Hello America, Rob here.
Home again. We’re reaching the end of a wonderful 2010. Not just The Revivalists, but all of us. We’ve all had a good year. Go on, admit it. Looking back on the whole thing, 2010 was pretty cool. Sure, some bad stuff happened, but most of us are still here, stronger because we have been tested.
I’m getting all retrospective-y now because I’m not sure if I I’ll be able to Blog Wednesday next week. We’ll be making a short run through the Northeast leading up to a New Year’s Eve blowout in Andrew’s hometown, so my access to electronic communication might be limited. I’ll probably have time to get in a quick jab or two from the road, but I’m going to make it a point to promise not to promise you anything. What? Anyway, here are my five favorite memories from another wonderful year of being a music guy, followed by several honorable mentions:
1) Jazz Fest – Huge audience. Trailer. Backstage-plus-one. Craft services. Craft services! WE CALLED FREAKING CRAFT SERVICES AND THEY BROUGHT US FINGER SANDWICHES TELL ME THAT IS NOT COOL. Oh yeah, and we shared a stage with Joe Krown, Dr. John and the Black Crowes. Oh yeah, and burlesque dancers performed a routine with us onstage. Oh yeah, and some of the guys from the Rebirth Brass Band sat in with us. Oh yeah, and it was Jazz Fest. The only first Jazz Fest we’ll ever have. And we didn’t even suck. Golly.
2) Deluna Fest – Our early set at Pensacola’s inaugural three-day beach festival came at the end of an intense two-week run. Our previous show had only been about 14 hours ago, 4 of which were spent driving. The thing about touring is that you get super tight by the end of it because you’re all just playing every single night. By virtue of our raw notes, it could have been one of our best performances ever. On top of that, it was bolstered by Dave’s death-defying climb onto the stage’s scaffolding and an explosive cameo by Big Sam (which even caught us by surprise). The festival was great, too. Killer lineup, wonderful staff, even the weather was on our side. It’s not quite as much of a milestone as our first Jazz Fest, but, for my money, Deluna’s a no-brainer for number two.
3) Vital Signs Release Party – The culmination of, in retrospect, far too much work on our behalf, we released our first full-length album ever, “Vital Signs” at Blue Nile in New Orleans as part of the fledgling Foburg Festival (which, like Deluna, was a resounding success as far as first-year festivals go), and marked the occasion with a capacity crowd and a three-and-a-half hour set. Plus, some people form MTV were there…
4) The Real World: New Orleans- Those 15-30 seconds or so of our music interspersed with live footage and emotional voice-overs constitute the first time any of us have been on MTV (not counting the now-infamous clip of Zack at Spring Break ’02 in Miami). It was, in all likelihood, both the largest and least attentive audience we have ever had.
5) Red Dress Revival – This show takes the number five slot by virtue of sheer outrageousness, coming on the night of a 5k charity pub crawl/run where entrants of all genders are required to wear red dresses. Sometimes you don’t know you’re having a good night until a song or two into the set. For me, I knew we were good that night forty-five seconds into our first song, when I heard the drunk guy who had been heckling us because there were some technical issues during sound check turn to his friend and say, “worth the wait.” Plus, we were all wearing dresses.
Honorable mentions, in no particular order:
The Revivalists’ Beach Party Week – We started off our ambitious (by our standards) summer tour with a week in Florida. We’d made a bit of headway in Pensacola already, but it wasn’t until our weeklong stint as artists-in-residency (read: bar band) that we really connected with Pensacola. Now, it’s home away from home.
Almost Alice – You think you know what it’s like out there? You think you’ve been around the block? Think you’re hard? Have you ever opened for an Alice Cooper tribute band? No? Didn’t think so. You haven’t seen shit.
Halloween show at Blue Nile w/Big Sam’s Funky Nation – A pattern is beginning to emerge here, where every time we do something at Blue Nile it is awesome. I loved this show because I got to be a robot and I have always wanted to be a robot (just for a little while to see what it’s like).
Blazzue’s, Pensacola, November 11 – Hey that’s my birthday! And what’s that? I’m going to be playing a rock and roll show that night? In a bar? Gee, I sure hope I’m not tempted by the evils of alcohol! Seriously, I’m not sure this one technically counts as a “memory,” considering how little I remember. If anyone can tell me what happened to me that night, please don’t. I don’t ever want to know.
Closing for Papa Grows Funk at Fatty Arbuckle’s – During our repeated visits to Shreveport, we’ve been growing fond of all it has to offer (except for those goshdamned casinos). We thought we were accustomed to playing late nights Fatty’s, which is one of the few bars in Shreveport awesome enough to be allowed to stay open past curfew. But we’ve never played a show that started at 3:30 in the morning. And we never would have expected anyone to come out specifically to see us at such an ungodly hour. Shreveport’s just cool like that.
Banjocake – There was a cake. It was shaped like a banjo. LIKE A BANJO.
2nd Annual INExchange Ethical Fashion Show – I consider this show to mark one year of involvement with The Revivalists for me. That night, I couldn’t help but think of how far we had progressed as a band, how my role in the group had evolved from “that sax player, uh, whatsisname, Zack’s friend…” to a real live guy in a band, and how much of the road ahead we could see. Plus, this was when we debuted our cover of “Forgot About Dre,” which has since become a mainstay of our live shows.
I’m sure I left out a few gems, it’s hard to keep track of a year’s worth of nonsense in my head. If anyone can think of any glaring omissions, feel free to post them in the comments section. Anything that won’t ruin any of our future political careers will be posted.
Okay guys, that’s it! I may get really ambitious and try to do a “year in pictures” sort of thing when I get back to New Orleans (I don’t have everything on my netbook), but please remember that I consider picture-heavy blogs to be a pretty big hassle, and so instead of a photo retrospective, I might do nothing. Either way.
This may be the last Blog Wednesday of 2010! I hope the holidays find you well. Let’s all have a great week and a life-affirming 2011!
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Y’all are an amazing group. Ever since I met Dave and Zach years ago out front of an art gallery playing for passers by to that last show at the Blue Nile, love “Forgot about Dre.” I was at the Halloween show, and Saxbot 3000 was a hit!! Keep rocking into the New Year!! After the baby is born, the old lady will be back out to see you guys!! Take care!!
What? You didn’t mention that terrible sound system at the Howlin’ Wolf on 4th of July and getting to meet me? It’s just a good thing that I could hear something at all (a glimmer of true quality) to make me look you up on the internet when I got home…
Your Fan from WA
You know the Port will always support ya’ll! An it was so sublime to finally catch ya’ll play in the NOLA! Damn, good time!! I’ll have to get down that way more often this year. It’s funny, ya’ll keep me look’n like a fool all the time. Cuz, i stay Sing’n & Dance’n in the silence of the world, to the melodies floating in my head. See you on the 14th & Thanks For The Music!