The all-day Pagan Band Jam; or, "Witchapalooza"
The Open Hearth Foundation sponsors monthly Pagan Band Jams - free live music - usually one band at a time, but this time Shea went all out and put together a veritable Witchapalooza on Saturday at College Perk in College Park, MD. Fourteen hours of music. Bands who tour the Pagan Pride Day circuit up and down the East Coast got like an extra PPD this year, and this time, as the saying goes, it's all about the music. The lineup was: Claire, Mark Sylvester, Lauren Kendall, Kat Devlin, Scott Helland & The Traveling Band of Gypsy Nomads, DragonSong, Cassandra Syndrome, KIVA.
I missed the first two and the last one (being too tired out to stay there until 1 a.m.), and heard everyone in between. I got there in time to hear and belly dance to Lauren Kendall up from Richmond - I first saw her there at a PBJ last year. She plays piano and cello and sings, all 3 at once, accompanied by Blake Methena, her husband and dumbek drummer. She has two CDs out, go see her if you can, she travels up here to play several times a year. After her set she invited me to go shopping with her because there were lots of vendors out there. I got a gorgeous purple/blue/green/gray silk skirt from Vixenvisions, made of puckered silk so that Lauren liked how it clung and flattered my curves, light and airy like wearing nothing. :) It was affordable too. I also got beautiful handmade iridescent purple/black glass earrings made by Tina Van Pelt.
More friends I saw there included emcic, enlightened77, humanpacifier & idragosani, irenejericho & revelrain, ninthraven, odilla, quedishtu, and seer_eridanus. I was glad I finally got to talk with humanpacifier and make friends with her.
It was a pleasant hot afternoon drinking ice tea hanging out with Irene and the gang, occasionally dancing, mostly chilling. First time I'd seen Jay in a while--he has trimmed his hair moderately short and now looks more handsome than ever. The service at College Perk was really awesome, such hard working courteous people. Go give that place your business, they provide a lot to the community, they're good folks, and it's just a cool place to hang out. Irene told me Esoterica will have a new belly dance class soon, which was welcome news, I took a class with her there a couple years ago.
The next performance was Kat Devlin down from Brooklyn, NY, whose music moved me deeply. Just 1 woman+1 acoustic guitar. Her voice really is "pitch perfect" as her web site says. By the time she got to the first chorus in her passionate lesbian song "Touch of a Girl" I knew I was going to buy her CD. She had been added at the last minute, and I felt lucky to have found out about her. Hope she comes back around here soon. During Scott Helland's set, Samantha passed out percussion instruments into the audience for one song, and invited me to play her djembe. As a djembe lover, I was deeply honored. When they played percussion duets, they reminded me strongly of taiko drumming. When Samantha sang in French, I translated for Irene. Dragonsong's music got me dancing to "Mountain Song", couldn't resist.
But I saved my main dancing energy for the mighty music of Cassandra Syndrome. (Wikipedia: "The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to those whose predictions of doom are initially dismissed, but later turn out to be correct.") When Irene explained the band's name from the stage, and why they write dark songs of impending catastrophe, she added "We don't like the government." Big applause from everyone. Look what you done started, Dixie Chicks!
The band, with Jay on a state of the art electronic Zendrum, plays their dark melodic heavy metal riffs impeccably tight and crisp--you can tell they've rehearsed the holy living hell out of them. With this band Irene got a chance to unleash her classically trained operatic soprano. MUST BE HEARD LIVE TO BE BELIEVED. The dramatic and heartfelt intensity of the music is well served by their talent. Irene introduced me to her Mom, who was there to hear her perform for the first time. I thanked her for Irene's existence, and for bringing her up singing. I had known for years that Irene and Jay were talented, but the first time this fluff bunny heard Cassandra Syndrome, I was seriously blown away. A large group of kids came in off the street to hear them and sat down to listen. They made lots of new fans that night.
Whew, that was fun--let's do it again sometime!
I missed the first two and the last one (being too tired out to stay there until 1 a.m.), and heard everyone in between. I got there in time to hear and belly dance to Lauren Kendall up from Richmond - I first saw her there at a PBJ last year. She plays piano and cello and sings, all 3 at once, accompanied by Blake Methena, her husband and dumbek drummer. She has two CDs out, go see her if you can, she travels up here to play several times a year. After her set she invited me to go shopping with her because there were lots of vendors out there. I got a gorgeous purple/blue/green/gray silk skirt from Vixenvisions, made of puckered silk so that Lauren liked how it clung and flattered my curves, light and airy like wearing nothing. :) It was affordable too. I also got beautiful handmade iridescent purple/black glass earrings made by Tina Van Pelt.
More friends I saw there included emcic, enlightened77, humanpacifier & idragosani, irenejericho & revelrain, ninthraven, odilla, quedishtu, and seer_eridanus. I was glad I finally got to talk with humanpacifier and make friends with her.
It was a pleasant hot afternoon drinking ice tea hanging out with Irene and the gang, occasionally dancing, mostly chilling. First time I'd seen Jay in a while--he has trimmed his hair moderately short and now looks more handsome than ever. The service at College Perk was really awesome, such hard working courteous people. Go give that place your business, they provide a lot to the community, they're good folks, and it's just a cool place to hang out. Irene told me Esoterica will have a new belly dance class soon, which was welcome news, I took a class with her there a couple years ago.
The next performance was Kat Devlin down from Brooklyn, NY, whose music moved me deeply. Just 1 woman+1 acoustic guitar. Her voice really is "pitch perfect" as her web site says. By the time she got to the first chorus in her passionate lesbian song "Touch of a Girl" I knew I was going to buy her CD. She had been added at the last minute, and I felt lucky to have found out about her. Hope she comes back around here soon. During Scott Helland's set, Samantha passed out percussion instruments into the audience for one song, and invited me to play her djembe. As a djembe lover, I was deeply honored. When they played percussion duets, they reminded me strongly of taiko drumming. When Samantha sang in French, I translated for Irene. Dragonsong's music got me dancing to "Mountain Song", couldn't resist.
But I saved my main dancing energy for the mighty music of Cassandra Syndrome. (Wikipedia: "The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to those whose predictions of doom are initially dismissed, but later turn out to be correct.") When Irene explained the band's name from the stage, and why they write dark songs of impending catastrophe, she added "We don't like the government." Big applause from everyone. Look what you done started, Dixie Chicks!
The band, with Jay on a state of the art electronic Zendrum, plays their dark melodic heavy metal riffs impeccably tight and crisp--you can tell they've rehearsed the holy living hell out of them. With this band Irene got a chance to unleash her classically trained operatic soprano. MUST BE HEARD LIVE TO BE BELIEVED. The dramatic and heartfelt intensity of the music is well served by their talent. Irene introduced me to her Mom, who was there to hear her perform for the first time. I thanked her for Irene's existence, and for bringing her up singing. I had known for years that Irene and Jay were talented, but the first time this fluff bunny heard Cassandra Syndrome, I was seriously blown away. A large group of kids came in off the street to hear them and sat down to listen. They made lots of new fans that night.
Whew, that was fun--let's do it again sometime!