We pulled double-duty over the weekend — first headlining a show at the Cellar on Treadwell (formerly the Space) in Jake and Thom’s hometown of Hamden, then driving up to Chris’s hometown of Middletown for the annual Oktoberfest celebration at Rejects Beer Co. It wasn’t quite a “tour,” per se, though it was certainly exhausting. Probably because it was so awesome.
Bobby Dyckman kicked off the evening on Friday with a raucous set of folk punk bangers. He even did a cover of “Recovery” by Frank Turner, which reminded Chris and I that the last time we were in that building was the Recovery Tour in 2008, which ended up being the first time we ever heard Frank Turner (show #518, if we’re being technical; he’s pushing 3000 now).
Our friend Christian Marrone had originally put the Hamden show together, but he unfortunately caught the COVID and had to drop off the bill. We asked about a dozen other bands to fill the slot, but none were available. So, in a moment of desperation, we reached out to Jay Russell, the bassist of Hot Rod Circuit who also fronts the New Haven-based indie-Americana band the Split Coils. Jay seemed genuinely excited to join the bill, and played an excellent set — including a Tom Petty cover, that inspired us to do our own:
Did I mention that the light show was awesome as well?
Seriously, just look at this library of photos my friend took:
We didn’t get as many photos at Rejects, and unfortunately most of us had to split pretty soon after our (very early) set. But the audience was awesome, and people seemed to be really digging our sound. Due to some planning SNAFUs, we even had to play without Nick—and we didn’t even fuck up that much! (We’re excited to have him back for next time though)
We’re hoping to get back to both New Haven and Middletown sooner than later. Next up for now: a very special Halloween show in Salem! But more on that later.
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