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My old friend Joe Finkel came visiting from Davis, California where he hosts a radio show on KDVS, and boy did we have ourselves a good time. I hired him on as the photographer for the night and we met at the Mercury Lounge to see the band Hopewell play their spacey rock music. The band was all set up, vines and flowers crawling up their microphones stands, a neat orange light illuminating their bass drum and they started to play. The crowd was semi into it, a few girls in the front were shaking it hard, I think they probably knew the band, and I thought they were pretty good, maybe needing more strength in their lyric and catchiness department. Joe mentioned how this band reminded him how The Verve influences a lot of bands these days. He then told me that the legendary Ween were playing a show at the Knitting Factory for a Thrasher Magazine Party and we should try to talk our way inside. So we hopped in his car, took a little ride down to Tribeca and tried our luck at gaining entrance.
I walked up to the ticket counter and told her that I was doing a story for NYC.com, being the music editor and all and I’d like to check out the show. She referred me to the manager standing there and I repeated myself. He asked me why I was so late getting in touch and I explained how busy I was and how I was unaware until Joe, my trusty photographer, told me. He then asked me, “Are you drinking?” A little confused by the question, I replied, “I’ve had a few beers, why?” He told me that he’d be glad to let us in as long as we had a few more beers. “No problem,” I assured him and he stamped both our wrists. I often forget how all the venues and nightlife establishments really care about are liquor sales. Ween was great, the crowd was moshing and all these skaters knew all the words to songs like, “Dr. Rock,” and “You F-ed Up.” Joe made an interesting point on how a band like Hopewell was trying to establish themselves and has a much different approach to playing and interacting with the crowd, as Ween were just up there not caring and having a great time playing. I added that since music is appreciated the more one listens to it and can follow the tempo and lyrics, a band like Ween that has all their fans singing along, can feed off that energy and have more fun with the crowd. We ended our night on the east side catching a drink with this girl I know and her friends, but that’s another story for another time.
Tags:
hopewell, knitting factory, mercury lounge, ween
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Posted on 8/21/2005
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