Love in Philly...

  Philladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Friday, March 28, 2008

So one of my favorite friends by the name of Amos Lee helped me score an opening slot for a great artist by the name of Mutlu. Mutlu has an amazing voice, with a sound very reminiscent of Marvin Gaye or other soul Gods as such.

Amos and I

I brought Aaron Price along with me to Philly to play keys, but they didn't have room for the keys on stage with all of Mutlu's stuff there too, so Aaron played bass instead! And it sounded just fine. If it makes musical sounds, Aaron can usually play it, or at least fake his way through it enough to look like he can play it!

The Greyhound Faces

We had to take the Greyhound to Philly from NY. Now, I don't know if any of you have taken a ride on a Greyhound before, but it was personally my first time. I never have exactly wanted to jump on a bus at night, based off of the piddledinks I see hanging around the Greyhound Station at night, but it was truly our only option $ wise. So, we hoped onto a FULL bus, (or what we thought was full), and started our journey to Philly. Aaron was a bit sleepy since he stayed out all night the night before, so he started nodding off and began to sprall out. I never thought I was clostraphobic before until I boarded that Greyhound! It was nuts! I usually can handle crowds, but for some reason, on that bus, I felt extremely sufficated. sheesh. Not to mention that AP continusouly kept falling over on me, which was actually kind of hilarious when he would jerk himself awake. But finally, we arrived, and got off the bus, and joyfully stretched out and walked about 6 blocks up to The Tin Angel. It wasn't exactly warm out, but the sun was shining, and the part of town we walked through in Philly seemed really nice. So I automatically began to feel better.

The Tin Angel

Once we arrived to the club, we walked up a long stairway and saw a stool and desk with a potato sliced 7 or 8 times and sitting under a hot lamp. (I still never figured out why that was there...very random) I could hear Mutlu warming up and he sounded amazing already. The soundguys were futzing around with stuff as they should be, and Mutlu was going over his set in the meantime. While we waited for the soundcheck to end, I drank some hot tea and made a quick 20 min. set list.

Soundcheck

We preformed Red Flag, Judgment, Wooed, Paper Bird, and Everybody Says. I don't know why I chose those songs,other than the fact that those were the ones that seemed to work best with only guitar and bass, thus, those were the songs we went with.  The crowd was truly warm and kind and seemed to be into what I was putting out, which made my job so much easier! I could truly feel the love beaming off of the audience that night. Thanks Philly!

During my set...

Packing Up

Shipping Out

After I finished, a guy named McGowan got up and did a couple songs and he sounded great as well. I then walked out to the side of the stage to listen and make my way back to the bar where I was keeping my CD's and stuff. After McGowan, there was a short break and I began to walk back through the crowad and a man named Russel stopped me to buy the first CD of the night! I was thrilled, because I was thinking I wouldn't sell to many. But it turns out, I ended up selling around 6 CD's that night, which in my mind was great, all things considered.
After I made a few sales, and continued to make my way back to the bar, I heard someone call my name, and it was Amos! He gave me a hug hello and we chatted for a few moments before Mutlu started his set. Once Mutlu began, his voice set all my anxiety and nerves at ease and I started to sit back and relax a bit more.
At the end of the night, I passed my CD's onto Amos, and his bass player Jaron (i think is spelled that correctly), and said my goodbyes. The people I met after the show seemed to be such colorful and big hearted individuals. I felt truly blessed and honored to have the opportunity to share my music with such a dynamic crowd in Philly. Plus, I think opening up for someone like Mutlu is really what brought that group of people into the Tin Angel that night. He embodies positivity, thus, how can you go wrong when you open for someone like that?!
After we left, we were hanging with one of AP's old college buddies who made sure we made it onto our bus safely. We first made a pit stop at a place called Wawas. Oh my goodness, they let you custom order your sandwhich's on this cool little touch screen, but get this...I ordered a philly cheese steak and waited forever for the flippin' thing, and the girl working says, "we don't got no cheessteak!" I was like..."what? we're in Philly, how can you not have a philly cheesesteak?!" But alas, they had none, so I opted for a chicken sandwhich that was icky gross. But better than nothin' I suppose.

Amelie and I backstage...

As we boarded our final bus, we realized that we had it made in the shade on the first ride. You see, on the first ride, we actually got to sit together. On the second ride, we had to not only split up, but I was sitting in "the sleeping section". On my right, the guy I was sitting next to was trying to sleep, and his legs were all stretched out as he slept up against the window. He actually wasn't even all that bad. The guy to my left was hanging over the side of his seat with his head on his knees slepping, so I had to be careful not to fall on him. But even he wasn't that bad, what made the entire situation difficult was the guy in front of me who had his seat laid alllll the way back to a point where he was basically in my lap, not to mention I had to hold my back pack in my lap since there was no more room in the carrier racks above. So I really couldn't move. Between the guy to my right, the guy to my left and and dude in front of me...I was forced to hold my body in one single position akwardly the entire time! I did actually have one variation, but that was just moving my arms from the top of my bag, to my chin every now and then! sheesh, it was an expieriance. Luckily for me though, we were only two hours from our destination! So once we arrived to NY, the guy in front of me FINALLY popped his seat up and I could move! Phew! It was definatly worth it though, Philly was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed hanging out and listenting to Mutlu too. So when all was said and done, I look back and laugh at how difficult the riding part of the trip was!
At any rate, I am trying to get back up to philly very soon, until that time though, I have a few other shows down South to attend to. Thankfully though, I won't be riding in any Greyhound buses! wooohooo!