My third day of the Big Apple went from being way normal to totally surreal. The day started off with some brunch and shopping (Jess was on the lookout for these sequinned slip shoes that are all the rage over here right now and it was starting to infect me). We met up with her friend Andrew whose birthday it was and we had us some lunch in Washington Square since it was such a beautiful day out. I ate an insanely expensive but worth it peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cup of milk from the Peanut Butter Co. We shopped some more and wound up at this snooty Latin restaurant for sangrias and beers in Soho. After that, I parted ways with Jess and Andrew and headed solo to Tribeca for a Damon and Naomi show at the Knitting Factory.
Here's where the story goes from whatever to huh?
Let's backtrack a little. My last day at the bookstore was Thursday and I was going to leave without getting to see Greg Kelley who was the Remainder books equivalent of me at the warehouse. I was saying goodbye to him over the phone when we realized we'd both be in New York this weekend, me visiting my friends and him to do a show with the band Damon and Naomi. I wanted to see Greg play and I like going to shows so I made plans to attend. Flash forward to earlier tonight at about 7 o'clock. I was at the Knitting Factory waiting for the show to start when Greg found me and took me up to the back band room where I got introduced to Damon and Naomi, Kurihara of Ghost who was playing in the band like Greg, Adrian Crowley who was touring with them on a couple of shows, some guy whose name I kept missing but who was supposed to have written a really popular book about the 80's music scene, and Rick Moody, yes, the author of such books as Demonology and The Ice Storm, there as the spoken word opening act. They were all talking about all these things that I had not a clue about but I gathered I might be living some indie boy's wet dream. Damon told a really funny story about introducing Malcolm Mooney of Can to Roger Miller of Mission of Burma at their cd release party and both of them were really drunk and confused. I'm recounting this kinda badly since I had to google both of those bands to figure out their names exactly but basically Malcolm thought that Roger literally went on a mission to Burma and Roger thought that Malcolm's band was going to tour in Burma, something to that extent. It was funny at the time, I swear. While this was going on, I mostly stood against a wall watching them and wondering how weird this all was. I gathered as much that Damon and Naomi, formally of the band Galaxy 500, was not just like the local bands that my friends are in that I normally go see. I even chatted with Rick Moody for a bit. My literary side heaved a big fangirl sigh. I went down to sit in the middle of the dance floor when the show started (everyone was sitting off to the side leaving this big blank space in the middle so I offered to fill it as best I could). Rick Moody read two short pieces that were mildly amusing, the first one about a mysterious flap that develops on his wrist, the other about a group of rowdy jump rope girls. He had the kind of well developed author reading voice, soothing, persuasive, smooth, perfect for a spoken word performance. His third piece was a short repetetive poem that was accompanied by Damon twirling a drum stuck on a cymbal, Greg blowing his trumpet with a piece of metal over the mouthpiece creating a weird tinny sound (this, I'm told later, is what Greg usually played like), and Kurihara wailing on the guitar sort of quietly. Rick Moody finished up and rushed off to another reading his was giving a couple of blocks over (busy guy). Adrian Crowley was up next and he sang some beautiful songs with his Irish lilt and great guitar playing. I sneaked back up to the back room after his set to get my camera (which didn't even work because of the lighting) and met more people whose names I forgot but also play in other bands and stuff. I went back down with Adrian and settled back on the floor for Damon and Naomi. Greg and Kurihara got on the stage with them and they all started playing. They just blew me away. The show was amazing. I kinda knew what they were going to sound like because I picked up their cd the first night I was in New York but nothing beats live. They were so good and it was weird watching Greg up there with them, playing the trumpet in a way that made it seems pretty cool to play it in an indie band. Kurihara tore up his guitar. Damon was dancing real funky while he played the acoustic guitar with flair and he had this voice that I can't even describe, incredible, like honey and wine. Naomi also had a beautiful voice that could be it's own instrument. She jammed on the bass and keyboard while she sang. I didn't know any of the songs so I just listened with gleeful abandon and thanked god that I got to be there tonight. It was such a great show with the added bonus of meeting all these awesome people and mingling with the band and other semi-famous people. So now it's confirmed: Greg does lead this mysterious secret indie rock life and I got to experience it a little first hand. Man, I had such a blast tonight. I'm not even sure if I sound super lame or not but that's the best I can make of it. That's my New York Trilogy. I'm back to Boston tomorrow so check y'all later.
