Rodeo Bar, Summer '07
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Played New York's infamous Rodeo Bar last night, one of our favorite venues. I dig the stage decor (where else is there a Bison crashing through a wall underneath a Janis Joplin portrait?), the sound, the vibe and, of course, the food and drink. A lot of great friends came out to see us (thanks to the TMC crew especially Mr. Gabe Kinder who rode his bike to Central Park, ran 10 miles and THEN came to see the New Heathens -- a true triathalete). We had some family in the house too. I had the pleasure of meeting Eric Seftel's mother, sister and son. Three generations of Seftel uner one roof!

The band was focused, and Domenick had a great night. We've been working on cutting down the time we spend between songs and the effect last night was that when audience applauded after a song ended, we'd be into the next song before they finished. Pretty cool, especially for New York. Charlene McPherson, one of my favorite singers in the world (check out her band Spanking Charlene at Pianos on Friday, Aug. 3) joined us onstage to duet on a few Gram Parsons songs. On our last song, the Stones' "Dead Flowers," Joe Cassady from Joe Cassady and the West End Sound, Alan Lee from the Wicked Messengers, and Ryan Downey the drummer from my old band The Goods, joined us for the rave up.

I closed the bar down with Alan Lee and told him that when I first moved to New York in 2001, and before I knew who he was, I saw him at the Rodeo Bar, Hank's Saloon and Arlene's Grocery (for a solo gig by Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes.) I noticed him because he wore a Keith Richards t-shirts, a Keith-esque skull ring on his right ring finger, and a shark's tooth dangling from his ear. I remember walking over to him and saying, "Hey man, cool shirt and jewlery." Not knowing me from Adam, Alan would say, "Yeah thanks" and move on. Now we're good pals. New York is cool and cyclical like that.

Labels: Cyclical New York, family, Rodeo

0 comments