The Primate Fiasco

Dude, How was LEAF?

2011-05-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Lake Eden Arts Festival called 6 months ago to book The Primate Fiasco for a kids performance. Asheville North Carolina is about 14 hours away so I asked them for a grown ups show as well. They were nice enough to grant us a late night set in something called the "Barn". We have to assume that the kids stage is the usual board of plywood with a 50 watt sound system. We also have to assume that this barn thing is hidden in the woods and probably at the same time as the headliner. Otherwise, why would they give a sweet time slot to a band that no one there has ever heard of? We ended up with two kids shows, a late night barn, and a parade. Four shows in 2 days. We decided to do it because it was a good starting point down south for our spring tour. We had no idea what we were getting into.

We rolled in at 3am. We didn't really have the option of showing up during check in hours so we just sort of snuck in, parked where we knew we shouldn't be, and set up camp where we shouldn't be. We'll sort it all out in the morning. When we woke, we found ourselves beside a beautiful lake, high up in the smokey mountains. The lake was peppered with zip lines, canoes, and one of those giant inflatable things that catapults you as someone else jumps onto it from the diving board. It was a giant playground of summeryness. There were adorable little stone and wood buildings all around. Tents were set up around the water and up to the tips of peninsulas. Basically, it was already the sweetest layout I have ever seen for a festival. Like summer camp, but with monster musical acts.

At first, I was baffled that so many of the staff and fans knew who I was because they kept making eye contact and saying hello. Then I realized that they make eye contact with everyone around here and it had nothing to do with who we were. It felt voyeuristic to me at first, to check out someone's condition and expect a confirming nod back. But after the first few hours it felt really safe and welcoming.

KIDS VILLAGE

Our first job was to play the closing show at the kids stage on Friday. Scratch that whole thing about the tiny little kid stage with the 50 watt system. This festival takes their kids music seriously. Finally, a fest who understands that kids are ON THE LEVEL!!! I think I'm qualified to testify about this. Kids throw down. When they like it, they tear up the dance floor and when it bores them, they leave. They could care less how hip, classic, underground, legendary, or how many degrees from The Grateful Dead something is. They like what they like. This festival knows that. The stage was actually a little bit hipper, more capable, and even more tripped out than many adult side stages that I've seen. It was a circus tent (hand made) with a serious PA system, subs and all. So the tuba is not just a shiny object to look at, it's also going to waste a few diapers. Surrounding the kid stage is a whole village that honesty could exist by itself without the rest of the festival. It would be worth taking a family to the village for a weekend without leaving it. A mini carnival. Trapeze, jugglers. Two stages (seriously, the kids area had a side stage?). And an instrument petting zoo where kids could try out everything from trumpets to mandolins. And the real kind of face painting. Ya know.. by artists.

Our Friday set coincided with a thunder storm. A few families figured out that it would be better to be in the circus tent than in their own tent so there was a decent turn out. I thought it was cool that people without kids also showed up just to check out the band. How did they know that The Primate Fiasco might be hipper than a folk singing clown who sings about bunnies? Because they know better at this festival. Every one of the acts on the kids stage was world class. Literally. Saturday was even better. We played earlier in the day to kick off the parade. All in all, probably our best kids show to date.

Later, from the side stage, we heard a guy leading a Beatles sing along for at least an hour. It was like church.

FRIDAY NIGHT

After the kids set, I had to park the van somewhere very very far away. I ended up lost but got to explore other parts of the campground. For instance, I finally found my way to the artist lounge where they were giving me food, beer, and massages for free. All on a ledge that overlooked the downtown part of the festival from high above. I'm used to knowing the people in the greenroom when closer to home. The usual Kung Fu, Max Creek, Hot Day, Alchemystics, Zack, Rubblebucket, crew wasn't there this time. They were all strangers. I met a guy named Josh Phillips who seemed like a really good soul.

Josh mentioned that he had a late night set at the barn. It was the same time and place as our barn set, but a day before. I figured I should check out the barn. I couldn't get in because they were at capacity. I asked someone if it was always like that and they said no. Josh is a local boy who grew up as a LEAFer. That's why it's packed. The band sounded killer from outside. I imagine that's also why. I was a little concerned about people not making it up the hill to hear us when it was our turn. Thus far, the only ones who heard us were kids and parents who keep the same sleeping hours as their kids. Tomorrow would be a day for the old tricks.

