A (Mis)Guided Tour of Washington (Or, Line/Drive)
Happy new era in history, everybody!
Sweet sugary gumball goulash, what a week it has been for myself and the rest of the nation. Since I last blogged, Welcome to Florida headed down to Washington, D.C., for Inauguration Weekend (which for some reason occurs in January and not in a month where people would actually enjoy standing outside). Wes and his new ladyfriend made their way south on Friday afternoon, and the rest of the band met me here in New London on Saturday morning. Despite all the predictions, the ride down there really wasn't too bad (well, not in terms of traffic anyway, though sitting in a cloud of Duncan's BO for eight hours wasn't exactly a dream come true). Actually, the most difficult part of the drive there was finding a parking space anywhere near the venue at which we were playing or the place where we were staying (it didn't help things that we always travel in a modified '86 Wienermobile). We persevered and eventually found a decent spot, and just in time because at that point my bladder was somewhere around 112% capacity.
We got settled in at the apartment of two of our drummer's friends, which from what I could tell was actually the set of the new Ludacris music video (it was baller), and then headed out for a delicious sushi dinner with a live jazz trio followed by drinks at a nearby cowboy-themed bar (we were going for an East-meets-West theme for the night). Despite the fact that all the people in our group were telling us that this bar was kind of a dive and not very popular, there was a line to get in! It turned out that there were so many visitors in town for the weekend that literally every bar we walked past had a line, regardless of how popular it was normally. Once inside, we only stayed for a few minutes because we were all pretty tired and wanted to rest up for the next day (we're old).
On Sunday morning, we fueled up at Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts (we all couldn't agree on which was better so we had to go to both) on our way downtown to watch the free We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Though the crowds were large and the walk was long, it was fun because everyone around us was in such a great mood. The concert was awesome, and I was impressed by how well all of the unusual pairings of musicians like James Taylor with John Legend worked out (with the possible exception of Peter, Paul, and Marilyn Manson). During our journey to and from the performance, Duncan and I had an opportunity to tape a video tour of historic Washington, D.C., which you can view online (disclaimer: it is hosted by me).
The WTF show that evening went off without a hitch, which was great because it was also a fundraiser for a really wonderful non-profit called Millennium Promise. I encourage everyone to check out their website; it's an outstanding organization! The show was packed, which got us really excited to play, but it occurred to me halfway through our performance that there was, as I had observed the night before, a line to get into every single bar in the area, so most of the people there probably didn't really care what we sounded like. Whatever, they still came!
The return trip was a little more stressful than the ride down, mostly because of all the snowfall in the New York/Connecticut area. We finally made it back to New London at around 7:15, just in time for me to eat dinner then go to rehearsal for two hours, yay!
Despite my exhaustion, it was a great weekend and I was very happy to be able to witness a piece of history. Regardless of your politics, I think everyone has to be pretty excited about entering a new chapter in the story of America (did I really just use that phrase?).
Take care, everybody!