We met on Bleeker Street

I decided it was time to see a concert in another city. And Coldplay in Darien Lake does not count. So this past weekend I was in New York to see Travis. Remember them? The aforementioned Coldplay definitely should(but if you want to get technical, Travis should remember these fellow Scots).

Let me segue into blogging about the Travis concert by talking about another concert: just last weekend, the Ramlogans, Rafi and I went to see Michael Franti and Spearhead at the Ottawa "Blues" fest. The show was totally off the hook. True veteran performers working and waking the crowd out of their Sarah Harmer-induced mellowness. Even though I just know of Spearhead, I knew I had definitely witnessed a hot hot show...little did I know that in a week's time, the memory of that concert would be quite handily overshadowed...

Fast-forward to New York City. Travis was fan-freakin'-tastic. It helps that I'm a big fan(oh, how I remember searching for them on Napster 1.0 and being frustrated at all the 'Randy Travis' and 'Travis Tritt' returned hits). It helps that I have a solid familiarity with their back-catalogue. It helps that I was in the capital of the world(arguably, of course: it definitely has competition), it helps that there was a minor celebrity appearance, but most of all, it helped that guitarist Andy Dunlop came into the audience to do a guitar solo and stopped exactly where Rafi and I were standing. Not only that, but everyone kind of just stood around and politely watched him...so I took it upon myself to get all enthusiastic up in his face and got rewarded by earning the title of The Guy That Helped Pick Andy Off The Floor After His Guitar Solo. Very cool.*

So was it worth it going to hot, stank, expensive New York to see a band that'll be playing Toronto tomorrow? Unequivocally, 'yes'. Plus, I got to catch up with my good, loyal, always obliging friend Zach.....'s wife Susannah. What a sweet gal. And that husband of hers? Well, my head says "He'll make it up to me", but my heart says "He better make it up to me..."

Wen








Sing along!

*ok, so I'm being unfair. Exactly what do you do when a guitarist starts playing a solo on the floor right in front of you? I mean, it's not like this was a beat-down where you instinctively know to reign down with the kicks and punches. So the only thing that came to mind was the natural connection one would make at a Travis concert: Pantera!! (0:15 second mark)