CTP tour, Stop Five: Rodeo Bar, New York, NY

We hit the road Monday morning - Newark, DE to New York, NY - there was some debate as to where we should get breakfast, and we ended up at ... Waffle House ... YES! Funny enough, I never get the waffles at the ol' WH, but I do love the hash browns; Monday morning I got them scattered (the potatoes), smothered (onions), covered (cheese), and peppered (jalapenos) ... mmm mmm ... good! We didn't play any WH songs on the jukebox, but I think Grayson got a picture of the songlist and Chandler now has a new goal - somehow, we want to try to record a single that gets sent out to Waffle Houses! Anyone have any ideas/connections?

After breakfast, we had a fairly uneventful drive to New York ... that is, until we got close to New York City ... as it turns out, Bianca (our GPS unit) doesn't differentiate between Brooklyn and Manhattan when you tell her you're going to "New York, NY" ... and as a result there are two "376 3rd Ave" listings when you get to the address area ... the menu of addresses also included 3rd St's and 3rd Places, and as a result, the 2nd "3rd Ave" was on another page, so it wasn't obvious that there were 2 of them ... so we chose the first one, which was in ... yes .... Brooklyn. Fortunately, we had PLENTY of time, so it was just a minor inconvenience (and really, gave us something to giggle about) ... oh, and as a result of this error, we ended up coming into Manhattan over the Manhattan Bridge, which brought us up to Houston St ... so we just HAD to stop at Katz' Delicatessen, right?!?! Especially when there was a free parking spot on the same block as the deli! Mmm ... Katz' pastrami sandwich, half sour pickles, knish, and Dr Brown's black cherry.

New York on a Monday night - we really weren't sure what to expect. What we got was a really receptive club and audience - a few familiar faces in the audience, some we hadn't seen in years and from far away, and a bunch of new faces, many of whom even stayed into the wee hours of the night. The band was in rare form - we were feeling loose and playing tight - it was great stuff. Lots of "opa!"'s from the band as we channeled our greek friend from the night before (I may not have mentioned him yet - that's coming soon!).

During the break, a spanish speaker came up to me and told me how much he loved "Yo Tomo" ... he seemed to think Chandler's spanish was perfect, but I suspect he might've been a bit drunk. My voice was beginning to go - and I forgot to bring water up on stage - I actually squeaked on the first really high note of "I'm Chandler's Butterfly"! We got one of the best receptions ever for "Brown-Eyed Girl" - at one quiet point, right before the "shalalalalalala" section, I heard some guy saying "that's just harsh", and another guy up front was laughing throughout the entire thing. We played "Ronald" again - I think maybe it'll stay in the rotation, we'll see.

Tour premieres: "Air Running Backwards", "Bongo's Summer Cottage" (requested by Chandler's nephew Jeremey, partially played as an illustration of why we wouldn't do the whole thing), "You Asked I Came", "Milk Truck on Fire", "Fluffy" (finally - it's been on almost every setlist so far!), "Charlie's Prelude", "Dance School", "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Brooklyn Bridge", "Candle", and "Born Again" (which we did after Chandler started band introductions to the "Bob What's-Is-Name" bassline).

Here are the setlists [I'll update earlier show posts with setlists very soon, too]:
Set 1:

• This is Home
• We're From Fruitarama
• That's What She Said
• Softly in the Night
• King of the Road
• Air Running Backwards
• Bongo's Summer Cottage
• You Asked, I Came
• Milk Truck on Fire
• Fluffy
• Not Unhappy
• Sha La La (Lover's Heart)
• Two Cents Tops
• Charlie's Prelude
• Yo Tomo Mi Mano
• Broadway
• Crab Napkin

Set 2:

• (You & Me) Pushin' Up Daisies
• Dance School
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• She's Filthy
• Get Right Back Where We Started From
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Taoist Vacation With Mashenka
• Candle
• I'm Chandler's Butterfly
• Brown-Eyed Girl
• Mid-Morning in Moscow
• Ronald
• Vasco da Gama
• My Baby Likes to Boogaloo
• Nature Boy
• Born Again
• Bob What's-Is-Name

It was fantastic to see our friend Frank Goodman from Nashville - he happened to be in NYC, figured there was nothing to do on a Monday night but checked the listings anyway, and low-and-behold, there was a listing for us! This was his first time seeing the whole band, having only heard a skeleton crew in the past. We met Frank at the 2004 Folk Alliance conference in San Diego - he has a great ezine called Pure Music and is a talented singer and songwriter - we featured him on our "Love to Turn You On" page a while back.

After the show, we took it easy packing up - sold a few CDs, chatted with new and old friends - eventually, once we had the vans all packed up, we took a little break in the club, chatting with the Jack the booking agent about other NY state ideas and having a last drink of the tour (thanks for the scotch, Jack!). And then it was hugs on the sidewalk and into our vans for the drive home - the sun came up around Providence, RI and an hour & a half or so later, I was home. I'm happy to be home, but sad that we're not doing any shows for close to a month. Fortunately, I have the opening of the Wellfleet Beachcomber this weekend to keep me from being bored!

[Sorry for the delay posting this - after we drove back to the cape of cod, I got a little bit of sleep, but was mostly useless for the day.]