"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Friday, April 08, 2005

Akiva the Diva shops at Ikea

Ok, that was only 10 seconds of the evening, but it's funny so it stays as the subject.Hooray for Tuesday – Todd and Brad were back in town for a night of rock. After a crazy and hectic day, I met up with Angela and Akiva (oh no, three syllables and ends with "a" – I thought this was just a Newark thing!?) at the PATH and we rode underground to Hoboken. I love living a block away from venues. We stopped at my apartment so I could shower and change since I was gross. Akiva bought orange vodka and we took a very large shot before heading out to the Goldhawk. Angela and I both sported our flops, though I don't have cool toe socks :-).

The Goldhawk is a pretty neat little place, hopefully the buzz will catch on. We met up with Maryellen, Jan, Brad, and TM. Maryellen finally met Akiva – apparently everyone thought they knew each other, and TM and Brad were left in a state of disbelief when their thoughts weren't validated. Apparently he is "the legend"…well, according to Brad, but Brad is always drunk. Maryellen and I proceeded to text each other while being less than five feet away. We recognized people from previous shows who wore the same flashy shirt. Also, girls shouldn't dress like mermaids on a Tuesday night in Hoboken. Come on, this isn't 10th & Willow ;-). Did someone say $2 beer? Sure! Megan LaRoque opened up the show. I'm not really keen of female musicians unless you are a badass or have an awesome voice. I was kinda bored. Akiva was talking to TM at the bar and she called him out, thus the subject of the post.

Todd and Brad hit the stage acoustic style. Good stuff was played – including "Follow Me" and "She Knows". Ryan Adams' "Sweet Caroline" was played near the beginning of the set. Brand performed Jack Johnsons' "Bubble Toes" near the end of the set. Surprisingly, Brad had a good lead voice. Good thing he gave up modeling for singing – he has a potential career in music ;-). Just kidding, kid. As always, we socialized after the show. Sean shared G. Love and Jack Johnson stories on how his cousin was instrumental in the hooking of those two up. Garrett's mom not only bares musicians, she also teaches cooking.

Brad has a new BlackBerry, but wants a Treo. Todd Martin's site comes up on the BlackBerry, Akiva's does not. Brad wants a magic wand for his cell because pushing buttons suck.Wallace the penguin made an appearance and then it was decided that it was diner time. Todd, Maryellen, Akiva, and I piled into TM's SUV (complete with a hockey stick and crystal light) to hit up the diner four blocks away. The diner has authentic food with interesting pictures on the menu – like an old time storybook. There is no better idea than to order breakfast at 1am at a table with a crusty ketchup bottle.

TM enlightened us on awesome interviewing skills, such as messing with the interviewer with random answers. He told us of a recent food related article that was written about Megan and she answered everything with something related to peanut butter, and the interviewer got mad. Come on, you are asking a musician about food - they can't take it seriously! And just on how interviewers (I hesitate to call them journalists) just regurgitate previously written articles and misinform the reader. So messing with them is a right (says the girl who studied journalism). There was also a gay guy in the booth next to us who was talking very loudly to his mom for the entire duration of our diner visit. this prompted TM to share with us his recent endeavors to San Diego, CA - wherea gaggle of guys sported tight pink Todd Martin shirts. Apparently San Diego is the new San Francisco. We said he should have changed his lyrics, but he felt that singing "he knows" instead of "she knows" just wasn't right.

Todd also hit the head on the nail. Akiva also just got off of a southern run of shows, and Todd hit up every region of the country. I can't remember how it came up, or the exact words - but on how times like this, just chilling at a diner in a random city with friends is what its all about. There's kissing ass, gigging, and traveling, but sometimes you just need some downtime to just chill and relax and have a good time that isn't associated with lyrics or a guitar.Around 2ish we called it a night and all piled into the SUV again. Todd has awesome mixes and he tried my skills at naming the songs. I lost and gained some indie cred, but 11/14 isn't bad. TM dropped Akiva and me off at Willow as they departed to Jefferson. Less that two months until Maryellen and I have our rockin' bachelorette pad!