Motown Philly. (New Jersey)

Man, was this gig out of the way… we played in New Hampshire last night, and we play in Boston tomorrow night – and Philly’s a solid 6 hours each way. We’re pushing through the night to get back to the farm, and we should be in bed by 5am or so. We just got majorly lost trying to find I-95 in the Philly/Jersey area… ended up in a bit of the ‘hood somewhere near Trenton. We’re back on the right track now, but we killed an hour driving in circles. Bummer.

All of that said, it was well worth the trip. We had a fantastic time in the city of fraternal hugs. Some old friends of mine and Beers’ came out to the show, and the rest of the room was filled with Philadelphians who had no idea who we were… but at the end of the night they were telling us that we “should have played longer!” yadda yadda. Yet another crowd who digs the stuff. It’s nice to see that night after night. We’re all humble bastards and extremely critical of ourselves, but it’s nice to have that validation for sure.

I’ll post the setlist here when I get the recording back. I’m going to have a lot of Road Journal entries to update with setlist info when we get home.

The two highlights of the night (aside from the gig and friends):

1. We got to Philly early enough to walk around and see the city, and grab some dinner. We found a French restaurant after several blocks of wandering. The menu looked incredible and the place smelled even better than the menu read… so we decided to splurge and have the “celebratory dinner” of tour here (it wasn’t cheap). We ate one of the most filling and delicious meals we’ve ever had. It was authentic French food, starting with bowls of French onion soup all around, and some great wine and bread. The entrees included beef bourgogne for Jason, salmon in wine sauce for me, cassoulet (sausage stew) for Beers, filet mignon for Anton, and a pork shank for Fred. all of which could be cut with a fork and melted in the respective mouth of its consumer. Incredible. We got to see the city, walk off the meal, and return to the venue in great spirits.

2. If you scroll down and read the Road Journal entries from our shows in Chicago and New York City last April, you’ll learn about our incredible parking luck. It has continued on this tour. The streets of downtown Philadelphia (awww ya, Springsteen fans) are exceptionally narrow, most of them are one-way, and to drive by a single open parking spot is a rarity. We drove around for 40 minutes with no luck at all, narrowly avoiding cars parked on both sides of the streets with our trailer, and drawing funny looks from local pedestrians. We circled and circled until, magically, a parking spot opened up directly in front of the venue front door. As we need two spots for the van and trailer, Jason and Fred and I hopped out and stood in the empty parking spot, crossing our fingers that one of the cars on either side of us would open up. What was incredible was that we had several drivers pull up, roll down the passenger window, and ask us if we were saving the space. We’d say “yep,” and… they’d say, “okay,” and drive away. Holy CRAP. In Boston or New York we’d be run over. We couldn’t believe how nice these people were. After 15 minutes of holding the spot, a woman came out and moved her car from the spot behind us… TWO PARKING SPOTS directly in front of the venue front door in downtown Philly!! Woooo. Only challenge now was for Anton to circle the entire block and get back in time before someone mowed us down for trying to hold TWO spots. He made the full circle, and it took a few attempts at backing in (Anton’s trailer driving skills are top notch, but these streets were TIGHT and narrow). Again, we held up 20 cars in a SoundRabbit-created traffic jam in this street while attempting to park the rig, and there wasn’t one single beep. Not one car horn. It really IS the city of brotherly love!

All in all, another great night on tour. Made a bunch of new fans and friends, got to visit with some old friends, ate an incredible dinner, walked around a city we’ve never been to, and played a solid set of music. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday.

More tomorrow from New Hampshire after we sleep in a bit!