Are You Dave?

Last year Dana subscribed us to a service called Festivalnet.com, which lists street fairs and festivals and makes it easy for artists and performers to reach them. We dug through the listings and found that many of the festivals in NJ are booked by some of the same people. Some are booked by our good friends at This Is It! and some, like the Nutley Father’s Day Festival, are booked by JC Promotions. So we sent them our info and landed a couple of slots; we’re getting more and more out-of-town gigs, which is exciting.

The Nutley Father’s Day Festival rivaled Hoboken’s Art & Music Fest; block after block of food, art, and swag. The stage boasted a variety of acts, from local teen rockers to a soulful R&B group from Newark… and of course the Fuzzy Lemons. We were first up for the day, which of course meant a VERY early departure from Hoboken. We took a LONG time to get set up for some reason, I think because we were using someone else’s sound equipment and so we had to re-learn where everyone was plugged in. The band reached an important decision this morning: we ALWAYS bring our sound board and our snake — even if we’re just plugging that stuff into an existing PA — so we know where to plug in. Fortunately Dave Entwistle was along for the ride and worked his magic, as usual.

The show itself (the “Wild City Safari” set again, of course) went pretty well. The crowd was mostly passing through; while we had the luxury of performing on a shaded stage, the street in front of us was exposed to the merciless sun, and I don’t blame people for not lingering!

The folks from JC Promotions liked us, I think; we’re hoping to book more fun events with them.

Also, today kicks off a long week of gigs for me and another Week of Justin. What with six Lemons sets, plus a rehearsal before the big Gordys show on Thursday, I’m going to be hanging with Justin every night this week except Friday. He’s good company!

A typical week in the life of the Fuzzy Lemons can include anywhere from 75 to 200 e-mails. Buried in among the discussions of set lists, copyright issues, technology, marketing and general hoo-ha are actual announcements of gigs that we’ve booked.

In an effort to keep my schedule (and my head) straight, I’m trying to cull all of my events from the e-mail torrent and get them all listed in one location. And wow, turns out it’s quite a list:

• April 11 11:00 a.m. TFL @ The Knitting Factory, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• April 11 TFL @ Room 84 in Hoboken
• April 30 - May 2 Kindiefest (a cool conference I plan to attend, though I haven’t yet registered!)
• May 21 PENDING TFL @ Jersey City Family Fitness Fair (they haven’t returned our e-mail so we’re not holding our breath)
• May 22 11:00 a.m. TFL @ the Knitting factory
• May 22 HOPES Spring Fling, 7:00 at the Rue building
• May 23 PENDING Southpaw (A cool Bklyn alt-country bar)
• June 5 11:00 a.m. TFL @ the Knitting factory
• June 20 TFL @ Father’s Day festival in Nutley, NJ, time/stage TBA
• June 21 TFL at Make Music NY at Richard Tucker Square, NYC 4:00 p.m. (this is a cool city-wide music festival and we’re thrilled to be rocking this park on the Upper West Side!)
• June 22 TFL @ Shipyard Park, Hoboken 7:00
• June 24 Gordys at Sinatra Park, Hoboken
• June 26 & 27 TFL @ The Bronx Zoo!
• July 10 11:00 TFL @ The Knitting Factory
• July 27 Music Together at Shipyard Park
• August 8 TFL @ Rumson Recreation Ctr 7-8 p.m.
• August 9 TFL @ Waterside Plaza NYC 7:00 p.m. (pre-show for a movie night overlooking the East River, should be fun!)
• August 14 TFL @ Kids Kingdom, Elizabeth NJ (thanks to our friends at This Is It! Productions)
• August 22 PENDING Morristown
• September 11 and/or 12 TFL @ Union County MusicFest, Clark NJ (Psyched to do this festival again!)
• September 26 TFL @ Hoboken Art & Music Fest
• October 9 TFL @ Clearview Cinema Hoboken (rain date Oct 10)
• Oct 17 Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle

Whew! That’s a BUNCH of road trips around NJ, a crop of outdoor shows right here in Hoboken (a favorite), a mind-blowing conference with the biggest names in the business, and jaunts to Brooklyn, the Bronx and NYC. And we haven’t even booked our Knit gigs for the 2nd half of the year yet. I’m exhausted just thinking about it, and eager and excited to rock so many places. The week of June 20-27 promises to be extra crazy… and extra fun! See you there!

~ Dave