Summary for day off and show in Annopolis, MD @ the Rams Head.

Yesterday we had a relaxing time in Annopolis, MD. The weather here (and everywhere else we’ve been) has been surprisingly sweet and the horns got to cruise around the area checking out the local vibes. Rich and I went to Buddy’s, a seafood boil place on the main street. We chowed on Blue Crab and a wide assortment of clams, mussels, crawfish and shrimp. yes. Also the walk on the dock down where all the boats are was out of hand! We saw some crazy yachts and boats that I thought only existed for the filming of Miami Vice.

Our performance tonight was slammin I thought. The sound system was good, Thomas continued to add more parts to his beats and the computer/samplers ran way smooth. The set was tight and all around one of our best yet. Thomas told some funny new stories the last few nights - we always love to hear those.

A minor complaint about the Ram’s Head was the “No Dancing” signs placed on each table all over the venue. I can understand why you wouldn’t want folks dancing at an acoustic jazz concert maybe, but at a Thomas Dolby show it is a strange rule. aside form that the Ram is a great spot and treated us very well.

After the show we asked if anything was happening round town and the bartender said “downstairs is a great guitar player!”Since that meant free drinks for us still, we decided to check it out rather than going elsewhere. The guitar player was KILLER - Kajun Kelley was rockin this tiny little bar underneath ram’s Head (I think it’s the rams Head Tavern) and there was a fun group of folks down there. Kelley was taking the most random requests - When i first walked in the bar someone was yelling out for him to play some Thomas Dolby, because Thomas had just played upstairs. Kelley tried to think of some Dolby hits and went into the synth melody from “Science”. He weaved his way into a really funky acoustic guitar duo of Science complete with completely faked lyrics that were actually pretty good! When he finished the tune I gave him a standing ovation and he asked me who I was - He felt kinda embarassed when i told him i was in the band! I explained that the cover was in good spirit and it was awesome. Anyway, as the night progressed the horns had a really fun jam session with Kelley and his bass player on Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” (this time in Bb for all u nerds) and then later on a Blind Melon song medley into “Tequila” salsa jam. That was a lot of fun. Also we met some great new friends who actually went and got sushi somewhere in the middle of all that and we straight CHOWED right there in the middle of the bar; it was the BEST fried tofu sushi we’ve ever had. ridiculous goodness.

Last night we rocked BB King’s club in New York City. It was a nearly full house (it holds 500+ people) and considering this was a Tuesday night that was a great turnout. The sound system was great, the staff was really helpful and it’s located a few blocks from Times Square. I got up “early” (10am haha) and hit the pavement, walking from 33rd and 8th ave up to broadway and 60th - then cruised over to Central Park South. The weather by this point was simply perfect - 70 something degrees, sunny and with fall just starting to kick in it was a perfect end of summer experience for me. I walked back to the venue (which is on 42nd) via 5th ave - WOW saw some amazingly beautifully bequilingly foxy mama mamas on that street. Way out of my league. I managed to somehow only spend $60 with all that time to kill, I don’t know how I did it!

The show itself was full of energy from the audience, even though it was a completely sit down venue, the crowd was responsive and reacted with good vibes during songs to solos, melodies and all sorts of little “Dolby-isms”. The set is getting really tight now and musically was probably the best last night in NYC. I have to say that I really do prefer having at least a small dance section in the front area of the stage for people to groove if they want but it’s cool either way. Some venues just aren’t set up for that type of rambunctiousness. One of the highlights for me was that we finally nailed Thomas’ hit song “Hyperactive”. For some reason that song, which we only play a few notes plus some solos, has been the hardest one to play right! It all came together last night, Thomas and Rich were singing together and Rich was wailing! Nice.

We had one of our craziest backstage afterparties yet, complete with broken bottles and beer spills, a giant bottle of Jameson and plenty of meeting and greeting. I was excited to get to hang out with TED director Chris Anderson.

After the show we met up with friends and family from NYC and went to a nearby bar which if I could remember I would say the name was Ruby’s on 44th and something. The place smelled terrible and the booths were completely covered in duct tape to hold them together; add to that $2.50 PBRs and free hot dogs and you’ve got our kinda place! Special shout out to Joe’s college buddy Matt Henkle we got to catch up with - Matt is a great drummer who plays with Blue Man Group here in NYC. We’re hoping to get to check out the Blue Man show when we are back in NYC this Sunday, Sept 23rd.

We somehow made it back to the bus, all at least an hour late but since we were ALL late, including Jeff, our tour manager, nobody got left behind. I guess we are all on the same page!

Today we have the day off in Annopolis, Maryland. I’ve never been here before. Rich said they have incredible yummy blue crab here for cheap, so being the seafood freaks he and I are, we will embark on a mission for that scumptious fare momentarily. maybe we can find a bar or something later. Actually, no drinking tonight sounds better, maybe a movie instead.

Today was a lazy Sunday and we woke up in Massachussets, after heavy sleep due to our actions last night in Pittsburgh. The venue we played tonight in Northampton is called Iron Horse, which is a legendary place.Wynton Marsalis played there last week and there’s all sorts of great bands that play there in the period of a month. The town itself is a trip cause it’s almost all women - there are three all girls colleges there. Most of the gals didn’t give us horn players the time of day and were more interested in their girlfriends but it was fun to walk around and attempt to flirt. The crowd was good at the show, not too rambunctious but polite and respectful, definitely not as crazy as our show the previous night in Pittsburgh - but tonite was also a Sunday night. One of the highlights was Thomas’ tune “One of our submarines” which he did an impromptu remix of because he was missing most of the drum and bass tracks from it; the tune came out sounding really hip and modern. Sometimes accidents happen and breed new ideas, that was definitely one of those accidents. Also, speaking of accidents, there was something wrong at the beginning of “Science” so the horns went on a “requests” journey, doing a mash up of “Frankenstein” and “I Wish” with Rich singing and giving the audience a nice surprise for the people. We segued right back into Science which was fun.

Just got back to the hotel and were able to sneak into the indoor pool - it was so warm and awesome. Rich did a belly flop so big and loud that the security must have heard it from the other side of the hotel and we were busted.