FOOD

Normally, this is a boring topic to review, but I have to say that the scheduled meals for performers and crew were amazing. The problem was that we were playing so often, we were having a hard time being there when it was served. A staff member named Paul jumped through hoops to make sure we got fed in time for our set. One trick I've learned about any fest, job, etc is that you should always make friends with someone on kitchen staff. Here, I didn't have to. Paul hooked us up with royal treatment without ever asking who we were. Much love Paul!

PARADE

Parades are like junk drawers. Everyone has one and there's no good way to organize it. At most festivals, we struggle to figure out where and when we are supposed to do what. At this one, it was hard not to know. There was an incredibly talented stilt dancer with an African drumming group who, even behind a mask, had no trouble communicating to the herd about which way they were going and when. There was a marching band of very young musicians from a school (that I wish I knew the name of). These kids were sick. They got a kick out of Chris's mobile drum rig and all took turns trying it.

SATURDAY RENEGADE SET

After the parade, we had about 4 hours to kill before our barn set which may or may not be attended by LEAFers. Around 7pm, we went out to the main stage field during the down time between acts. We jammed out on the lawn and gathered a main stage size audience. We had a sign on the sousaphone that said "BARN 10:30". We only played 3 songs and ended it with NIN's "closer", just so they understood that we weren't only a kids band.

VENDING

BBQ sundays, The Breakfast Thing (omelette in a tortilla), and endless awesomeness. I met a painter named Wendy Kowalski who had some brilliant work and was drawing people for tips. At one point, I watched her paint while dancing to the stage music. The music, paint, odors of vending treats, and her funky soul blended together into something of a performance piece. As Wendy would say, it's in the paint. We became good friends immediately.

THE BARN

As I was trying to MacGyver our camcorder to the barn wall (just incase anyone showed up), I expected the sound guy to get annoyed with me like they sometimes do when you are caught scaling walls above expensive equipment. Notoriously at festivals, the sound crew has been working 50 hours strait and have a short fuse, understandably. He saw me looking for an outlet and free'd up a plug from the soundboard while advising me about a potential lighting issue. Southern Hospitality.

Our set started on time. There was no one there. Just kidding, the place was jammed against the stage. As I looked around the room, it was like a scene in a movie where all the characters pan across the frame shortly before the story's climax. Actually, it wasn't "like" that. It WAS that. While we were walking out on stage, I saw Denisa, the woman who originally found us and booked us for the kids stage; Mary Ellen, a merch booth staff (and musician) who was one of the firsts to welcome us; Billy Jack, a big cheese who I had been corresponding with for months; Wendy, the painter; kitchen staff, the people who danced at our renegade set, The exec producer of the fest who helped me call a friend in my time of desperate sleep deprivation with no cell service; and even a few kids who were up way past their bed time. I could see the curious excitement on their faces. It was clear that they were wishing the best for us. So many people had run the extra mile for us all weekend and our job in the moment was to make all of their efforts worth it.

In moments like that, it's no longer a job. It's not even something we do for fun or even artistic expression. It becomes our place in the universe and our reason for being.

The barn architecture swayed with the beat throughout the set. They were a warm and energetic crowd. I handed a tambourine to a little girl who was front and center. She couldn't have been more that 7 but had the rhythm of a New Orleans street performer. Earlier that weekend, we over heard that the barn was once a refugee safe-house for Jews during the holocaust so Havah Negila found it's way into our set and damn near broke the dance floor. For the encore, we brought the little girl (Lauren) to the stage where she helped us close the set to The Muppet Show. For the second encore, we walked off the stage and jammed out on the dance floor with our new friends.

SATURDAY LATENIGHT

After the barn set, we cleared the barn and went back down the hill to hear Spam Allstars in Eden Hall. Eden hall is where the food was served all weekend. There was a stage in there which housed a lot of alternative, folky, mellow, family friendly stuff all weekend. When I walked in, I didn't recognize it. The tables were all pushed to the sides and the room was full of the demographic that would still be awake at 2am. Finally, here are all the people our age. Everyone in the room (maybe 500) were all moving together. And I don't mean to the same beat. I mean we all danced with each other. When you walk through the room, you groove out with each person that you pass. All of that eye contact that we've been experiencing all weekend found it's funk and it was beautiful. People were dancing on the tables and in the hallways. Outside was the beach where people could still enjoy the music and also some conversation.

I hung out with some really nice Asheville girls, Katherine, Brook, and Emily, who were at the barn set and then ran into Josh Phillips on my way back. He invited me up to the drum circle which I was unaware of. On our way up, I found out that he was playing the staff party on Sunday night and a girl mention that she wanted some New Orleans songs. I had to ask, "ya need any horns?" It looked like we would be staying another night.

