I had a musical doubleheader last evening, Jo Kroger and Danielle Miraglia. If my breathing problems hadn’t been interfering with my sleep this would already have been written and I would have posted yesterday.
My nasal congestion has been particularly bad the last few weeks; so bad that even the usual efficacious Breathe Right strips don’t let breathe right. That leads to me waking up with a mouth full of cotton and not getting rested even when I fall asleep. It makes me pretty much useless much of the next day. It takes me 12 hours to get 8 hours of sleep and then I’m still coming up short. I find myself doing things like sitting and not moving in random positions. I fall asleep while doing other things. I cannot concentrate well enough to write. I fall asleep if I try.
I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t feel like going out but I very much wanted to see Danielle and Jo so I forced myself. It’s been far to long since I’ve seen either. I usually make the right call in situations like this. Yesterday forcing myself to go out was the right call.
Unfortunately I had to do things in slow motion and I ended up leaving a few minutes later than I wanted. That should not have been an issue as I always plan on getting to places early. I know it takes a little less than an hour to get to Rockwood Music Hall. Yesterday my timing was awful. I just missed a D train and then just missed an F train, so I ended up walking to Rockwood from Broadway-Lafayette. The upshot was that I should have been ten minutes early but instead I was ten minutes late. I hope I only missed one song by Danielle on Stage 1.
Danielle is a Bostonian where she is a usual suspect. When she comes to NYC it counts as a special occasion. As she’s not a regular part of the music scene here I didn’t know if I’d see anyone I knew there, I suspected not. I was happy to see that I was wrong. When I came in I saw Howard standing there and went to join him. After a few songs I looked back towards the door and saw Pete in the corner. I don’t know if I walked past him or if he came in after I arrived. The fact that I could recognize Howard and especially Pete, who was backlit was exciting. I could never have done that before my cataract surgery. I’ve seen Howard a lot of late so I watched the show with Pete.
Even though Danielle is one of the usual suspects in the Massachusetts Bay area she is not at all generic. She is not a sensitive girl with a guitar. She’s a blues woman with a guitar that she often plays with a slide. Her music has an edge. Her music has soul. Her music takes you to a different place than the folk circuit standbys take you. She covers Janis Joplin, she covers Prince. She also pronounces her name right, the “g” is silent, mir-al-ee-a.
I discovered her at my first New Bedford Folk Festival, then Summerfest. Jake recommended her. That put him on my good side. My dream is to be the guy that turns you onto musicians that you love, that become part of your world.
I had an hour before Jo went on. I figured I’d eat at Lucky Burger, I haven’t been there in a while. I walked with Pete along Houston till we reached 2nd Avenue and I realized that we should have passed it. It’s gone! Not a huge loss but it upset my plans. I ended up going to my usual, my favorite pizza in the City, Rosario’s.
Rosario’s is still my favorite pizza in the City and I’ll still keep going there and recommending it but it disappointed me this time. The pizza was as good as ever. The service to me was as good as ever. What disappointed me was their reaction to a customer getting sick. He was on his knees barbing into a bag his friends were holding. I went to the counter and asked for a cup of water to give him and they refused to give it to me. The owner, who I always have loved, said, “after I take care of my business.” He blamed the guy for drinking to much, which might have been true, I have no idea, but he was still suffering and getting someone a cup of water would not take much time. He said he was taking care of his business, but this was bad business. He showed his customers his lack of compassion. It’s one event, maybe things happened that I don’t know about. Maybe he was just having a bad day; that’s the only reason I’m going to continue to go there. If it happened again I might have to rethink it being my favorite pizza in the City, and therefore the world.
I realized when I paid that I needed cash for Jo’s show. That meant walking back to Second Ave where there’s a branch of my bank then back to Rockwood 3. I managed to do it with a few minutes to spare. Jo went down to sound check just as I got there.
I have not seen Jo with a full band before. I love Jo with a full band. Often with a singer/songwriter it just makes it harder to hear the words. This band added something. It unleashed the hidden rocker. Jo lives in the City and it’s been pure chance that led to me not seeing her in a while. She’s someone that I’ve seen every few months in the past. She’s part of my world. We each have only so much bandwidth for music, though I have more than most people, it’s still limited. It’s good to be reminded why someone is in my world. Jo is not someone I find easy to pin down, I can’t say I love her because of X. I can just say that I’m happier seeing her than not seeing her. That’s why I went even though I was tired and could have gone straight home from seeing Danielle.
Limited bandwidth might rear its head this week. I have five shows scheduled, Sam Reider and Human Hand, Our Band (Sasha Papernik and Justin Poindexter), The Sea the Sea, Deni Bonet, and Sam Baker. I pretty much can’t bear missing any of them but that’s a lot of music in seven days. The week after that I have just one musical night, John Platt’s On Your Radar on March 12. I wish I could spread things out more evenly.
I should go out and buy eggs but I’m feeling today the same way I felt yesterday. I don’t want to leave the house. I just have to walk a few blocks but I feel so cozy in my sweats. I have to go out and get my infusion tomorrow and I can pick up the eggs after that. I think my sweats win. I’ll figure out something else for breakfast.
Wise Madness 