Are You Dave?

I’ve actually been in touch with Rocknoceros for about a year now, since my sister introduced me to them (she and her family are fans in the Rockno’s home state of Virginia). I met them face-to-face at Kindiefest and found them to be sweet fellows. Their albums are highly listenable.

Way back in the early summer, I got an e-mail from Rocknoceros’ booking guy. He said the band was going to be in Philly on Sept. 18th, and did I know of any gigs in our area on the 19th so they could make a mini-tour out of the weekend? It turns our the Lemons were booked at the Knitting Factory that day, so with the band’s approval I offered to share that slot with Coach, Boogie Woogie Benny and Willie Bob.

The Knitting Factory is so awesome, so technologically advanced, that they were able to accommodate two full bands on stage, at the same time, no problem (I’ve been in situations in the past where the headlining band gets a great mix and the other bands get the shaft). This gave me an idea: What song could we all perform together? A quick call to my sister revealed that “Yellow Submarine” was a popular favorite at Rocknoceros shows, so I mentioned it to Coach and the plan was hatched: When Rocknoceros finished their set, we’d join them on stage for an ensemble performance of the Beatles classic, “In the People’s Key of G” as Benny put it.

And whaddaya know, it worked! To my delight and surprise, things went pretty much exactly as planned. We had a decent crowd, including pretty much my entire family from CT and VA. Rocknoceros put on a great show (did I mention they’re really talented, friendly and entertaining?) and then we joined ‘em for “Yellow Submarine.” It was a wonderful moment and I hope it sounded as good to the audience as it felt on stage. My dad got it on video but I haven’t seen it yet.

Then after a few last-minute sound-check-type activities, we did our Fuzzy Lemons set. It was a full-on rockin’ 45 minutes, as always! Rob, the Knit’s sound guy, is crackerjack, we can always count on him to get the job done. We have a fairly new song, “The Firefly Song,” a lovely waltz in D that Kipley wrote, based on Eric Carle’s book The Very Lonely Firefly. It’s been really popular at shows and the audience really got into it today.

Afterwards, we broke for cupcakes (it was my nephew’s birthday) and went home! We’re in touch with Rocknoceros about sharing future gigs, watch this space for details.
~ Dave

UC MusicFest has been on the calendar for months, marked with a big red circle. This is a seriously cool show put on by This Is It! Productions, three stages, two days, and LOT of bands, rides and attractions. We did it last year and couldn’t wait to come back. These guys erect a huge stage and bring in an amazing sound crew, and DJ Mickey G is ever-present, keepin’ the party flowing between sets.

But not even the amazing crew at This Is It! could keep the rain away. It’s been a disappointing summer, weather-wise. Several of our big-deal gigs were rained out… including almost every Hoboken show we had planned! It wasn’t raining hard in Clark, just a drizzle by the time we were ready to take the stage, but it was enough to keep most of the audience home and dry.

Dana and I got there first; Justin and Brandon were driving the U-Haul and Kipley was driving himself to the show following another gig. She and I hung out under the audience awning with Matt Wilson and Stephanie Sine, whom we’d met in August at the Kids Kingdom show. We cheered for Matt & Stefanie’s Ultimate Rock’n'Roll show and had a mini drum-circle with the other This Is It! entertainers huddled with us under the tent. The guy who’d brought the drums (later introduced to me as Steve) was an amazing player with a wide variety of percussion instruments on and about his person. It’s been too long since I’ve done any cool drumming; I had a blast passing the time pounding away in the rain with him and the few kids who’d braved the weather.

When our turn came, it was still drizzling enough that Brandon was (justifiably) concerned about his drums. They’d already been doused with water twice this summer and he wasn’t very interested in a third soaking—especially for such a tiny audience. So we set up our gear but kept some tarps handy.

Sure enough, we were three songs in to our set and the drizzle hadn’t let up, so Brandon covered his drums and we did a few songs “au natural.” But I had an inspiration… the guy with the handdrums down in the tent was amazing, so I quickly suggested that Dj Mickey G invite him up to join us on stage. And soon he was there, hunkered down in a chair behind me (best seat in the house) and thumping away on his djembe. I dunno if he was good or if it’s just that Lemons’ songs are simple, but he clicked right in as if he’d been rehearsing with us for weeks. When the rains finally did mellow out, Brandon rejoined us and we had a full percussion section for the last few songs. Wow, it sounded amazing, I must say.

After the first set, Brandon and Steve talked drums for pretty much the entire break, and we invited him to sit in again for the second set. The rain ceased and families started to show up, and I think we put on a great show. Man, I wish we had a recording of it, Steve brought some really cool textures and grooves to our songs. And he was so mellow; afterwards he just ambled off with a wave. Gotta love a musician who lets his instrument do the talking.

Despite threatening grey skies, the weather held out and we had a lovely evening in Ridgewood at the Ben & Jerry’s. It was back-to-school night and the patio held a friendly crowd of families, with kids of all ages grooving to the band and enjoying their ice cream. It wasn’t our tightest gig, maybe, but we got good feedback from the audience and autographed a couple of CDs. Spencer was there with his family; we love seeing those familiar smiling faces. I’ll try to post pics when I can.

Up the street there was a classic car show, and Dave E. and I spent a half-hour drooling over all of the incredible machines before our set. Dave is a great guy to hang out with, he’s got a killer sense of humor and he knows everybody.

Today Brandon and I took our kids to Victorian Gardens in Central Park. As I clambered off one of the rides, I saw a woman with that look of recognition on her face. “Are you Dave?” she asked. Turns out her son is a friend of Spencer’s, and they’re big Lemons fans. In fact, she said she plans to see us at Ben & Jerry’s in Ridgewood tomorrow night!

It’s back-to-school time! Our old friends at All Saints Day School invited us back to help them celebrate at their big kick-off BBQ. We haven’t played for these guys since April of last year, but they always throw a great party and this was no exception. We played two 30-minute sets for the assembled throng, taking a break in between for burgers, dogs, cookies, brownies… in short, a delightful picnic on a gorgeous September evening!