DRUM CIRCLE

I had a white knuckle golf cart ride to the esoterically located bonfire. I overheard a bunch about the drum circle. Typical of drum circles, there are drummers and there are non drummers who join in. As a djembe player, I can appreciate that it can be a fine tuned craft. But I also respect that a circle is open to everyone, including novice drummers and I like that. Unusual time signatures can be a lot to ask for since most people are going to be banging in 4/4 regardless. I witnessed the struggle between attempted African polyrhythms and drunken funk pounding. It was hard to know where to play. I joined in with the 9 beat rhythm when I could hear it but since the non drummers had the louder drums, I was definitely not bummed out when the skilled drummers submitted to the acoustic hip hop. It's just more welcoming and communal when everyone can play together without 6 months of training in West Africa. But the drummers that were there were great. I would love the chance to sit in a smaller circle with them some day. I drummed until I started seeing the blue return to the sky and suddenly I realized how tired I was.

STAFFTER PARTY

I guess its a tradition that on sunday night, after everyone goes home, the staff has a catered party up at the barn. We were there because Josh invited us as his horn section. And it's a good thing too because they found out a little too late that there was no sound system still standing in the barn. The Primate Fiasco gear came out of the van and Josh put on an amazing show. His band was tight and he himself is just a funky soulful bro. We got to party with all of the staff that had taken such good care of us and really iced the cake of a great weekend. A really delicious cake. A delicious, healthy, and filling cake.

AFTERMATH

Our gig in Asheville the next night was well attended. Brook and Katherine brought a bunch of people down and many more passers by came in and danced. Wendy (painter) was stranded in town for an extra night as well and so we got to hang out with her some more. It was probably one of the hippest Monday nights we've ever had. Tuesday night we crashed an open jam at a different bar across town and saw more of our new friends again.

Asheville is no longer a curiosity. Its much the way Vermont or Connecticut is for us. I feel like we could play there any time and always have people to dance and put us up for the night. If Northampton ever kicked me out, I would move there.

Spawning from a Facebook request to play Washington DC from our new friend Emily, we ended up crashing on her floor and street jamming in our nations capital. I like this idea of booking the tour as we go. We also made a lot of friends at LEAF who live in Athens, Charleston, Charolette, DC, and Wilmington. Apparently, a major radio DJ who broadcasts to these places named us his favorite new musical discovery. Looks like it's time to book the next southern tour.

I recommend LEAF to people in the north. It seems like a long drive and it is. But really, you'll return every year and then so will your children and their children.

-Dave Del

Banjo/vocals/harmonica

Dude, how was the Vibes?

2010-08-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's a common question lately so I've decided to tell the whole story here where you can read as little or as much as you want. I broke it down into the common second questions. But if you wanted a one word answer.. good. Vibes was good.

WHAT IS VIBES?

The Gathering of the Vibes is a music festival of about 20-30 thousand people in Bridgeport CT. Camping. Hard partying. gigantic list of gigantic bands etc. I first attended the vibes back in 2000. That summer was also my first summer in the Six Flags band so I had just discovered banjo and dixieland music. It was my one weekend off from the park and was there to see P-Funk (with George), Les Claypool, Strangefolk, and Deep Banana. Among the campground partying, a thought crossed my mind. This crowd would totally dig the dixie band. That's all I'll say about that.

HOW DID YOU GET IN TO VIBES?

Ten years later, The Primate Fiasco was discovered by the Vibes people at a Bridgeport venue. No one was there so between sets, we went outside to play on the sidewalk. We paraded back in with audience in tote. Vibes personal was present. The show was pretty much already booked (and we are microscopic compared to the bands they have there) so it was too late to give us a stage spot. But they did witness our mobility potential and so that's how we ended up in the vibes. They offered us the ability to roam around all weekend and do our street thing and then came up with a spot for us to set up a stage in the vending strip.

There were four scheduled performances. One street show by the PT Barnum statue (The circus godfather apparently donated the park to the city and I found it appropriate that we were playing under his memorial statue), a Friday and Saturday night set at our stage on the vending strip, and then we lead a parade on sunday morning. Outside of that, we have free range to walk around and jam wherever and whenever we want.

The Vibes people did their best to schedule good exposure for us. But as it turned out, through no fault of theirs, the scheduled sets were the challenges and the free range moments are what made our weekend.

