Feeling Anxious - "always an adventure"

As I wait for my laundry to finish, I will take this rare chunk of free time to catch you up on the past few days of awesomeness.

Thursday was the First Annual Feeling Anxous Party at Tribeca. Finally!! This show has been shaping up for a while and it was finally here. Granian and Akiva were slated to play, then Todd Martin was added last minute. Three good reasons to gather up friends and start the weekend early.

After work, I met up with Chip and Brandon and we headed down to Tribeca on the R train. Or so we thought...instead we went to Brooklyn. I had decided to give them the scenic route, honest. Brandon had his video camera and documented some of the trip...including me pointing to the NYC map on the subway showing where we were and where we should be. The two locations weren't that close. The guys had also brought DP Dough up from Newark. JJ was makng fun of me earlier in the day for being so excited for a food delivery from 135 miles away. He just doesn't understand the power of the dough. We tore into the bag on the subway because we couldn't wait any longer. We also almost missed the Tribeca stop because we were so engrossed in our dinner. Finally back in Manhattan, we perched ourselves on the steps on City Hall in front of the giant walking people and ate and talked about the city and random adventures. After we scarfed down dinner on the blustery steps, we headed into the club to meet up with Maryellen, Angela, Judy, and Mary.

We walked in during the middle of Dave Golden's set, who reminded us of Springsteen. I was on the phone with Dan when I realized that the other guy on stage was Akiva...clean shaven and minus his disheveled curly hair. He looked so young and different from afar so we didn't recognize him. Akiva stepped off stage and Chip did the DP Dough pass off. We were going to steal his dough and give him that empty box, but you don't mess with the dough. It's bad karma. We all decided that the hot place to be was downstairs, so we socialized down there. Maryellen claimed Chip as her new BFF and I found Brandon's CD in the free CD box.
Maryellen made sure everyone had at least one, sometimes two, drinks in their hands whether or not they wanted them. :-) A good time was had by all, laughing, talking, singing, dancing.

Granian finally put some energy into the show and played an awesome set. I may have to attribute my career in the music biz to him. Years ago I featured Granian on Center Stage and during some down time, told his bassist my indecision to go with journalism and broadcasting or to find my place in the music industry. After an hour of discussion, he stole my Granian poster and wrote message on it, ending it with "go for the music". Well, I did. Chip thoroughly enjoyed Granian's set and Maryellen and I are awesome back up singers. She also got sassy with a guy who she thought was Akiva who stood in front of us, but by the end of the song, all was well again.

Akiva was next and definitely was the breakout performance of the night. His band joined him and they tore up the stage for almost an hour. Akiva played mostly new songs, but quite a few sounded familiar from certain rooftop parties. Brandon filmed the set while Chip and I sang and danced along. His band is pretty good and they should hit the stage more, they have a great sound and awesome songs that deserved to be heard. Naturally that is my biased opinion. Red Ritalin and Holler Hermosa are still my favorites. We also got Laughing Tuesdays Gone (I shouted out our infamous line) and This is Life. Distant Love sounds wayyyyyy too much like Mayer's Comfortable, but the lyrics were good nonetheless. The energy was high and the room was brought to a whole new level. Yay.

We were going to take off, but decided to stick around for a few of Todd's tunes. Akiva joined Todd on stage for a Ryan Adam's cover and it was probably my favorite four minutes of the whole night. TM and Akiva both know of my infatuation for the Adams' tunes and seeing them both perform NY NY was amazing...though Akiva nailed the tricky section and fumbled through the chorus. Brandon got it on film so hopefully I can share it later. After the stellar performance, we said our goodbyes and the guys and I hit the road.

It took us over an hour to get through the Holland Tunnel!! Damn construction and traffic and stupid drivers. We passed the time by eating chewy sprees, sitting in the middle of the intersection, breaking the law, and barking at cars. Around 2 am, we made it to Hoboken and they dropped me off and I directed them to a Dunkin Donuts which I could have sworn was open 24 hours. Apparently not - sorry guys!

All in all, a wonderful Thursday. I'm glad the guys made the roadtrip up, the girls were able to see and meet Akiva, and lots of smiles were shared. Going to bed at 3 AM and waking up at 7 AM was fueled by a wonderful evening.