| Jan. 21st, 2004 @ 01:43 pm WKRP is NOT in Cincinnati, but other cool things are... |
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Current Mood:  bouncy
Whew....so my flight to Cincinnati left at 6am Friday morning. Now I could have taken a later flight, at a more humane hour, but I was determined to get on a plane whose overhead bins could accommodate my guitar. The things we musicians go through to keep our guitars with us... :)
The flight was nice and easy and a mere hour and 40 minutes. Grabbed my luggage from the baggage check (who cares if they lose my clothes!) and hopped in a taxi to suburban Kentucky, where I would spend the next 2 days with 3/4 the guys from Fizzgig.
Here I'd just like to say that these guys were the best hosts ever. Friendly, generous, smart and hella talented musicians to boot. Check them out at http://fizzgigonline.com. Met them and their manager, Tony, at the Indianapolis Music Conference, which really deserves it's own LJ entry, but that will have to wait for another time. :)
Fortunately, none of the guys were offended by my falling asleep on their couch for three hours almost immediately upon walking through the door. :) Later Evan drove me to Newport, where I walked around for a bit and had a way-too-big turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich in an Irish Pub. The background music consisted of traditional Irish and American popular country tunes, played in alternation. Yup. I was in Kentucky. :)
As it turned out, utterly by chance, Fizzgig and I were both slated to play at the Mad Frog later that night. It was really quiet at 9, so my set got pushed back to 10pm, which ended up being a great thing since there were a lot more people there by then. I was a little nervous when Bluf (http://blufmusic.tripod.com) sound-checked. They're a much harder band, and I new the last band of the evening, Arapyma (no website :( ), was a metal band--so I really didn't know how their crowds would react when this little chick with a guitar took the stage. As it turned out, though, they were an incredibly appreciative audience, and I enjoyed meeting and talking to folks throughout the night. Everybody I met out there was just so friendly and terrific--I don't think I can possibly say that enough. And the sound was fantastic! Unfortunately, I had to head home before hearing all of Arapyma's set. I was just exhausted by then, and knew I should get some rest for the following night.
And so the next day was Chicks Rock Fest (http://chicksrockfest.com). Garry drove me into Cincinnati and I checked in at the Cavern (http://thecaverncincinnati.com), where I'd be playing later that evening. There was time to spare so we went to the Barrel House (http://www.barrelhouse.com/, whose locally brewed beers I'd heard so much about. Having determined that I should treat myself to an authentic Barrel House experience, I ordered their sampler, which consists of 5 5oz. glasses of assorted beers. I suppose I had a very different idea of how much 5oz is. I expected 5 little dixie-cup-sized samples and instead 5 tall (albeit skinny) glasses were put in front of me. Boy did I feel silly with five glasses of beer in front of me! I tasted a little of each, drank a couple and called it a day. The clove and banana flavored Hocking Hills HefeWeizen was my fave....sometimes I'm such a damned girl! ;-)
Chicks Rock Fest was phenomenal!! Jem, the driving force behind the festival, was phenomenally organized, had a great crew of volunteers, and made sure the performers were treated really well. We had a green room, were fed, and each had a safe place to put our gear. They even found a keyboard for me to use. Again, great sound. Met more terrific people throughout the night, and got to hear some other incredible bands/artists, including Carol Plunk (http://carolplunk.com), The Locals (http://localsrock.com), Antara (http://weirdlittlegirl.com) and Emily Strand (http://emilystrand.com).
All in all it was a really fun trip, albeit somewhat exhausting. I flew back Sunday, and got home at a reasonable hour, despite some minor delays on account of all the ice and snow. I'm really looking forward to returning to Cincy in the future and hopefully making it a regular tour stop.
-AT
Beer Sampler at the Barrel House - a little more than I'd bargained for!
Cincinnati skyline taken from the KY side.
View from Newport, KY
Sure my name's a little mangled, but the billboard concept is still exciting. :) |
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