The band was in a nebulous status. We were artist, but technically vendors. Camped in VIP but were sorta with the staff. The workers at the check-in tent were excited to meet us but had no idea what we were. They were very nice and would say things like, "so.. you are an artist but I guess I'm supposed to give you a vender wrist band?" We're used to being the odd ball organization.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Two things about location. On a large scale, lets talk miles. Our stage was in a vending strip, which sounded good in theory, but it was a mile away from the rest of the festival. It was there for the poor saps who had to camp so far away, they'd never make it to the other vending areas for breakfast and such. The times of our stage show were set for the worst possible time. Right after the headliner and right before the after party (but a mile away). Headliners being PRIMUS and FURTHER (the remaining GRATEFUL DEAD). The after parties being MIX MASTER MIKE and DEEP BANANA BLACKOUT. Needless to say, the only people who would be within a mile of us were the people who couldn't party anymore and managed to make it back to their tent instead of crashing on the pavement outside the concert field.

On a smaller scale, we saw how 50 feet can make a giant difference on our roaming sets. Our first roaming set was scheduled in front of PT Barnum statue at 8pm on Thursday night. As we started to play, people who were on their way into the show would stop and watch us. The problem was, The Barnum statue was in the center of a traffic rotary. Every time a vehicle went by (every 30 seconds or so) the crowd would get broken up and they would ultimately remember that they were on their way into the main stage area. When we moved across the street and away from the rotary traffic, the expected crowd started to form. And then the unexpected crowd started to form. Basically, the entrance between the concert area and camping area had become clogged. At that point, security asked us to move about 20 feet because our audience was clogging the gate. Thats the difference that 50 feet makes to a street musician.

STAGE SET #1

We decided to try our stage on the vending strip. This was not a scheduled performance. It was around 2pm or so. The campground was still populated with folks who were saving their mile long treck for the late night headliners. When we started to play, a crowd formed and then was immediately distracted by a naked guy getting tazed by the cops. Nothing breaks up a good fiasco like having a cop car parked in front of your stage. I hope that guy is ok and I hope he doesn't get in too much trouble for his intoxicated resistance. He clearly was in another world at the time. The tazing disturbed me.

STAGE SET FRIDAY NIGHT

1am. The campground was quiet when we started but it soon turned into a raging dance party. Really. It was like one of our Iron Horse shows only we were under an easy up tent by the ocean and the crowd was on pavement. It was a little more on the trance/techno/disco side of the primate fiasco. Reports of people dancing at their camp site confirmed that our PA system was belting plenty of sound across the hundreds of acres of tent city. At the end, we paraded off the stage and walked them over to an unauthorized makeshift stage where TURBINE was getting ready to play. The night continued.

ROAMING SETS ON SATURDAY

A quick walk to the playground was a no brainer idea for a kids show. After all, we did have a box of kids CDs to sell. Then we moved on, trying to stay in sync with the main stage schedule which was about to give some sonic downtime.

Here's where it gets good. We should have just done this the whole time. In between bands on the main stage, there is a 20 minute downtime. We sucked up every last drop of 20 minutes right before and right after GALACTIC, right at the mouth of the concert field. Those may have been some of the best Primate Fiasco sets ever. Every inch of hearing range was a swarming, sweaty, body painted, dance party. One guy had a drum with him and he did a great job of playing it. We broke out into a percussion jam where I banged on the banjo head, nick played his djembe, and the dude with the bright green sunglasses played his drum. It was more fun than any of us deserve. We wanted to play this spot right after Primus also, but we had an appointment a mile away at that hour.

SAT NIGHT STAGE SET

PRIMUS just got done playing and DEEP BANANA was playing the after party. It was late in the weekend. People were only half alive. We had a smaller crowd at our stage than we did on Friday night. They were interested in hearing us, but they couldn't even stand up. We were tired too. The band's exhausted sound was actually pretty appropriate for the scene. We did something we never do. We played all of our laid back lyrical stuff. It was nice.

At one point while we were playing, I got this strange feeling. Not to get to far out on ya, but the "vibe" didn't match the sight. I saw maybe 50 people standing or laying on the pavement (and a few neon glowing dancers) but it didn't feel like 50 people. It felt like more. There was some sort of presence that was confusing me. It was that feeling of being watched right before you turn around a notice godzilla's giant eyeball two feet away from you. Could it be? hmmm.. I asked the audience who was standing in front of the stage to remain silent for a moment. I then asked, into the microphone, if the people in their tents could hear us. And if so, are they enjoying it or are they trying to sleep? At that moment, a loving roar swept across the city of tents. There's no way to know how far it went. But it was something far bigger than us. I remember the faces on the audience members who were silently standing in front of the stage. It was at this moment that we knew our job. Everyone was as burnt and beat as we were. This was a lullaby set. We now knew that when we spoke into the mic, we were speaking to the entire western camp ground. We told them how bad we felt for them to be on the sun baked, treeless side of the fest and then sang Sunny Side Of The Street for them.

