Bury Me Standing at Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) on 4/7/11
Also on the bill: Brian Carpenter & The Confessions (view post)
View the full album here.
Brian Carpenter & The Confessions at Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) on 4/7/11
Also on the bill: Bury Me Standing (view post)
View the full album here.
Trabants at Boston Underground Film Festival opening night party at T.T. the Bear’s (Cambridge, MA) on 3/24/11
Also on the bill: Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band (view post)
View the full album here.
Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band at Boston Underground Film Festival opening night party at T.T. the Bear’s (Cambridge, MA) on 3/24/11
Also on the bill: Trabants (view post)
View the full album here.
On Saturday, February 26th, 2011, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library played our CD release show to a sold-out crowd at the 600 (I think)-person capacity Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA). I haven’t played for a crowd that size since the days of high school theater and district music festivals. Strangely, this wasn’t scary at all - just exciting!
Ryan Schmidt started off the night, we followed, then Endway played, and McAlister Drive finished, with some help from the Simmons Sirens.
When I joined MJEML waaaay back in…June, I definitely didn’t foresee a show of this magnitude happening so quickly (or at all, really). It wasn’t immediately clear that Michael’s vision would work out; we all came from very different musical backgrounds and I do remember leaving the first few rehearsals thinking, “Well, that was fun, but how’s this going to come together?”
Michael wasted no time in booking our first gig, and the pressure was on. We pulled through and kept moving forward. Being a part of this band has been full of wonderful surprises and opportunities, and I’m hoping things will continue along this path. But even if this is the peak of it all in terms of audience size/response and interest from people other than our mothers, it has been wonderful pretending to be a rock star for the last eight months! I’m so proud of the work we put into the recording, and to release it at such a great show was thrilling beyond expectations.
My boyfriend, Joel, shot this photo of me at the show, and I edited it. The full set of photos from the show is on Facebook and Flickr, whichever you prefer. (Hint: If you’re looking to download high res versions of anything, choose Flickr.)
Here’s the set list from the CD release show, in case you’re curious. We decided not to play our Nick Cave cover, The Weeping Song, a disappointing but probably-for-the-best decision. You can hear our recorded version here.
- Civil Engineering
- 4th Grade Book Report Blues
- Oh Emily
- Stranger
- Small Crack
- Every Time I Visit You, It Rains
- Holy Ghost
- Amylee
- Lymph Nodes
If you’d like to see us play, our next show is at Brighton Music Hall on April 20 with Neutral Uke Hotel (a ukulele-based tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) and Golden Bloom. It’s the kick-off to a week-long tour for all three bands, which leads me to another bit of news that I’m going to sneak in here even though this was meant to be a recap of the CD release show…
Golden Bloom is one of five finalists in a contest to have an upcoming tour “greened” by Reverb. If Golden Bloom wins, we’ll all get to tour in an environmentally friendly van, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. The contest is unfortunately voter-driven, so I’m going to awkwardly beg you just this once to vote for Golden Bloom here and help us make our (MJEML/Golden Bloom/Neutral Uke Hotel) tour “green.”
Music Tonight
Got plans for tonight? There’s a show I really, really want to go to, but I have a schedule conflict (a band photoshoot, which is also going to be pretty awesome!) Anyways, if you’re not busy tonight, I highly recommend checking out Cirkestra and Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band at Club Passim: Dueling Circus Bands. I’ll probably get out of the photoshoot early enough to catch most of the show, but I’ll be in full librarian garb, and I could really use a night off anyways. This week has just been non-stop events. All great stuff, but I’m tired!
I’ve seen both bands before (view my ENSMB posts here), and they’re SO much fun. No better way to spend a Thursday night!
Are you going to a show tonight? Performing in one?
