Gig recaps from our recent appearances are forthcoming…

A quick note on our EP pre-release…

–It’s come to our attention that a couple “data” CDs might have gotten out into the larger pool (the kind that play nicely with your computer but not with your CD player). If you run into any issues with your CD, email info@darlingside.com and we’ll get it sorted out.
–The EP will be up for download on this site in the next couple weeks. Keep checking back– we’re pumped to get it out there!
–Dave, please contact me at autoshun@darlingside.com if you’re still unclear on what “pre” and/or “release” mean.

Thanks to all who came out to the Iron Horse and made it such a welcoming atmosphere for us!

Meanwhile, check out the latest video in our ‘Live at Paramount’ series, “Oh My Sweet Carolina” by Ryan Adams. Guest starring Ms. Caitlin Canty.

The Local 269 in New York was positively tectonic. We had some band godmothers up in there. We had some ex-roommates and some stalwart friends… Matt Earle was formally inducted as our first Darlingside SuperFan, having now attended the same number of gigs as Dave’s Newsies hat.  Auyon paid homage to this feat by wearing a sleeveless undershirt with black suspenders.  We had never shared the stage with a “funk-hop” group before, but the Downbeat Keys were a sweet, groovy revelation.  Levain Bakery yielded two-pound cookies on the way out of Manhattan, and we left sated. We’ll see you New Yorkers again soon (May 6 at Banjo Jim’s and then a bowling/music bonanza at Brooklyn Bowl on June 15!).

The following eve, we dragged our equipment through an ice storm into a restaurant/brewery, where we served up a couple hours of acousticy tune-fare in exchange for homemade beer and joyful hamburg. A few surprise friends showed up from Williamstown to help us make merry. The sleety-slushy drive home was the same amount of fun as going back and watching “The Land Before Time” twenty years later and realizing it’s not actually that good.

*Bonus Ticket-selling Recap:

Harris and Don attempt to table at UMass-Amherst for the Nada Surf show, without a table

Silk City Tap Room was a good old-fashioned bar gig. It was great to stretch out a little and play a full hour set, bringing some older material back into the fold and debuting a very new song, tentatively called “Malea.” Our music seemed well received, and we definitely had lots of fun. We were psyched to see familiar faces from some previous local gigs (recurring patronage seems like it has to be a good sign). Even our kind landlady stopped in to hang out! We got help on the mixing board from members of the band “Wyld Stallyns,” who came on after us to regale the party people with our old favorites from the mid-90’s pop-rock catalogue. We made friends with some high-proof tequila representatives. Obviously mistaking us for athletes, they bestowed a variety of sweatband products and even basketballs upon us (see pic). They even made a half-hearted attempt to flirt with us until they realized we were more interested in Rubik’s cubes than girls.

Darlingside does not endorse the use of skinny black ties

Radio Bean was another big milestone for us as our first 400+ mile trip, and we did it in style. And by “style” I mean a big unmarked van rental. After driving around the small streets of Burlington looking more than a little sketchy (“we don’t have any lollipops, leave us alone!”), we arrived at the venue. Radio Bean surprised us first by having our tiniest stage yet, and second by having the coolest crowd we’ve yet experienced. We got set up with 2/3 of Sam’s kit on the riser, Auyon and Harris spilling off the edge, and Dave and I swordfighting throughout the night with our long-necked instruments (why does everyone smirk when I say that?). The coffee shop atmosphere segued seamlessly into a sophisticated bar scene, and the patrons were extremely receptive listeners. We found a metal bowl on a pedestal with undergarments in it that we somehow realized was the tip bowl. It got admirably refilled, albeit with more traditional tipping fare, and we proceeded to make friends with med students from UVM (even in the great white North, you can still be delighted to find clusters of Williams alum-dom). We then managed to get our silly on from the two comp drinks we received at the bar and ended the night RPS’ing for couches at Casa Andrew Eyre (a very schwank place to crash that we probably didn’t deserve– thanks again Andrew!).

More to follow shortly (hopefully not by me, for all y’allse’s sake) on the rest of this week’s tour (Toad in Cambridge, the Lucky Dog in Worcester).

Recap Notes:
RPS: Rock-Paper-Scissor
“more interested in Rubick’s cubes than girls [sic]”= not strictly true, although it’s a close call, Dave having spent the van ride up split evenly between “sexting” and finishing his cube in the light from the phone
“sexting”= what I am willing to assume people are doing whenever they ignore me and type on their little gadgets

Sam builds “Diffuser”,
small step up from Playmobil:
basement walls sound kiiiind.

thesixtyone.com

‘Neath the full Black Moon,
0’er Dunkin Donuts they jammed
’til they got sleepy.

After smoothing out some feedback and mixing issues over the course of our first song, we settled right in and got down to business. The business of rock. The six-song set seemed to fly by. Surround, Older, Oh My Sweet Carolina, The Catbird Seat, All That Wrong, In the Morning. See how fast that flew by? It was a great thing indeed just to get our music out there into the world after all our labor and care. In that way, we all felt like proud mothers (minus the ugly gowns). Some of us did dress up — Auyon as the cop guy from the Village People, Harris as a college graduate with a fauxhawk (or Biff from Back to the Future), and Dave as the shittiest mailbox on the block (our block, our mailbox). I prepared a joke about being dressed as “The Beatles,” but then I forgot to make the joke.

Harris helped pick up the bantering slack by relating to the audience a spellbinding narrative about Dave’s sleep cycles, and Auyon made the obligatory racial jokes that only he is allowed to make in a public setting. It’s always hard to tell, but it did seem like the audience was psyched about our music. We’ve been told to always leave them wanting more, so we declined the request for an encore. Also, we didn’t want to peeve the management and the next band by going overslot. Also, we only know those six songs. We’re getting on that seventh song, though. Watch out next time, Amherst.

We were honored by weekend visits from Kimmie Ulmer and James Trotta. One of them brought us amazing pie and carved us a Catbird pumpkin, and the other brought us Mo’s (40 oz. malt liquor plus wine coolers). Who brought which? You be the judge.

Catbird Pumpkin and Mo’s

Greg Schultz (of Socialist and Purple Valley Entertainment) also made a brief appearance, long enough to use the shower and make us jealous of his newly acquired guitar. We realized at some point that we only have visitors who are from Williams. But we also have a ton of visitors. We realized that we like that.