We played All my Enemies, Coulda Shoulda Woulda Monster, and several other songs that are often too mellow for the raging dance sets. We felt our work was done. We gave them one last goodnight song, You Are My Sunshine. Towards the end of the song, it jumped into a throbbing disco dance groove for about two verses. The audience mustered up the little bit of dancing they had left and then we switched back to the sweet slow version and settled them back to bed.

IN THE END

After waking up early to play Sunday morning's parade, our work was done. Nick and some of our crew had already gone home. And the remaining band and crew wandered back stage where we were to redeem our artist badges for some food. I figured we would maybe say hello to Martin Sexton and enjoy food that hadn't soaked in cooler water all weekend. We were still that nebulous band that is not really a vendor, not really a performer, and not staff, yet was clearly a member of the vibes. At the VIP tent, they told us to go to artist catering. At artist catering, they told us to go to VIP. We ended up buying food at the vendor tents just like the fans. I was too tired to track someone down with the proper laminant. They had done enough for us all weekend. $10 for Chinese food while we watched Ryan Montbleu on the main stage. Enjoyable. We got to be audience, or guests, or fans, or custies, or heads. Whatever you call it. We walked around and enjoyed the final moments of the festival. I think I'm the only person there who shelled out $25 for a T-shirt with my band's name on it.

-Dave Del

Free Concerts

2008-08-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

BLOW UP NORTHAMPTON

That was the name of the grant proposal in Spring 08. The Northampton Arts Council granted The Primate Fiasco enough money to pay for gas and food for an out of town band to open for us at our free shows. The venue will make its money from the bar. The Primate Fiasco will probably make nothing unless you buy CDs from us. But it's in town, so if you already have a CD, we'll be fine. This blog will explain the reasons and goals around this project. It's intended to kill a flock of birds with one stone.

GOAL #1

Free Concerts in Northampton. They either pay their hard earned cash to see us, or they just can't go. People deserve it. Free Primate Fiasco Concert here in town. Nuff said. Besides. If we can charge $13 and see over 300 people, we could have a serious party with no door fee.

GOAL #2

If you read the previous blog, you understand that there are only 2 kinds of bands that can successfully play in Northampton. Hard working, established local bands who have been trying for some time and national acts. A band from, say, Burlington VT or Providence RI don't stand a chance. Even if they tour the Northeast, they often skip Noho because they know that no one will show up to see them. If we could have these bands open for us, we could offer them some valuable exposure, making it possible for them to play here in the future. All we have to do is choose a band that our supporters would like.

Usually, when we have our larger shows, it costs us a lot of money in publicity and other things. So we can't really share our earnings with an opening act. We end up needing to recoup our expenses. We generally don't have an opening act. Just guests who play with us. If we had a free show, our expenses would be much less. We could count on a large crowd with minimal publicity. Hence, we don't care if we don't get a fat roll of cash at the end of the night. No big deal. As for an out of town band, they need to pay for gas and food. Enter the grant. The Northampton Arts Council gave us $1000. We plan on using that for 5 shows. $200 each. That $200 can go to a little bit of publicity costs, and the rest will go into the other band's gas tank and/or stomaches. Said band will be able to demonstrate their music to a large Primate Fiasco audience and if they play their cards right, will be able to come back again and pull their own new fans into the room. Noho is no longer shut off from that band.

GOAL #3

This is really goal #2.5 but two words, SHOW SWAP. We've played all over New England and upstate NY at this point. There are a few dark spots. Boston, for example. No one knows us out there. When we play there, the people who see us like us. But thats not enough. More people need to see us or it's not worth the gas (and tolls, and parking, and hair loss due to Boston directions). What we need is a band who is just like us but in that area. We need one in RI, VT, NY, NH, CT. Do I really need to explain where this is going? We have 5 shows to do. That means 5 different bands from 5 cities.

GOAL #4

Northampton has the same caliber of original music as Austin, Nashville, Ashville, Athens, etc. But no one knows about it outside of Western MA. The more bands put this town on their map, the more we will become a destination spot. Bands will want to play here. Other towns will want to check out MA bands. A band from Athens, New Orleans, Austin have no problem promoting themselves as "a band from...". Shouldn't we be able to do that? Shouldn't Alchemystics or Amity Front be able to drop the name Northampton and get some buzz from it? I think it's possible.

