The Gatherings-Afterthoughts

Last Friday I took off for Philly to perform on Saturday night. Weather was perfect and the iPod shuffle was really into the Black Keys and Aphex Twin that day. Not too shabby and no complaints there.
Pulled into Carlisle rather than hopping onto the PA Turnpike and get some food and check into the Travel Lodge. Your basic Patel Hotel, but the room was surprisingly huge. So setting up for a late night jam was certainly in order.


Saturday Morning. 6:35 am. It's pissing the rain and about 50F outside. Nice. 2.5 hour drive into Philly on the turnpike. Nice. Thankfully there were no accidents. But the driving was horrible. 45mph wind gusts and everything was washed out. I got to St. Mary's at about 3:00pm. It was Record Store Day so I decided to check out what all was released. Sadly everything had been picked through and just a few things leftover from 2010. Killing time at Smokey Joe's enjoying a draft. The rain wouldn't stop. 







After soundcheck, Howard Moscovitz, Bill Fox, Vic Hennegan and I went to Hummus for dinner. Good conversation over a warm Mediterranean meal.
When we got back to St. Mary's, I was pleasantly surprised to see more people had shown up despite the rain. I went on first, right at 8pm. I performed an all new 45min. set which I plan to release later this year. Mixing around the rain and watching the lightning light up the stained glass... pretty amazing backdrop to say the least.

After the show I had a few moments to say good-bye to Chuck, Art, Scott and Jeff before the drive back to the hotel. I hated to leave, but it was time to get moving as I was catching a break in the weather. The turnpike was desolate and surreal and I was buzzing from the experience of playing another Gathering.

Like I said it was raining. Pretty much the theme of the day. When I pulled into the parking lot, there was a newly formed river between me and the Patel Inn. Nice. Water was over the hood as my little Jetta dove in face first. Here's a pic of the water the next morning. Thankfully it has receded somewhat. But still.

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