Tour Diary – Newark, NJ (March 15, 2013)

Today was a tough day. We woke up in downtown Newark, it was cold and it was necessary to dig our winter coats out from the bottom of our bunks. We're heading back in to Winter and we are all a little hung-over from our three days and nights in Alexandria. I know that they are trying here in Newark (the Performing Arts Centre that we played tonight is evidence of that) and they have come a long way in the last ten years, but man, there is a long way to go. Downtown is still a wee bit post-apocalyptic. On the bright side, we found another St Patrick's Day Parade, only two days early this time, and there were lots of high school bands. There were also a few drum corps and a few flights of bagpipes (at least I think that is what you call a parading set of bagpipers). It was fun to watch the band kids enjoying not-enjoying themselves….anyone who has a teenager at home will understand.

A very nice modern hall tonight…perhaps a little cold and very sterile back stage, but a definitely a nice place to play in. Margo has been fighting a cold and exhaustion for the past few days and tonight it caught up with her. Her voice is hanging on by a thread, I wonder if that thread can support one more show. In the theater next to us tonight was a Classic Albums band (from Toronto) who were performing Led Zepplin I and IV….note for note. In our hall we were performing The Trinity Session, not quite note for note, but we felt a little bit like a cover band tonight, like we didn't have any true connection to the material. I'm sure it was a decent show from an audience perspective, but it was a hard one on the stage. Margo did a great job at working around the limitations placed on her by her cold. We have one more show tomorrow night in a very nice little theater in the cool little village of Tarrytown. It's a sold-out show and it would be nice to go home with one more win under our belts.