STARTING NOW

The first show is scheduled at the Elevens on Sept 19th. Unfortunately, The Elevens will fill up quickly and we won't be able to let in everyone that shows up. Hopefully, the next one will be in a bigger room. The bigger rooms have a much bigger overhead and won't be able to open it up to us for free. So perhaps we might find a wealthy business (or person) who believes in this community and wants to sponsor the event. That would give us the budget to throw an even bigger bash with more fireworks*.

The First band to open for us will be a band out of southern CT called "Stanley Maxwell". They're awesome. We saw them live and were blown away. It's the kind of thing that our crowd would be into. I'm hoping they book another show up here for shortly after our show. That way they can promote it while opening for us. This is a band that really should come to Northampton. Northampton would love them.

Other bands that we've discovered are "Low Anthem" from RI, and "Pariah Beat" from Cambridge MA. Please check out these bands. And if you know of any other great bands who don't play Northampton, send us a link.

-Dave Del (banjo/vocals)

* By fireworks, I mean circusy antics and special things happening either in the audience or on the stage. We've been known to have that kind of shinanigans when we can.

There was a prereq to this post but I took it down. The reason I removed it is because (aside from the fact that it was written poorly) people took some things the wrong way and then commented, which is great. But they put a lot of words in my mouth and then other people were offended by those words. I've attached that previous post here so that it still lives. But I don't want it to be a post where people can comment and warp it. If you want to leave comment, you're free to leave them here or on the next post where the offended folks will be able to look up and see the real intentions before getting their feelings hurt by someone else who doesn't show their name.

Street Playing or protesting?

2008-07-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

There are some towns across the USA who still call themselves "towns". They have a downtown area swarming with pedestrians, pan handlers, townies, tourists, and musicians. Always musicians. These towns always have a soundtrack. It's not always great, but hearing someone destroy a dylan song on an out of tune guitar or play 80's melodies on a sax is far more charming than your favorite CD pumped through even the best of speakers. It's called "live" for a reason. It's alive. It breaths. You hear it and it hears you back.

Northampton used to be one of those towns. People would drive up to Noho to watch the freaks. They weren't really freaks, they were just rich kids with hair dye and clothes from the Army Barracks, otherwise butch lesbians that caught the attention of out-of-towners the way a nun would get attention at a keg party. Not exactly freaks, but worth leaving ludlow.

While the cognitive mind of the cash wielding pedestrian was focused on the sidewalk settlements of 14 year old trustafarians and cars that mimicked livestock, the smell of pizza and/or Asian cuisine would find the nose. The eyes would enjoy an antique cityscape speckled with cheep xerox propaganda. And the ears.. ah the ears.. After that motorcycle passes, the ear would fill with the sound of a creepy dude with an out of tune guitar. The fact that you and he both know the words to the song that he is belting reveals what is too often forgotten. Sometimes they would annoy the crap out of a shop keeper or maybe they were obstructing a handicap ramp. They would be asked to move and the show would go on about 10 feet away without missing a verse of "uncle toms band". The musician's willingness to cooperate is partly out of a lack of reason not to. I mean, if you're in the way, you'll move. And partly because there was a street performance permit issued, for free, by the town. That permit insured that the said musician had read the guidelines. Guidelines that essentially said, "hey man, don't be a goober and move if you're asked to".

It's not always a creepy guy with an out of tune guitar. Sometimes its a cute little girl with a violin or a crazy old lady with a banjo. Steel drums, mandolins, double basses, kazoos, you name it. Someone would lug their rig down to main st and attempt to make $7.00 that night. On a good night (by "good", I mean for you and the musician) the musician would break 3 digits while ice cream licking families, tattooed college students, and novice photographers all dammed up a chunk of sidewalk to watch someone play the snot out of an instrument that they will line up and ask the name of between each song. Putting $5 in the persons case/bucket/hat/mouth was the best purchase you'll make all night.

