It was bound to happen at some point. When I tell people we play from “nine until forever” at The Playwright Tavern 49th St on Sunday nights, I’m not jokin’ around.
Patrick McDermott and I played our last note at 2:25AM on MONDAY morning 8/22 after starting at 9PM on Sunday 8/21. On a highly anomalous note, we didn’t play any Beatles songs, but we did repeat one song which was Seal – Kiss From A Rose, making appearances as the 11PM number AND the 2AM number.
Other fun facts about this 95% request driven set list,
- We played consecutive songs written by Bruce Springsteen, namely Because The Night and Blinded By The Light. Those of you who know us best are aware we wouldn’t usually do that. In this case however, given that the Boss never released Because The Night (it was co-written with Patti Smith, whose version was the definitive until 10,000 Maniacs put it on their MTV Unplugged record) and Blinded By The Light was made most famous by Manfred Mann, and in fact hit #1 (Bruce’s only number one, by the way) we thought that’d be a fun loophole.
- Show staples Sex on Fire & Use Somebody (Kings of Leon) CONTINUE to ignite crowds the world over no matter when in the set you play either one. We have had those two in steady rotation since the release of Only By The Night in September of 2008 and it never gets old seeing people reconnect with the songs. Instagram seems to suggest that the Kings have a new record on the way before too long. A Sept-Oct release and subsequent tour wouldn’t surprise me at all.
- Owing to the absurd humidity and occasional disfunction of the air conditioning unit, we not only elected to break out one of our seasonal favorites Summer In The City by The Lovin’ Spoonful (featured prominently in Die Hard: With A Vengeance), we also lost no fewer than 15 strings between the two of us over the marathon set.
- We had visitors from as far afield as Australia, Mexico, Germany & Ireland and as near as Jersey. . hence the Bruce.
- Breedlove guitars really stand up to the beating we put on them night after night, week after week, month after month.
- We gave Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn a run for his money in terms of show length, and we weren’t forcibly removed.
- You haven’t rocked in New York City until or unless you’ve Rocked with The Turn. Luckily, we’re always out there and you’re always invited.
The bar has been set and reset by crowds at The Playwright over many years. This was a very special evening and there’s plenty more to come.
See y’all soon.