Last night was jumpin' at Northwood - happy faces, creative dancers, and enthusiastic responses to some new and revived songs, AND it was Chris's birthday! We tried a new song I wrote with Rick (our lyrics guy), "The Coast of Barbary," and a redone version of the song I did for our first CD, "Hungering." Mike pulled out all sorts of new things - even a song he tried for the first time during his acoustic "tweener" set. Later he did a song he wrote back in the Pink Elephant days, and it's very powerful - "The Good Guys." Mike felt it should be followed by the classic "Oh Well" - it was a great segue, but I couldn't find the stupid maracas on the floor, so I flubbed my way through it. Mike's new one, "Love Is All," began the second set with a positive message. We also did many classic tunes like "The Music Never Stops," "Cassidy," "St. Stephen/Not Fade Away," "Badge," even Wavy Gravy's "Basic Human Needs." The music always inspires me - the business situation at Northwood doesn't.
We have worked hard to build up a "scene" at Northwood, but business is business, and the owners worry about making the restaurant space profitable. We concern ourselves with creativity and building a sense of community. Our fans don't buy a lot of expensive drinks and usually don't order food while they're at Northwood, but we have brought people into a place that's usually a dead zone at night - unless there's a sports spectacular going on. It's an "oil and water" deal. We are grateful for the good years we've had in the Northwood space, but it looks like we need to work on something new. Having a place to play every week helps improve the band's chops. We want to keep a local Thursday thing going somehow. So, never fear, great minds are at work. We'll figure something out. I don't know if we'll be at Northwood next week or not - so it's a good idea to check out the website calendar if you can. Where would we be without our fans? I feel like we're living out a scene from a classic Dickens tale - remember the line the ghost tells Scrooge?: "Mankind is your business..."
Take care. Love, Sylvia