What are you buying when you put money in a street performers hat? Were they going to stop playing if you didn't do it? Unlikely. Were you impressing your date? Maybe. But really, what did you owe the musician? Consider this; you could have got pizza or Asian or even asian pizza from your generic little springfield suburb. You could have gone online that day to see something out of the ordinary like OH MY GOD LESBIANS! But you didn't. You felt the need to sip your coffee and lick your ice cream and smoke your clove in the town of Northampton MA because you can. Because it's not a Stop and Shop parking lot. Its got people. PEOPLE doing things that people do for no other reason than.. well.. why do cats play with yarn and whales jump out of water? Who cares? They do it because they can. People choose to hang out in a town like Northampton for these simple pleasures. Passing the spoils to the shop keepers, chefs, real estate agents, and beyond.

When you give a dollar to a street musician, you are thanking them in the same way you would thank city hall for having silly castle architecture or thank the park for having benches or thank the students for wearing home made clothes. It's not like everywhere else. Its a place you can go for no reason at all. You drove 35 minutes. You paid the parking meter. You are SOMEWHERE and that creepy guy with the guitar is the difference between Northampton and Holyoke. The difference between somewhere and anywhere.

Of course, you could also give your dollar to the teams of pan handlers that wait for you to leave Thorne's or Fitzwilly's. They are selling something different. If you walk past them without paying, you leave your pleasant night with a guilt trip. Or they can hold your good vibe hostage for the ransom of "some spare change". 9 out of 10 don't get the guilt trip. but that 10% ads up to an amount that would make you want to quit the guitar. That 10% of people who happen to have spare change on them are purchasing something from the beggar. They are purchasing their own feelings of "god saw me do it" and also purchasing the waste removal of class based guilt for the low low price of whichever pocket had the lease amount of change in it. OK, thats not always what they're selling. Sometimes it really is an unfortunate citizen left behind by our free republic. Maybe you are actually buying them food. Or sometimes you are buying M&Ms from children who claim to be from a church. But usually, you're paying 75 cents for warm fuzzies and the removal of your guilt. People complain. Cash smearing, trinket buying, sushi eating, clove smoking people complain about the rif-raf on the streets. "This is such a pretty town. Can't they do something about this? Oh, Hey look, that car is painted like a cow.. Anyway, can't the cops move these bums somewhere else?".

So what can the town do about this pan handler problem which is not really that much of a problem? Let me offer some insight by rephrasing the question. So what can the city officials do to justify their position as an employee of the people when the people (a couple of shop owners and a random tourist) complain about the reality that has poked it's head into their little utopian dry hump? Ok, let me re-rephrase.. What can city officials do in order to show that they are responding to this problem? Notice the question is not "what can city officials do ABOUT THIS PROBLEM?" the question is, "what can they do to SHOW THAT THEY ARE RESPONDING?" Why have I spent a whole paragraph just asking this question? because the answer is too short.

The answer is nothing. Pan handlers are protected by the constitution. They have the right to ask you for spare change and you have the right to ignore or pay them. The constitution can only be changed to help rich people, not to unhelp poor people, apparently. The city can't respond at all. But wait... the question was "what can they do to SHOW THAT THEY ARE RESPONDING?" right? Solutions aside, lets figure a way to keep our jobs and to pacify the shop owner who could destroy me at the next town meeting. Here's an idea. Lets tell them that there is a vending permit.. no. They aren't actually vending. Lets make a loitering law that.. wait.. everyone is loitering. Isn't there some sort of public safety issue? Isn't the sidewalk maintained by the DPW? Lets have them fix it! We change the channel to the next guy with a 50% justified work flow. DPW looks at the foot traffic and pan handling and says "EURIKA!"

"EURIKA! The musicians are asking for money too! Just like the pan handlers! And they are um.. causing noise pollution! When there's no motorcycles or loud car stereos, these musicians are disturbing what could have been PURE SILENCE! And they're in the way of... STUFF! People can't easily move past them without shifting their course by 2 feet! They're not begging, hence they are not constitutionally protected! Lets see if we can weed some of these guys out!"

You think I'm kidding?

Yea, they can limit the number of places they are allowed to play. They can limit the times of day and lengths of times that they play. They can limit the nature of the instruments allowed. They can limit the number of musicians who can play together. They can make sure that the only legal spaces are in the sun instead of in the shade. And most of all, they can revoke the (now $20) performance permit from the musician, banning them from ever playing another note of music on main st. Outcome: most of the highly entertaining musicians don't bother anymore and those who were relying on it, are starving. Boo-ya! Good job DPW!

