Who ever thought up the old idiom of “not being able to see the forest through the trees” was certainly a wise one, indeed. There is something to be said about taking a step back….and then maybe not stepping at all for a while. To view the entire scope of what’s in front of you is not a quick process. It requires time…. stand still, no steps…… take it all in. I’m as guilty as any of forgetting to do that. Hell, I find myself forgetting to breathe sometimes. Here in AmityLand, we have watched the last five months fly by. We didn’t sit back and watch the days pass like train cars…. we were on the damn train, watching the world around us fade into the distance, while we just kept going. More states than you can count on your hands, more miles than you could ever keep track of, and more late nights than any person should ever endure in a 5 month period. Traveling as much as we have certainly accentuates the positive sides of proper rest and relaxation. On the inverse, the time we spend off…tightening up loose ends, relaxing, and practicing…… it gets us ready and willing to hit the road again.
We have been enjoying the last two weeks off. Max has been engineering sound, ensuring that it is suitable for human ears. Levin has been cultivating a future generation of budding musicians that will one day call him a “mentor”…. not too shabby. Lyon has been making sure that the good folks of the pioneer valley have proper attire for their outdoor expeditions, as well as editing audio files…. yea for TWO jobs!!!!….. right…………… Pete has been involved in extensive studies concerning the laws of physics and man’s reaction to said laws, as well as the recovery and rehabilitation process of the human body. Pete would like to thank everyone who participated in these case studies. I have been carpenteering and painting…. working to finish the final stage of a large remodeling project…. and trying not to injure my hands. Status: relatively successful. Though gigging may have subsided over the past several weeks, business has continued as usual, and we have prepared a summer schedule chock full of fun stuff.
For our local Pioneer Valley fans, June is the month….. well, at least the end of June is. On the 20th of June we are back at The Rendevouz in Turner’s Falls with our good friends, The Primate Fiasco. Built skinny and long, like an old honkey-tonk(and myself), The Rendevouz has a great aesthetic as well as great food and beer. A bit out of the way for those on the the NoHo side of the river, but definitely worth the drive. The 21st has us at The Taste of Amherst. Eclectic food, crafts, and of course, lots of music. On June 28th we are in Boston, back at The Lizard Lounge. We love The Lizard Lounge. We will be sharing the evening with The Prigs, as well as one more band TBA. For those Vermonsters up their who are upset with us for canceling our last Langdon Street gig…………we are sorry, we love you, Professor Pete was completing his dissertation on mankind’s inability to naturally induce flight. After extensive, hands-on research, we here on the faculty decided that Pete needed a sabbatical. July third, we’ll be back with you. Joining Bow Thayer and his band, we will help Montpelierians celebrate the day we broke away from an imperial super-power, so that we, someday, could form an imperial super-power of our own. August has us back in Vermont, as part of the NorthEast Kingdom Festival!!!! The first and the second of August, pick one………pick both…………..yeah…………………that’s right. On July 9th and 10th we are in NYC, at Spike Hill in Brooklyn, and The National Underground in the east village, respectively. Both bars are exceptionally cool. Spike Hill in Williamsburg has open air windows in the front. When it comes down to it, it’s damn near an open wall. The National Underground is brand new and has a focus on Americana, roots/rock acts. Our kinda place. July 25th, we are back home, Northampton, The Bishop’s Lounge. We cut our teeth there. It’s been a while, but we are excited to go back. Come join us.
Well….. that’s June and July. More to come concerning the latter half of the summer. Thanks for reading, be well, and travel safe.

Erik Alan
TAF

I forgot to say that our feature on the Billboard website is up and running. Just go to billboard.com and look at the videos section on the left side. We’re right between Brittany Spears and Lil Wayne (…seriously)

peace,

Lyon

This weekend TAF made another trip down to the southland. We played two shows (at Jack of the Wood in Asheville, NC, and at the River Rendezvous Climbing Fest in Fayetteville, WV). We played in front of big, loud, enthusiastic crowds both nights, and made many new friends.

