9/5/09 moe.down, Turin, NY

The trek out to moe.down in upstate New York started out with kind of a stress. Two nights before the show as we were loading up our gear, we find that our van's "Check Engine" light was on once again (see posting from the 8/12/09 show for the previous hellish encounter with this pesky light). Not wanting to drive 1,500 miles round trip with a potential serious problem, we took the van into the shop the next morning. A day's work turned into a day-and-half's work, and Friday's departure time got pushed back a good four hours.

The van was in good shape though, and we hauled ass out to New York, arriving at our hotel well after 3am. We would have to depart the next day by 9:30am to make the rest of the drive and arrive at the festival in time for our noon set, so we were less than happy campers about the lack of sleep, but glad to have made the drive without incident.

Saturday's weather was gorgeous, and festival grounds were set in the mountains, with a chill vibe all around. The "second stage" that we were playing on was actually not too shabby, and was of decent size with killer sound. We were all a little groggy though: While setting up, I thought my amp was broken, but it turned out just not to be plugged in; Mattias and Jordan both had mid-show brain farts with Mattias counting off the wrong song, and Jordan blowing the chords in another; and Adam openly admitted to momentarily falling asleep during the set.

But despite the lack of sleep, we played 2 great sets to a surprisingly big crowd for that early in the afternoon, and received tons of great feedback as we hung out at the festival the rest of the day. Even though we were far from home, it was nice to hear folks calling out song requests during the set and meeting fans afterwards who had seen us at Summer Camp or on our past tours through the Northeast.

The festival also had awesome hospitality, with great a great vegetarian spread, and extras like fresh squeezed orange juice and a secret freezer full of fudgesicles. I was once again the driver at the end of the night, so the rest of the band was obligated to get super drunk, especially Adam, who was in rare form.

Thanks to moe. for an awesome festival, and we hope to be back in future years!

4/18/09 BB King's, New York, NY

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We set off from Fairfield at the totally reasonable hour of noon and headed into NYC. We arrived into the clusterf*ck that is Times Square, and while the crew loaded in, I set off to find myself some New York pizza....of course preceded by plenty of whining that I was hungry and wanted some pizza. It was a nice day and the streets were bustling with tourists, but I weaved my way through the madness and found a family-owned pizza joint just around the corner and dropped $3 on a slice.

I had plenty of time to kill before soundcheck, but I had enough of the busy city streets with my pizza run and decided to just chill at BB's until go time.

Soundcheck was brief but entertaining, with Steve's 5-year-old son, Skyler, joining in the jams with a shaker and some killer dance moves. Watch out for this kid; he's gonna be the most famous Kimock yet!

We had dinner at BB's, and I got an insane amount of mac 'n' cheese, sauteed veggies, and a baked potato. Doctor Lora was on hand with Chocolate Pomegranates, so I was happy and fed.

The show was a marathon 2+ hour set with no break. We played a pretty cool "It's Up to You" and a cookin' "Hillbillies on PCP." We walked off stage not planning on doing an encore but the crowd wouldn't let up. The final test was throwing Steve's hat out onstage from backstage, and the crowd went wild, so we returned to the stage with "Slow Down" and then called it a night.

After the show, I got to hang out with Margie, my old college roommate, and to meet her new boyfriend, Dennis. Both were sufficiently toasted from several buckets of Coors, and we had a good time catching up.

Loading out was insane as Times Square at 11pm on a Saturday night was even crazier than in the afternoon. Although I could barely even tell that it was nighttime as the lights from the buildings cast an eerie daytime-ish glow over the entire block.

The bus finally rolled out and we trekked our way back to the Comfort Inn in Bethlehem to crash for the night.