weekend insanity is insane
Well,I predicted it would be a crazy weekend and I was right.
Traffic from Philly to Nutley wasn't actually bad except for one small spot through the Oranges, which was near the end of the trip. Arriving at the venue was a little surreal as I didn't somehow realize The Radiant is a club name being used for a church hall rental space. I'm not used to seeing Burnham in such small, un-club-like, setting. I arrived about halfway through the opening acts. Caught the last song of one band I didn't catch the name of, then the entire set of another local band I didn't catch the name of. Through most of it I ended up chatting with Philip Burnham, the boys' dad/tourmanager/merchguy. It's always great to have some time to talk to Marianne or Philip at a venue. We stopped chatting during the boys' final opening act, an acoustic act called Weatherstar who hail from Connecticut. They seemed like nice guys and the set sounded good. During their set, I thought I saw a Twitter acquaintance, Anson Li, in the crowd, so I tweeted him and sure enough, that was him. Nice to meet him in person, and we arranged an email interview for my site (Anson being another teenaged singer/songwriter). Then Burnham took the stage and once again proved what I always say: they need arena stages to contain, or perhaps not contain, Forrest's energy. I got a few blurry concert photos on my point-and-click digital, but the stage lighting just wasn't conducive to good photography without a high quality camera. I did get once nice shot of me with most of the band (all three brothers (Forrest, Alex and Andre), but not drummer David) after the show. I also spent about an hour playing roadie and helping Philip load gear into the trailer. I have to say: he is the Tetris Master of band gear!
Saturday I woke up later than intended, and headed to East Brunswick. I'd intended an hour or so visit at the Relay For Life, chatting with nephew Aidan, but when I got there I discovered Tom and Hilda had other plans that allowed for me to also see nephew Alex. And it was great to see the whole family on the same day, if not all in the same place. Unfortunately for me, the change in plans made it easy for me to lose track of time and so I ended up leaving East Brunswick at 5pm instead of 4pm. The route my GPS chose for me to get from EB to Elmsford NY involved the George Washington Bridge.
Apparently, it is a necessity in my life that once every few years I have to be reminded of why the GWB is NEVER A GOOD CHOICE. Sitting in bridge traffic added an hour to my trip (which possibly would have been longer had I not noticed an exit in the midst of construction that I was supposed to take but which at first looked not to exist). I was frustrated by the time I got to Elmsford, but was still in time to work the door for The Dalliance.
The guys did a fantastic show that, as it turned out, was also live-streaming on www.lavaxp.tv. Had I known that, I'd have posted that here before the weekend in the hopes of giving it more viewership. I believe bits and pieces of the show are also available for viewing through the site now.
Sunday I also slept late, but made it to nephew Jared and niece Charlie's combined birthday party. Good time with family and friends, during which I decided that on Saturday August 11 I will have a "Not A Birthday / Not A Housewarming" (NAB-NAH) Party. This gives me an unpacking and furnishing deadline.