Cup and Top Recap - September 16, 2006

I was going to start this off by saying that we are huge with the two to four year old crowd. But honestly, its more like we are tolerated by the two to four year old crowd.

On Saturday, I woke up earlier than I do on a normal weekeday to pack up the car for our crazy ten-in-the-morning public livingroom concert at the Cup and Top in Florence, MA. The Cup and Top is a nice lil cafe that just happens to have a room in the back for toddlers and their coffee carrying parents. Somehow we got a gig playing there for this crowd.

"Oh Max, oh Tony", I said. "Please show me the way into the hearts of these tiny children."

I arrived at the venue after stopping at a classic tag/garage/yard sale and finding a five dollar vintage leather jacket. The morning was beeeautiful. It was summer returned, hot and sunny and clear. I felt like I was on tour in the south. I was a bit tired and I hadn't eaten, my head was slightly swimming in that chaotic tour way and the weather was removed from the preceding week, which made it seem as though we had travelled somewhere warmer.

Inside the cafe it was a maze of activity as we brought in the guitars and stuff through the throngs of miniatures. We set up as squished into the corner as we could. Brian sat in front of the three foot high coat rack full of tiny fireman costumes. Max was pressed back against a brightly decorated white board.

We played this show as we would one of our famous livingroom concerts; with no amplification for the voices. No microphones. I just sang out into the room. It's a strange sensation, a bit uncomfortable. In this case it didn't matter so much since the words of our songs mean nothing to the post 2000's crowd. I may as well have been barking.

But it was fun and interesting and an experience. The highpoints of the show were when Brian played each of his drums individually in a super-short drum lesson format, and when Tony let the tiny fingers of the audeince strum his super-distorted and tremeloed guitar on Omnivore.

We played a real short set. Maybe 25 minutes. That was Max's idea and it was a great one. Thanks, Max.

Next thing I knew I was outside again in the Virginia-like weather and driving home. Who get's back from a rock show before noon? The crazy School for the Dead, that's who.