A musical week in review - middle school band concert and The Sudden Lovelys

Thursday was Eryn's band concert.  She was one of four oboes.  For their section solo, they put on purple leis.  We sat next to Diane (Jenny's mom) and her family and talked about Minecraft and programming.  My poor wife was in the midst of a geek convo.



I couldn't get a good picture of her from where I was sitting, but here she is.  It's obvious she's playing an oboe at least.  She's been growing her hair out.  I'm not sure how she can even see the music.


Wednesday night we went to see The Sudden Lovelys (Danny and Paige) at Dusty's for a pre-release show of their CD release, Brave and Alive.  I wish we could have been at the Icehouse official release Saturday night, but it's a bit late for Eryn and we like to take her along because she likes them so much.


Dusty's was where they played together for the first time and it was certainly an intimate setting.
There's no zoom on this photo and I was eating an egg-topped dago and fries during their set.  The news songs are great with the studio recording and today I finally got to hear them on a device that wasn't couple to built in computer speakers.  The Kickstarter-backed studio recording makes a real difference in the quality of the sound.


If you haven't caught their video for Gone is Time, here it is.  And go support some local artists and buy Brave and Alive (and their other albums).

Miscellaneous Photo Montage

I have a lot of pictures left over on my camera.  This is Eryn and I at Ring Mountain enjoying ice cream and sending Wali a picture to prove we were there within moments of his visit.



Better if you go to Flickr to see it in full size.  A panoramic of Eryn at the Day By Day Cafe for breakfast.


In addition to Sign Makers, Kyle and I went to see Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan, involving a militia, a lot of guys with beards and mustaches, a very old Grizzly Adams, a violent Paul Bunyan with three times the average life span of a human, the grave of Babe the Blue Ox, and a Minnesota camp for juvenile offenders.  Worthy of Trash Film Debauchery, but put on as a private showing with the help of Twin Cities Beard and Mustache Club.


Our first round of The Farm Game, a gift from Kyle.  Our cows seemed to be committing hari kari.  Death by dog.  Death by car.  Death by lightning.  It was endless.


Allison on the Amtrak train on the way back from Grandma Madeline's funeral preparation.  We shared a sleeper car.  I bunked it.


A photo I sent my wife from Sidney, Montana, that Allison photobombed.



This was in the hotel in Sidney, Montana.  This is amazing and should be sold for $50 so everyone could make pancakes with the push of a button whenever they want.  My happiness at food in Montana was only superseded by a piece of rhubarb pie ala mode.  If there was a machine that could make instant rhubarb pie and pancakes, I'd be 80 pounds heavier again.


From Eryn's tenth birthday party!  We had a late party, post ballet season, so we could invite her friends and family to hang at grandpa's studio, drink root beer, eat fruit snacks and cake, and listen to The Sudden Lovelys, Paige and Danny.  Eryn played their song Waxwing Birds with them which made her very happy.  She dropped her pick at one point but recovered nicely.


I hope she felt hip having her party in an art studio warehouse with live music.  It was a lot of fun.  Hopefully made up for a bit of the annoyance from last year when I was laid up.

Sudden Lovelys

I'm not sure why I don't have these pictures of Eryn and The Sudden Lovelys from The Ritz on my blog.  Perhaps I was waiting for my wife to fix the glowing eyes.  But as Eryn's dad, all I really see is that enormous smile or her face.  That is an incredibly happy little girl.  Tonight is their last local gig, over at the 331, before they go on a six week tour of CA and the west.  If you're not doing anything at around 9 or 10 p.m. I recommend it.

Paige and Danny on stage at the Ritz.

Sudden Lovelys, Brian Laidlaw, and Paul Doffing

Saturday night, Eryn, Pooteewheet, and I went to the Northeast Social Club for dinner, and then to the Ritz to see Paul Doffing's album release.  The Sudden Lovelys were playing as part of the event, and Eryn had been asking if there was a way to see them that didn't involve a bar at 9:00 p.m.  I have to say, seeing three very good acts perform in the Ritz Theater with only a few dozen other people around, and the bar open and serving Sweet Child of Vine...that's definitely the way to enjoy music.

Brian Laidlaw was on first and played a number of tracks from his album wolf wolf wolf.  There were a lot of great songs, and Eryn particularly liked a number of them, including The Last Known Whereabouts of Amelia Earhardt, which includes some rather peculiar lyrics about poets, although you can't find them on his site.  Ashley (Ash) Hanson sang with him, and they harmonized well together.  I've never heard the Dusty Porch Sisters sing before, but perhaps I'll have to watch for them performing locally.

Brian said he plays at The Amsterdam in St. Paul.  He  has an  upcoming performance with Alicia Wiley who I went to see at Barbette, but the acoustics weren't that great.  So I'm looking forward to hearing her at a venue designed for sound.

The Sudden Lovelys performed next.  Eryn's favorite moment of the night was when they changed up their set to play a special request and played Dirty Rotten Apples, which she'd asked for between sets. Paige and Danny make me appreciate that local singers in person almost always sound exactly like they do on their albums, if not better. Eryn jammed along to most of their songs, even though it was almost 10 p.m.
And Paul Doffing was the man of the evening. I'd never heard anyone play a 12 string guitar before. It was absolutely beautiful. Particularly on the acoustic songs, his fingers crawled all over the strings. Made me appreciate exactly how far it is from my puttering around to being amazingly good. Peshtigo Fire, despite the fact that he told a story that has Eryn constantly talking about P-shit-go Fire, is excellent and you can hear it on his site. And it's not too often you can add a song about great fires of Northern Wisconsin to your list of music. Eryn kept her eight-year old self up until after 11:00 p.m. So that should give you an idea of how much she liked it.