April 30 2006: Jason Anderson, Mount Eerie, Thanksgiving – Camp Stanica Lawn, Palmer MA

I’ve been to a lot of rock shows, but I’ve never been to one like this. In terms of rock show, this was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. In terms of sheer religious experience, this show was probably THE best I’ve ever seen. Really.

I was almost thinking about not going to this show, but then my coworker David said he’d be up for going and would even drive. And it was a beautiful sunny day and David brought some beer and we picked up another sixer on the way there and things were looking up before we even got onto the turnpike.

Upon arrival a couple of guys waved our car over and welcomed us to Camp Stanica. “Welcome to Camp Stanica! Just park over there.” We paid six dollars apiece into a jar on a card table. “Punk Show. $6” read the sign. We drank our beers at a picnic table by the lake. We shot the shit. The sun went down.

Thanksgiving played first. It was Adrian on guitar/vocals, Jason on bass, Phil on drums. Mount Eerie played second. It was Phil on guitar/vocals, Jason on bass, Adrian on drums. I will not try to write about the music of these groups. It was just too much. But try to picture this little three piece, ten feet away from the bonfire, tiny little PA, everybody just standing and rocking and rolling, no stage, no lights save the light in the bass drum and the fire, the stars overhead, a few beers in my belly, a few kids eating smores, etc. I called my buddy Ryan after Mount Eerie played and he said I sounded pretty stoned. I told him I wasn’t stoned, but that the music was getting me pretty fucking high. You know the way that “Universe Conclusion” sounds on the “Live in Japan” record? This show sounded like that, only better. You know how Neil Young sounds on “Tonight’s the Night” and just the whole general feel of that record? That’s what the combined back-to-back Thanksgiving/Mount Eerie sets felt like. Fucking amazing.

And the best was yet to come.

Jason Anderson starts out his set by yelling at everyone, “Hey! I know the fire’s warm but let’s head out into the field!,” and the crowd (maybe 50? 75 folks?) follows him a few hundred yards into this field where the stars are even brighter, everyone singing along with Jason the chorus of Pearl Jam’s “Alive” as we walk those few hundred yards. You know, the “whooooa-oh ooooooh-oh I’m still alive, yeah-e-yeah-ah I-high I-I I’m still alive” bit? Over and over. Until we’re in the middle of this field and we’re all surrounding Jason and it’s just him and his acoustic guitar and six strings and a strap and his fingers and a pick and his voice and our voices and such a beautiful sound was made. The next hour was a lot of call-and-response stuff interspersed with just outright singing along. A few songs were written on the spot with audience participation as a full-on songwriting collaborator with Jason. A few of Jason’s tunes were sung with the audience singing and dancing away. A few cover tunes, really epic stuff like “All Along the Watchtower” were sung and it was almost as if Jason were accompanying this mass choir singing spirituals rather than the other way around. It was perfect. I don’t know what else to say.

Long story short: the Thanksgiving/Mount Eerie sets were great. Jason Anderson could have told me to drink poisoned kool-aid and I would have. I don’t know what else to say.

April 26 2006: John Vanderslice, Page France – Iron Horse, Northampton MA

I almost didn’t go to this show just because I was pretty tired and cash is a little short and though I enjoy JV and all it’s not like I would kill for him or anything. I would have been entirely satisfied with the Bennington show, which I really only went to for the adventure and because I had nothing better to do with my Tuesday. But, as luck would have it, I figured why the hell not. And it turned out ok because I was able to talk my way through the doorman without paying the cover anyway.

And some good songs were played, pretty much the same stuff as in Bennington but in a different order, with a few songs added and a few songs subtracted, as could be expected. And it was fun, as could be expected. And for the quick pre-set soundcheck JV ran through a few lines of “I Miss the War,” which I haven’t heard since the first time I saw him play. So that was fun. And I finally saw a show here in Northampton after having lived here for over three months now, and I must say that seeing a show a half mile away from my house pretty much rules.