Good old Ronnie Burgundy was good to us and decided not to break down. He got us to the gigs and survived the trials of those roller coasters they call roads in Western NC and WV. Asheville was lots of fun, nice people all over the place. That night we got to enjoy the comfort of a real home (courtesy of a very generous friend of a friend) before heading up to West Virginia for Saturday’s performance at the climbing fest. The drive into the venue was beautiful. We crossed New River Gorge over the longest single arch bridge in the western hemisphere. (The dorky Modern Marvels fan in me thought that was pretty cool.) The people running the festival were so nice and made us feel so welcome, making sure we had everything we needed. Free food and beer the whole time. They even went and found plates and cups for us, because we didn’t know it was BYO for sustainability’s sake. Saturday brought the first day of good weather to the climbers, so they were all pretty tired, but that didn’t stop them from partying. By 11, they were craving live music (instead of the techno and hip hop they’d been blasting over the system all day.) And so as soon as we hit the first note, they were dancing. During the second song, two girls rushed the stage, and were dancing around. Then one of them tried to strum Erik’s guitar while he was playing it, while the other grabbed Pete’s bass drum mic and started singing into it. She didn’t know the words, so all that came out was tone deaf LA la la LALA la… (Apparently, according to Curt the sound guy, one of them punched a friend of his after the other tried to pickpocket him, and they both ended up getting kicked out.) Anyway, people didn’t let up the whole time - We had a cut off time of 1:30, but they wouldn’t let us leave the stage, so we played three or more encores and finally stopped by 2 o’clock.

There was one mishap though, Pete gave you the low down already. Thanks goodness he’s ok, nothing broken, not even sprained. A bruised hip and femur and a hyper-extended finger. However it was enough for us to have to cancel the gig the next night in Thomas, WV. They were totally understanding, so we set out for home. And got back early this morning.

So there’s the story of the weekend. Thanks for tuning in.

Lyon

Well, our mini tour this weekend was a blast. I am happy to have made it through alive!

Late in the evening, after rocking the New River Rendezous (A climbers festival in West Virginia, I took a stroll into the dark of the woods. I then blindly stepped off a 13 foot cliff and landed on a rock. I found myself unable to move! I called Max, our bass player, who came and rescued me. It is all kind of a blur but I remember him dragging me up a hill and back to our van. I passed out hoping that when I awoke everything would be ok. It was not ok.

The next day I lay in the back of the van and so many people came to help me;
Erik sent for help - a park ranger cleaned me up and slinted me - Mora, a festival coordinator, mothered me with tylenol hugs and pillows - doctor kurt came gave an examination and referred me to the local hospital.

The band took me the hospital and wheeled me in on a chair. Thats lots of fun!
Then the hospital staff drugged me up :) As I lay dazed, in the ER, I thought of how lucky I was…

lucky to have not landed on my head
lucky I wasn’t dead
lucky thank Max was there for me
lucky that all the folks at the festival treated my with hospitality
lucky that the doc was on call
lucky I didn’t break a bone at all
lucky that all this love found me
lucky that the X-ray girl was cute as could be
lucky that if I had died, at least I got to rock out one more time
lucky that there is a girl waiting back home for me and shes mine

I’ll back on my feet soon and drumming again…   ~Petey~

Beautiful time of year to be out traveling this country, especially through the smoky mountains. We have been playing down in western N.C. the past few days. This area of the country is a spectacular place, it actually reminds me a lot of home. We have much of the same foliage and the mountains are twisted and gnarled just like the ones up in the North East. The Appalachian ridge lines are just a little grander in N.C. with a sweet hazy mist, that in late April carries the heavy scent of recently sprung flowers.

******A word to all travelers, especially musicians, traveling through Asheville or Black Mountain area. We found great accommodations at a place called The Mountain Getaway (828) 669-2202. They only have three rooms (sleeps 8), all well priced, in a scenic/secluded area, with no sound curfew, a 7 person hot tub (outside), and a beautiful deck with a sweet grill. We stayed there for two nights and it was like a musicians retreat, they even had rocking chairs with no arms (you guitar players know how cool that is). They really had it all.*********

Every time we go out of the North East I remember that the road can be a tough place. On this trip the gas prices shot up to $3.50 a gallon, people’s wallets are a little thin, times are tight for everyone in the U.S.A. But as our band grows we get to see the same parts of the country again and again; with the hopes that each time we make a few more friends along the way. You know we always do and I guess that is why we keep doing it. This was our 2nd of 4 trips that we will be making to the Asheville area in Spring 2008.

Friday we played the Town Pump in Black Mountain. We played well, the room sounds pretty good; but there was on average about 25 people in the room throughout the evening. That sure felt like a long way away from our sold-out Iron Horse show back at the end of March. But if you can get those 25 people dancing you know that atleast we are doing something right. Saturday we played at Warren Wilson College for their Earth Day Celebration….. And here we are driving to Ohio to play at Wesleyan for another Spring Fling.

We got some new pix on the myspace page, click the link on the right —–>

Talk to you soon, much love. TAF