Are You Dave?

The Fuzzy Lemons have long spoken of getting involved with schools, visiting classrooms and that sort of thing. Playing for HOPES is a good start, and now we have an “in” with the Jersey City school system as well. A Hoboken dad works as a social worker over there, and passed our CD along to his boss when they were looking for entertainment for a school event.

Thus we found ourselves rockin’ the pre-K crowd on a warm Wednesday night in Jersey City Heights. Middle School #7, despite its unimaginative name, is an impressive facility, with halls adorned with student art made from all manner of recycled material. And the crowd that gathered was as enthusiastic and energetic as any we’d seen. They definitely made the best “train” ever when we performed “Don’t'cha Wanna Ride?” and I caught a whole lot of people joining in on the singalongs like “Skunks in my Shoes.”

This was our first of many gigs performing our “Wild City Safari” set, with the goal of perfecting it for the upcoming Bronx Zoo weekend. We want to have the songs perfected, of course, but we also want to have the spaces between the songs perfected: the transitions, the patter, the banter, etc. So far so good!

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!