Stereophile: With Sweat and Smiles and Kisses and Handshakes

At the show, there were—no kidding(!)—five people who came over and complimented me on this here blog. I was flattered. One was Josh Gladstone who said he was surprised to learn that he was the first to buy Todd’s At Work CD. And, patting his pant pocket, he added: “I’ve already got it in my iPod.” Another was Mike C., of Hoboken Rock City, who keeps a blog of his own and frequently sends out fun podcasts.

It was a pleasure to play with such talented and exciting bands—All Rattle & Dust and Overlord. “This is one show that I’m really happy to be a part of,” said our often phlegmatic singer, Jim Teacher.
“Yeah, me too,” I agreed.

Still, no matter how much I enjoy other bands, I cannot wait to take the stage. I’m almost always impatient before a show, feeling—when I’m on the floor—I’m on the wrong side of history.

It was around 11pm when we finally went on. Not too bad at all.

It’s really remarkable, and just pretty damn great, to be able to hear the crowd screaming above the noise on stage. And, when a song gets to those final few seconds of reverb and distortion, and that screaming just becomes louder, and the people out on the floor are calling out, “One more!” and “Two more!” and “Don’t ever stop!,” well, that just makes a band feel on top of the world. Thank you, friends.

We jumped off the stage at a little before midnight with sweat and smiles and kisses and handshakes. But, unfortunately, I was already thinking about the long train ride back to Bay Ridge. “The cats must be hungry,” I thought.

A cab ride from Maxwell’s back to the Hoboken PATH station was followed by a quick trip to 14th Street and 6th Avenue. From there, it was a cold breeze to Union Square, where I caught the N to 59th, and, finally, the R to 86th. Luckily, I fell into a bit of “good train kharma;” all of my trains were there waiting for me (almost kinda sorta), and I was back in Bay Ridge by 2am. Ugh. I don’t remember much of the ride itself. The spaces in between each stop were long blinks and strange faces. I was happy to leave the subway and enter the chilly air for the two-block walk to Wes’.

86th Street in Bay Ridge is not unlike Newark Avenue in Jersey City at that time of night—aside from some distant footsteps, it’s dead quiet, loosely littered, and anxious for daylight.

***

Tris took the picture of me and the Flying-V. I have no idea what I'm doing there. It kinda looks like I'm doing some sort of Joe Satriani finger-tapping trick, but that makes no sense at all because I don't even know how to do that stuff.

External Link

< Previous Post | Blog Home | Next Post >

Reader Comments

Posted 10/20/2005 at 19:10 — By Yazad

Hi Stephen, I think you are doing an awesome job with this blog. It's refreshing to read about the non-technical aspects of an audiophile's life (specially the music and day to day events). It adds a nice human touch. Keep it going.

Posted 10/20/2005 at 19:17 — By Stephen Mejias

Thank you so much, Yazad. I appreciate that. Adding a human touch is my goal, exactly. I'm glad to hear that you think I'm moving in the right direction.

Posted 10/25/2005 at 17:50 — By Rock

Rock on Stephen!

Posted 10/25/2005 at 18:47 — By andrew leonard

Way more metal than I would have expected.

Posted 10/25/2005 at 19:33 — By Rocker

The finger tapping looks pretty convincing (not that I know how to do it).

Posted 10/25/2005 at 22:909 — By Stephen Mejias

>That is a very nice turn of phrase! You should be very proud of that last sentance as it is poetic, descriptive, and has a nice melodic flow. It is the quality of writing in Stereophile that I look forward to each month! Thank you so much, David. I really put a lot of effort into achieving those qualities, so, yes - it does make me happy and proud to hear that you enjoyed it. Thank you.

Posted 10/25/2005 at 22:11 — By Stephen Mejias

Hey, thanks, Rock and Rocker, but - dudes - I'm totally not finger tapping. Seriously.

Posted 10/27/2005 at 17:10 — By eden

Leonya is right on, you *really* ought to have an RSS or XML or atom (or whatever) feed for this blog. I end up coming here and reading all the entries I've missed, which takes a while. If there was a feed, I could read them all the second after they are posted and keep up with you better. In a perfect world I guess.

Add Comment