the Amherst area.
Now the Pietasters show at the middle east on may 10th is our only gig left before we take about a month off to get ready to record. Set up a photoshoot for that weekend, so thats one less thing on the to do list, but we need to get crackin on an updated bio, and the artwork for the record.
