West Indian Girl

we flew in the night before on jet blue. jet blue is the only way to travel from la to ny – trust me…big leather seats, directv on the flight – nice simple airport out of long beach. you cant beat it – plus if you pop half a tab of ambien your flight will be even better cos you will be asleep for most of it. the hotel we stayed at sucked balls. it was the worst western on 38th and for the price it sucked. every now and then my crappy camera takes a good picture and the hazy one i took of Q in our hotel room looks pretty timeless. dont you agree – it’s got a good vibe like a song.
so, the day of the show i went to the virgin megastore to do an instore interview with dj mike (on left)- i guess you can say dj mike is the ny version of la’s dj dave who i’ve talked about before. ironically, just like dj dave, mike is really cool. we hung out for about an hour and played a bunch of tracks off the record and talked about everything under the sun. what was great about this store is that they had our video running on repeat the whole time. it was so cool to see it on a tv instead of the computer. it looked great. anyway, after that i cruised back to soundcheck with chris jones who flew in for the show. it was great having chris there. speaking of “it was great having them there” let’s talk about our publishing company, Cherry Lane who came out in full force. after the show the upstairs turned into a cherry lane party. rich and christa and brooke were there along with tons of other cherry laners. oh so how was the show you ask. we kicked ass and here is a link to a blog review of the show that i was just sent. just read this review in Warm Sounds because i couldn’t have said it better…this review made our collective day. i’m glad you enjoyed the show – next time say hello ian.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: we got into new york the night before the show. we as in rob, fran, mark and i. we stayed at some best western DUMP. my room was the size of bowery ballroom’s “champagne room”. seriously. it smelled and i hated it. our first night in town was less than thrilling. we went to eat at some cute diner/bar in soho at like one in the morning, which i think, is ridiculous because i hate to eat late but i was out voted so whatever. i love new york but not during the summer. it was hot and muggy and the smell reminded me a lot of downtown l.a., hmm… lovely? not so much. our second and final day and evening in new york was spent at the bowery so i didn’t get to have as wonderful an experience as my last time. i don’t care though, i still think new york is the greatest city in america. the end.

The Venue: i thought bowery ballroom was going to be grandiose… it didn’t look like a “ballroom” per se but i dug the layout… a lot. i’d go into detail about how cool the scene is but you’ll just have to go there yourself and see if you don’t already know. since we were the opening band we didn’t get the main dressing room but we got what i like to call “the champagne room”. the champagne room was pretty gangster… it was an intimate little VIP section of some sorts with a velvet curtain that blocked us from the rest of the patrons on the upper level. if it weren’t for the musky smell and all the dust… uh, historic dust? i probably would’ve liked it a lot more. the people at the bowery were fantastic. all the security guards and our sound girl were super groovy. i can’t wait to play a show there again… mhm, please and thanks.

The Show: we were determined to make up for what i thought was a pathetic new york debut at the mercury lounge. we succeeded.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: “ah! this is so much fun!”

Interesting Things After The Show: lots of drinking and merriment and bickering with taxi cab drivers. we hung out with some awesome people: i’d name them but what’s the use… you know who you are and you all know that we love you… trust me folks, we were surrounded by lots and lots of beautiful people… lots and lots of beautifully drunk great people. friends, lovers, colleagues and label mates. it was too much fun. trust me when i say… too much. it might be mandatory to have too much fun in the greatest city in america. give. me. more.

robert james and mariqueen with rich from cherry lane
chris jones, scott, carter and lewscious
finally, the golden republic make the blog!

F.TEN