April 25 2006: John Vanderslice, Wooden Wand – Downstairs Café, Bennington College, Bennington VT

Had a couple of days without responsibility so I figured I’d hitchhike up to Bennington and catch me some live JV action. I’d never heard of Bennington College before and so it didn’t even cross my mind to wonder if it might literally be the most expensive institution of higher learning in the United States, which it in fact is. The things you learn while hiding out from security in men’s room stalls. Here, then, is a brief recap of my adventures from about 4pm (when I arrived on campus) to 9pm (when the Downstairs Café opened up and I was able to take refuge in its dark corners):

Upon arriving on campus I was a little hungry so I figured I’d give it a go at the all-you-can-eat-so-long-as-you’re-a-rich-white-student buffet. I failed. I was asked if I was checked in with security. I said of course I was. I was then asked to present my “campus pass.” I poorly lied, “Um, it’s back at the, um, place.” I was told I’d better get to the security desk right away because “I’m calling them to tell them about you right now.” So I went to the bathroom to hide out for a half hour until the initial heat died down (I could hear security outside asking people if they’d seen anyone matching my description), and then hid my backpack in the cupboard under a sink and went to lay low in the library until showtime.

The bands, I later learned, were stalled outside the gate by security for no less than two hours until it could be verified that they were in fact contracted to play a concert that night. And other fans who had come to campus to see the show had their IDs held by security until they left. Pretty crazy.

But! On the plus side it was a free show and Peter Hughes was there! The priceless moment of the show occurred when JV said, “We’d like to thank Peter Hughes for working the merch table for us tonight. Peter plays in my favorite band, the Mountain Goats” – and there is dead silence in the room for about five pregnant seconds, broken only by Peter giving a great big “WOOOOOOOOO!” from the back. And five songs from “Time Travel is Lonely” were played! I’d never seen “Do You Remember” played before, and hadn’t heard “My Old Flame” in over five years. Shit yeah!

April 3 2006: Ben Folds, Chris Mills – Hutchins Concert Hall, Maine Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono ME

Got off work Sunday afternoon with no need to be back until Thursday. It was sunny, I was itching to do something and skip some classes, and the internet told me that Ben Folds was playing 300 miles away in a state I’d never been in before. No brainer.

Well, sort of a no brainer. It’s not like I’m a huge Ben Folds fan these days, but the nostalgia factor combined with the sun and the prospects of a free gig and some hitchhiking won out over whatever it was that has caused me to skip Folds’ shows for the last 3.5 years. And I used to be a huge fan of his, but the solo records just don’t cut it with me. I pretty much went to this show strictly to see the oldies, and the older the better, and pretty sure that I would be met head-on with mostly new material and a bunch of kids screaming and dancing to it, only to sit down and look confused during “The Last Polka.”

But what the hell, it’s sunny.

And it was still sunny Monday morning when I got up, bright and early, and hit the road. En route to Orono I was given a beer, a blowjob offer from a middle-aged trucker from Missouri, a coupon for a free frozen pizza from a frozen pizza salesman, a few puffs of the marijuana, and a ride from a bored (and boring) local cop. Good times. And as it was getting dark I was in Bangor ME on the interstate, five miles south of Orono, when a couple of students picked me up and asked if I liked Ben Folds. They were headed straight to the show.

Got a free ticket from someone who had an extra and went to sit down. The opener was competent, and then Folds gets up and starts in with “Give Judy My Notice,” which is off the last release of his I ever bought, an EP from a couple years ago. Then he played lots of new songs that I didn’t know and lots of songs from his first solo record, which the kids screamed for like I used to scream for “Uncle Walter.” The show was kind of cool, however, if only for the fact that I hadn’t seen Folds play with a trio since 1999, back when he was playing with that Trio of All Trios. And so tunes like “Army” and “One Angry Dwarf” were pretty cool to hear again with the full band. And they played “Theme from Dr. Pyser,” which satisfied my one simple hope that I see just one Five song I’d not seen live before. And then he didn’t close with “Song for the Dumped” – in fact, it wasn’t even played at all. Times have changed.

And on the way back home the next day this dude who delivers magazines to gas stations asks me if I like magazines. “uh, sure, I guess,” I respond, and he slides over a copy of Hustler for me. With free DVD featuring “three girls from the pages of Hustler in uncut hardcore scenes.” That shit totally makes up for all those people not picking me up and all the snow and wind and rain that replaced my sun.