Mad City, Columbia, Maryland 7/19/08
Ah, the beautiful landscape off I-95. It is very familiar from the many times I’ve traveled up and down it, but still nice and green, a welcome sight for us cement weary Brooklynites.
We only noticed a total of two car fires on our way down. Our car did not catch on fire, which pleased us - so I already considered it a good day by the time we got to Mad City for the show.
Spontaneous combustion = not a good travel day.
The Dreamscapes Project (”We’re perfectly aware that this is a silly name.”, said lead-singer Keith. “We’ve lived with this for 10 years. We’re okay with it.”) started off the evening with four excellent songs and one excellent rant that broached many topics, such as attractive stalkers not technically being stalkers, the cautionary playing of new songs, and white male rappers with mohawks wearing atari t-shirts. As I stated in a previous post, we met them at last winter’s Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg, PA. This time we meet in Columbia, MD, on neither of our home turfs. ”Next time,” Keith quipped, “we’ll meet in Delaware.”
If you’re in the DC area, they are playing the 930 Club on Sept. 5th - and are well worth checking out.
I followed this with four songs, unaware that I was being sketched by the wonderful Jillian, who is the creator of many a well-done musician’s performance portrait. She travels to shows in the greater Baltimore area and draws, and the result is alarmingly beautiful and accurate. Bringing her daughter and husband to the show after listening to some of my stuff on myspace, she managed to capture Dimitri and I radiantly. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see more of her work soon.
I was followed by Joe Isaacs who put together the evening. Joe puts on a Music Matters Showcase once a week at different places around the Baltimore/ DC area. He works extremely hard organizing each event, (lugging the PA back and forth, contacting the artists, etc.) and all proceeds from each evening of music go to Bread for the Homeless. Please stop by a showcase if you’re out and about on the beltway.
Lastly, Libby Weibel played us a few of her songs, and included a couple of Joni Mitchell covers, concluding a perfect evening of music. The buzzed-out crowd (including 2 of the four Ortiz spawns), was generous and appreciative, and a good, caffeinated time was had by all. Especially Keith, as is evidenced by this cheery, not-at-all-like-Satan portrait.
So, to recap, good day = not catching on fire, Dreamscapes Project = 930 Club Sept. 5th, Jillian = fabulous sketch artist, coffee at 10pm = dreams of the oddest nature.
For additional photos from the first day of the tour, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelaortizmusic.
Sunday was spent in peaceful relaxation at the best bed and breakfast this side of the Appalachians, i.e. - my sister’s house. Tomorrow we ride out to Ohio, and from there, to our show at The Verve in Indiana. Stay tuned.
