Are You Dave?

Hoboken’s “Summer Enchanted Evenings” program brings great music to town all summer long. I’m scheduled to perform in a total of five shows for the town this summer!

Tuesday nights are Family Fun Nights at the Shipyard, the big complex of high-rise apartments on the northeast end of town. Shipyard Park is a little grassy quad overlooking the Hudson River, with a nice fountain in the middle and an open-air stage on the western end.  The Family Fun series has featured all kinds of acts, from Rebecca Frezza to Princes Katie & Racer Steve. Now we’re proud to say that the Fuzzy Lemons have joined those illustrious ranks.

This was our first gig with the town since the May Arts & Music Fest. Since then, Geri has hired a new sound guy, Scott Altizio, who also works at Water Music, Hoboken’s big-deal recording studio. He’s another young hipster, a worthy successor to Scott Wiener, who has since gone on to run a pizza-tour company.

There were the usual delays with set-up—it’s a rough job, unpacking and building a sound system, then setting up and sound-checking a six-piece band, all in about 90 minutes. Scott and his crew did a great job, considering that he was still familiarizing himself with the gear.

While the band waited we mingled with or crowd. The Shipyard shows are great because EVERYONE comes out, the whole quad from the fountain to the stage is covered with picnicking families. Kids are running and shrieking everywhere, with parents making half-hearted attempts to chase them between bites of Uptown Pizza. It’s festive.

I think the show itself went great. On stage we wrestled each other for more mix in the monitors, a common struggle, but as a band we’ve rehearsed often enough that we’re comfortable performing our material even when we’re not 100% happy with the gear. I think that’s a real sign of maturity. In fact I’ve never seen any evidence of “Spinal Tap”-style drama relating to equipment or scenery (but that may change this fall, as we’re starting to talk about getting a big backdrop to take around to shows).

People are starting to come up after shows and ask for CDs. Our home-recording project is in full swing but we have a long ways to go. Our goal is to have a CD ready for the big Tenafly gig in September (on the theory that we can ALWAYS sell CDs in Hoboken, but we may only get one shot to do so at the big JCC up the Hudson). Watch this space for details.

Meanwhile, I’ll be back at the Shipyard in 2 weeks with Music Together, see you then!
Dave

My first gig of 2008 was at the Hoboken Family Alliance’s Cabin Fever event at the Elks Club. I’ve played there the last three (?) years as part of the Music Together ensemble, alongside my fellow teachers (including Lisa, Marina, Pete, Catherine, Joi and John, among others). But for whatever reason, we couldn’t rouse a contingent of teachers to put together a show this year. 

Along came Kipley Wentz, musician and puppetmaster, who was also on the HFA’s list of invited entertainers. He and Dana Harrison (who teaches a class called Musicology in town) had already written and performed some songs together, and they invited me to sit down with them at the Frozen Monkey one rainy winter afternoon to talk about the possibility of joining forces. We agreed that, rather than fighting for space at Cabin Fever, a Musical Summit was called for, a meeting of Hoboken’s many and varied kiddie entertainers. We put out the invitation to all of the Music Together teachers, as well as Adam from Music for Aardvarks, Karen Kuhl, Sally Robertson and others. 

We wound up with myself, Kipley, Dana, and Maiken DuBois, who had been performing puppet shows with Kipley and on her own. My memories are hazy, but I recall them coming over to my tiny apartment for a couple of rehearsals, where we recorded Dana and Kipley singing their original tunes and I taught them “Skunks in My Shoes,” at the time my only original composition for kids. Kipley thought he might play bass guitar, since Dana and I both play guitar and we had no bassist. That sounded fine to me until he called a couple of days later and asked if I could recommend a good learn-to-play-the-bass book.

I gave the recordings to my friend Justin Michael and invited him to sit in on bass instead. Justin and I have been playing together in church for a few years now. I think he only had a couple of weeks before the gig to get caught up, but it’s not like we had a huge head start over him.

The HFA billed us at Cabin Fever as “Kipley, Dana and Dave,” but truly the Fuzzy Lemons had been born by then, and this was our inaugural gig. I got to the Elks Club with about 5 minutes to spare–I was doing a birthday party in Weehawken before the show (something that will constantly dog most of the Lemons as we try to book gigs around our party schedules); big thanks to Shana Lee for the ride back to Hoboken! Ken Chen’s fabulous photos of the event reveal that I still have my earmuffs stuck up on my hat–I didn’t even have time to take them off before we started. Later I asked Justin why he didn’t tell me they were up there and he said “I though they were there on purpose, that’s part of your look!” Looking back now I think that’s a cool idea, but I’d have to get myself some big funny fluffy earmuffs. Back then I was just embarrassed and annoyed. 

The Fuzzy Lemons debut at the Hoboken Elks Club, Sunday, February 10, 2008

Big ups, by the way, to Justin and to Scott Weiner for setting up all the gear. Scott’s been doing sound for the town for a long time, and he’s always friendly and professional. He has since moved on to other things, but he still hangs out at shows; it’s always good to see him. And Justin is used to being my guitar tech; he’s helped me out the last 2 summers at Gordys concerts (The Gordys rewarded him this year by making him their bass player–I’ll post all about that at a later date).

After the gig, the band’s e-mails started flying (we’re notorious with the e-mail). Kipley wrote:

Great job today, guys. I had a lot of fun and from what I can tell we all received great feedback. I certainly got some great comments and I guess when we listen to the recording it’ll be clear what worked and needs work. For me, it’s going to take some getting used to… it always sounds and feels so much different when we perform than it did in practice.

And Dana chimed in:

I had a blast today too.  I need a tambourine 101 class though.  I have a NASTY 2×4 inch bruise on my right leg. 

No victory comes without its scars. Overall I think we did just fine for a first gig–lots of mistakes, technical issues, and the town almost NEVER provides enough monitors (those are speakers pointed at the band instead of the audience, enabling us to hear ourselves and each other over the din!). You’ll notice in Ken Chen’s photo that not one of us is making eye contact with the audience. Or smiling. We had a long way to go in the audience-interaction department.

But the songs are great, we have a nice fat sound with multiple guitars, plus keyboards, horns and a mandolin, and lush 4-part harmony.  I think the audience had a good time, down there in the Elks’ basement. I really felt like, imperfect as it was, it was the birth of something new. The heart of the Fuzzy Lemons started beating that day.