They still can't stop shop owners from clogging the sidewalk with A-frame signs. Nor can they stop people from letting their saint bernard tug its way from the parking meeter that its tied to all the way over to the other side of the sidewalk where a poodle is wetting herself in fear. Or nevermind the dogs and sign. Neighbors and old friends can stop to introduce what's his name to what's her name right there in the middle of the walkway, paying no attention to the river of people who are slowly becoming a lake of people. It's Ok to block the sidewalk as long as you're not asking for money. And they still can't stop the pan handlers. Its Ok to ask for money as long as you're not noise pollution. And the car stereos and motorcycles who sit at the curb or the red light long enough to make you want to go in doors and actually paint pottery are also protected. Make as much noise as you want. Just don't ask for money.

So, my question now is as follows. Has anyone felt a difference? Is the street easier on the ears? Do the spare change guilt trips come up less? Is it that much easier to fit a car down the sidewalk without running over a guitar case, just incase you had to ever drive on the sidewalk?

Well, one thing has actually changed (congratulations city workers, I know you don't get to hear that often), the street performing has gone from Manhattan quality to.. well.. Holyoke, Ludlow, Springfield quality. The surreal atmosphere of Hamp, which use to make us excited about needing to "go grab a coffee" has turned into "Why put money in the meter when I could just go through the D&D drive-through?" Are you in freakin' tears yet? Do you not understand that this town is one of the last of its kind? You can't just refurbish it like an antique car. When it's gone it's gone. Trading a Haymarket coffee for Dunkin drive through eventually turns into, "Why am I paying this much to live here when I could live in Greenfield?" and then "why set up shop here when I could make better money in West Springfiled?".

We have taken the first step in turning SOMEWHERE into ANYWHERE. That, to me, costs way more than the spare change that we guard so well. We know what the pan handlers are selling. We know what the musicians are selling. What have the city officials sold us? "Someone I work with kept bugging me about this thing that I constitutionally can't do anything about, so I rigged this little placebo and now I can take that off of my to-do list." Really? That's what we got? We traded an endangered American tradition for the price of scratching the words "annoying shop keeper" off of a to-do list at the DPW office? My expenses were more efficient when I was paying a beggar to leave me alone.

Sorry DPW. I know you don't see it that way and you would never do anything to hurt this town on purpose. But please believe me when I tell you that you've made a mistake. I don't tell you how to pave streets or put up signs, but I will tell you all about the dynamics of main st culture and the role of music in any given scene. I discussed it with you a year ago, and you practiced your constitutional right to ignore me. I will now start practicing my constitutional rights.

Just like the pan handler holding my good vibe hostage for 50 cents, here's my negotiation. You should give the street performing laws back to the department that was meant to handle it. By that I mean the people and the police. They will work it out with common sense, just like any other city. Get rid of the $20 fee, the stupid regulations about locations and such. Widdle it down to one rule; If an officer or shop keeper asks you to move, you move. That's the only real rule.

What am I offering in return? I'm a busker myself, not a pan handler. Surely I'm not just asking for a favor with no offering in return. The restoration of our town's reputation should suffice, but I feel like maybe I should personally offer something directly from me. How about this.. I'll make sure to get MY name on your to-do list via lobbying and or demonstrations. You might label it "Dave-thorn on my side-situation" or "The Primate-why is the whole town talking about this-fiasco" or maybe "find out exactly how many people this guy gets to speak to in a short time". Whatever you call it on your to-do list, I can promise it'll really aggravate the heck outa' ya' if you let it stay on the to-do list for too long. When you fix this mess, I'll allow you to scratch my name off of that list. Just like paying a pan handler to go away.

-Dave Del (Banjo/Vocals)

Recording

2008-04-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

We just finished the recording session. It was easier than we thought it would be. We went in Saturday to record the music and then came back today (sun) to record vocals. Done. Now Wes will work his magic in the mixing and mastering and we'll figure out what the hell to do with it.

I have to say, I'm happy with it. It feels good to have original songs to hand to people. And as I stood there in the sound booth with the headphones and microphone, after everyone had gone home and it was just my vocals left undone, a realization hit me. I guess I've had this realization a couple of times on the past, particularly after particular live shows. It's the realization that I have the rare opportunity to actually be IN my favorite band. Ok, Rusty Belle and Phish still strongly compete. But still, I don't know that there's a band out there that I'd rather be part of. I love this music.

I don't know when you'll get the music. But I can tell you what it is for now..

Demon

Saturn Returns

Sweet Georgia Brown*

Everything Peaks

All my Enemies

Global Warming

Summertime*

South Pole and the Pyramids

Bourbon St Parade*

Most of them are original Primate Fiasco songs. The * tracks are old jazz standards that predate our parents or even our grandparents.

Time to figure out what we're going to name it. Any ideas?