Thursday was... brief, traffic was bad so we finally got into the hotel in time to eat at one of our favorite Italian restaurants for dinner. Then Kaleena and I met up with our friend Chrissy for coffee around Bryant Park. One day I WILL ice skate either there or Rockefeller Plaza. I will, mark my words.
Friday we met with a potential manager, and then moseyed our way to Cherry Lane Publishing's office. We had a short meeting with more of the staff, played a short acoustic set in their conference room, and then went back to the hotel where I absolutely CRASHED. (I should add that we shopped between the two meetings, but since I had to play at the CL meeting I was definitely walking around the city with my guitar... through the subway, and through... Macy's. I'd rather not do that again, like, ever.).
So, nap time came and went and we went over to Kenny's where we met the rest of the band about an hour before we were to go on. An a capella group played before we did, and as I'm sure many of you know, they tend to have pretty ridiculous fan bases so of course the place was packed. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know who was there to see who, and if the place would empty out when they finished, but to my amazement the bar remained packed through our entire set. Even though we've only played Kenny's once before, every time we play it seems that the place is near capacity, be it that people somehow hear of us, our wonderful friends bring more wonderful friends, or just a built-in crowd, the bar is absolutely great to play. And to Maria, the owner, the feeling is apparently very mutual and she again told us that we should return again soon.
After the set I met a ton of awesome people from an artist-management school in Martha's Vineyard, and saw a lot of my bests from college and even high school. We were all about to take off to go to a bar around Penn Station, when the bar tender saw me with my coat and asked why I was leaving.
"You know Ben Harper is playing next, right?"
"Uh... what?"
"Yeah, Ben Harper. He's on his way."
Out of piqued curiousity I persuaded my friends to stay here (after all, there was still alcohol aplenty). And, sure enough... Ben Harper made his appearance. Apparently he is recording a new album and moved out here. And so, as I watched him set up, I also saw him talking to our drummer. Then I see him walk off stage. Then I see him walk towards Kaleena and me.
As you can tell from my completely placid facial expression, I was by no means surprised at this conversation. Or how he told us he was sorry he missed our set, and that he'll be sure to catch our next show if we let the bar owner know to get a hold of him.
His set was amazing, and somehow I managed to not only stay awake past my usual bed time of 10pm, but I was out until after 3am. It was so great to see so many friends that I have missed, and yeah, the occurrences of the evening were beyond unbelievable.
