Tags: Dave Entwistle, Jersey City, Joan Jett, June-A-Palooza, Learning Community Charter School, Light Rail, Marafanyi
Finally, outdoor concert season begins! The Fuzzy Lemons kicked off the summer with a (short) road trip to Jersey City, for the Learning Community Charter School’s June-A-Palooza Street Fair at the Boys & Girls Club. It was a huge event, sprawling the entire length of the club’s block-long parking lot. The J.C. fire department was helping folks beat the heat by pumping a spray of water over shrieking kids; there was a long, long line of tables groaning with delicious ethnic foods; and music filled the air!
When I arrived via Light Rail, the awesome percussion group Marafanyi was putting on a spectacular display of drumming from around the world. After that, a favorite local band took the stage: The Black Pearls, a winsome foursome of hard-rockin’ 12-year-old girls. They closed with a smokin’ version of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” (which I’m sure they’ll drop from their set when they realize that the song is almost as old as their moms).
Kudos to the organizers for putting up a tent to provide shade for the band. Next year some shade for the audience would be awesome—standing around in a hot parking lot is usually what you do before you see a band.
Anyway, it was a fun set and a fun day. Dave Entwistle worked his usual magic, and I had a nice ride back to Hoboken with him on the Light Rail, chatting about life, the universe and everything.
A note about transportation: I’ve got a folding grocery cart—which I normally use for grocery runs since I don’t have a car—but I need it to haul my gear when the Lemons load Kipley and Dana’s vehicles up with the P.A. and drums and such. So if you see a musical hobo trundling his guitars in a pushcart through the streets of Hoboken, it’s just me on the way to a gig. I’m looking forward to the shows that the town runs (Kiddiepalooza, Shipyard Park) because we can use the town’s P.A. and I can fit my junk in Dana’s car!