The Balkans Family Vacation tour journal pt. 3
August 1st, 2009 by Elizabeth Shortridge in Music news
Wednesday morning we packed up and headed north of the Mason-Dixon Line. And can you spell disaster, because I’m pretty sure Woody Shortridge can’t. That’s what the past few days have been: a fun disaster.
We were supposed to go to New York via Hoboken, NJ for an interview and in-studio performance with Planet Verge. As we approached New Jersey we were hit with torrential rains. Luckily we had allotted extra travel time, but we weren’t prepared for tornadoes. Yes, there were tornado warnings in the New York area. Thus the Planet Verge gig was rescheduled for Thursday evening, but the studio was unavailable so the Planet Verge hosts were going to do the recording guerrilla-style. We were unexpectedly thrown into downtown Manhattan at 6 p.m. with buckets of rain. We made it slowly, but safely to Brooklyn to park the cars for FREE.
True, we had a lot of fun exploring the city. The Balkans took the time to check out Chinatown for some cheap stuff. However, once again New Jersey got the best of us. We picked the “worst time” to drive from Brooklyn through Manhattan to Hoboken: 5:30 p.m. The studio was less than 8 miles away but it took us almost 2 hours to make it. Amazingly we arrived in Hoboken on time, early actually, but one of the girls at Planet Verge was late. We went to check out the performance space, the parking lot of the studio, but there was no outlet. While the Planet Verge host searched for an alternative spot the parking lot proved a playground for the two bands, special thanks to some Styrofoam scraps (some of which Brett hit me over the head with). And Stanley Vergilis proved to be the best at jumping for a hole in the wall.
To continue our luck the power was out in the studio and the idea of a live performance was out of the question. Loading the cars, 2 hours in standstill traffic had all been a waste. To complete the disaster, the interview did not live up to expectations of the Balkans; who are apparently “really bad at interviews.” (Watch out for the “really bad interview” and other fun stuff from the taping, like Woody explaining our troubles with his hands, on Planet Verge). As soon as we headed back to New York things turned up. The ride back was smooth in the Balkans’ car, special thanks to Brett’s Alvin and the Chipmunks’ tape he bought in Athens (FYI turn down the volume during “Twist and Shout”). A good ending to the day included both bands hanging-out on the roof-top of a friend of the Balkans’ loft in the Lower East Side, complete with a blow-up pool.
We’ll leave the city again briefly tomorrow for a drive to Philadelphia and back after a show at Danger Danger Gallery. As always: check out the Balkans’ Myspace for more info on tour dates.
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