Are You Dave?

Tags: 6th Ward Block Association, Blue Number Nine, Church Square Park, Dave Entwistle, facebook, Geri Fallo, Jessica and Eric, Jessie and Jeff, Marco Accattatis, O'Nieals, Stefanie Seskin

The following is not a Gig Diary. It’s a bit of a vent leading up to a Gig Diary. You may want to skip it.

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We’ve got to buy a P.A. That’s all there is to it. 

We’ve had a great summer, lots of outdoor shows all over Hoboken. The big wrap-up was at Church Square Park, smack in the middle of town, on Wednesday August 27. I’ll blog about the show itself in the next Gig Diary. But there was a lot of other stuff that went on that I’ll complain about here.

This show was Justin’s baby, he came to us in early May with the offer from the city and O’Nieals Bar & Restaurant to do one of the Wednesday night shows in the gazebo. The city would provide the location and the electricity, the bar would provide equipment and a meal, and we’d provide the music. “Heck yes,” said the Lemons. We were originally scheduled to play in early July. But some weather-related postponements pushed us back to August 27, and so the show became our summer swan song.

I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes things that Justin worked with O’Nieals, but I do know that Jesse (the manager) and her husband Jeff (the bouncer) are close friends with Justin and his wife (and Jeff plays drums for us at HEFC some Sunday mornings). When it turned out that O’Nieals wasn’t able to provide much in the way of equipment, I lay none of the blame on any of the parties mentioned above. I just wish we’d known in advance. Justin texted me at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday to say we had no P.A. gear for a Wednesday gig–not an auspicious way to prepare for a show!

It was frantic phone-call time. Justin tracked down a guy who could provide a P.A. for $325, but that would have eaten up our entire stipend from O’Nieals, and it would mean that we had to use that guy for sound, not our hero Dave Entwistle. I told Jay-Money to wait while I made another call.

Fortunately, my dear friends Stefanie and Marco of Blue Number Nine were able to help us out. A quick check of Facebook confirmed that they were home from their extensive midwestern tour, so I gave ‘em a shout. Lo and behold, they had a bunch of PA gear sitting in their basement and they were happy to share it. All they asked in return was that I put in a good word with Geri Fallo at City Hall. I’d LOVE to see Blue Number Nine play in Hoboken next summer! Geri are you listening?

Justin and I decided that the rest of the band didn’t need to be dragged into the equipment drama. It’s possible that some of the Lemons will read about it here for the first time. Hi guys! Some decisions require the whole band’s approval, but a fire-fighting situation like this would have just spread panic throughout the band, most likely (Dana thanked us the next day for not telling her that night). I’m pleased to say Justin and I handled it… though it was a close thing.

I woke up Wednesday thinking we were probably 90% covered, equipment-wise; close enough for a gazebo gig, right? Between Blue Number Nine’s gear, some stuff from O’Nieal’s, and our own gear borrowed from our rehearsal space, Justin and I figured we had assembled a pretty good Frankenstein’s Monster of a P.A.

But first we had to get the gear to the stage, hook it up and turn it on. Never as easy as it sounds.

The fun started when Dana drove us up the hill to Stefanie and Marco’s place, only to find an empty house. I almost gave up at that point, ringing their doorbell and re-dialing their phone. But Marco showed up only a few minutes later, toting a replacement bulb for his kitchen ceiling. We were back on the road with an SUV full of gear in no time, and in fact we were back in Hoboken before 5:00.

We unloaded quickly, and Dana and Justin headed off to our rehearsal space to grab the rest of our gear while I started assembling the PA. They were back quickly, and the rest of the band showed up, but by then the next problem had presented itself: No electricity. There are outlets in the gazebo, situated WAY high up near the ceiling, but they weren’t “hot.” Frantic calls to city hall turned up a park worker named Louie (thank you Louie!) who was more than happy to turn the lights and juice on for us.

Meanwhile, no one at O’Nieals had any inkling that they were supposed to be hooking us up with gear for a show that night. In fact one staffer said “No, the live music is on Tuesdays.”

At this point I was stunned. The gig had been on the calendar for months, yet no one seemed to have any clue whatsoever that a band was scheduled to perform in the park that night. Looking back, I have a theory. We showed up before 5:00 for a 7:00 show, and I just think no one was prepared. The proper folks were all happy to help us out, but they didn’t start arriving on the scene until after 6:00. Once Jessie and her helpful crew arrived, things just started rolling. She’s the kind of person who says “no problem!” to just about anything you could ask. Tape? Equipment? A basket of fries and chicken fingers? No problem! And of course Dave Entwistle showed up promptly at 5:30 and got right to work, which is always reassuring.

Ok, that’s the end of my rant and the beginning of the happy part. The official Gig Diary — you know, about the gig itself — will be in the next post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Hoboken, Rants, The Fuzzy Lemons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.