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

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Broadway, Akiva, & Matties

This past Sunday, Tanya and I trekked into NYC for an afternoon of shoe shopping. We didn't find the rainboots or cute work shoes that we were looking for, but we did pop in and out of stores, dodged the tourists, and bought sidewalk wares on Broadway.

After a few hours and many blocks later, we needed pizza and coffee. Tanya and I popped onto Houston and got sustenance and caffeine then headed to Piano's to catch Akiva's set. We met up with Angela, Gia, and Andrew and grabbed a table near the back and ordered a round of drinks. Akiva's set was great, and the sound was good. Oddly enough, the last time I saw him perform was in the spring - where the hell did all the time go? He busted out a few unreleased songs and emerged with some Onyx at the end with David McMillan. Two white boys with acoustic guitars shouting out "SLAM!! Duh Dah Dah!!!" is a sight to see. I swear, is Akiva's rock star dreams falter, he always has a rap career to fall back on. He rocked a great LES shirt for the venue that he picked up at the fashion show he performed at a few weeks ago. It meets my rock star fashion approval. Tanya enjoyed David's set, so we stayed for that as well. I remember hearing his tunes when he contacted Marlon Spike last year, but I hadn't seen him live before this date. It was also great seeing the Akiva posse out, especially those who I didn't think would recognize me who haven't seen me in NYC yet. Hopefully we will all meet up again in December at The Cup.

As Akiva and David were wrapping up their last song, we dodged out so that we (minus Tanya, the show had sold out :-( ) could run up to Irving Plaza for the Matt Nathanson show. While we were waiting for the subway, we ran into Nick & Jesse. You know you've been somewhere long enough when you run into friends at the subway station.

At Irving, we managed to catch the start of Matt Wertz's set and managed to position ourselves in the midst of the anti-Matt Wertz club. We still enjoyed the set and Angela and I both got the songs we enjoyed.

During the set break, we met up with Judy, Ginger, Regina, Dan, and Bonnie and headed to the other side of the stage. We were all kinda concerned that we would be the oldest people there, but strangely enough, we were all pretty equal - nice. I hadn't seen Matty Nathanson since days of yore at the Point (now closed) in Bryn Mawr. Matt has always been a favorite of mine and he is still one of my favorite lyricists and performers, but I just never desired to him tackle a full out venue. Oh wait - I did see him when he played at UD a few years ago. I guess I was jaded and also didn't have my Matty N crew with me whenever he was around before. Now I have one in NYC. :-)

But the show was hands down phenomenal. Matt rocks, and it is fabulous that he is selling out venues in light of getting dropped by Universal. They just didn't know what to do with him and his rabid fan base. He isn't just another sing-songwriter, and the trends followed him. He never sold out, but he did put out a great album two years ago under that label. We all sang along to every song and it brought back so much to me. Matt Nathanson was pretty much the soundtrack to the solace that I found in rock and roll during college. I'll always remember this show - thanks girls.

Afterwards we came out into the city streets and it was a hell of a lot colder than it was earlier in the day. I shivered all the way home and made phone calls during my trek since I didn't have my ipod on me. Everyone got weird and long messages, especially when I saw a hooker getting picked up a few blocks away from my apartment.