West Indian Girl

happy birthday Q!

april 5th was quite a day just because it was mariqueen’s birthday. unfortunately for her she had to spend most of it in a van on the way to the iron horse where we had a show. not only did we get to take her out for a nice sushi dinner that night but we also had some ice cream cake with my nieces the night before. so…northampton….why is there only one h in your name? i liked what i saw of this city. it reminded me a little bit of ann arbor michigan but with more of an early american witchy vibe to it. keep in mind we were only in the city for about 9 hours so i didnt really get to see too much. the show itself was pretty cool. once again it was a tight small stage but one with plenty of history. it seems like everyone has played this club. the sound was great and the staff was cool and the dressing room in the basement was pretty cozy. i liked the whole “wood” feel of this place. once again, i wish more people had known about this show because it was good one. after we played we ended up at some funny dance club for another band bonding experience. it was fun hanging at the bar watching everyone dance. weird thing about this place was that i saw the same bunch of people that were just at the iron horse. after this hip hop extravaganza we crept out of hampton towards crappy new haven ct where we were getting a hotel room for a few hours before heading into ny city.

big new age hippie northampton wighead thanks to:
peter and his random encounter with us. ( i will post his story when he emails it to me). the sushi place for serving me black marlon aka white tuna which is now my official favorite sushi.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: beautiful. just lovely, really… i want to come back soooon. while we were waiting for the club to open, i got a chance to walk around with mark and rob and bought some cute pins and a japanese stationary set that will make all my girlfriends jelly. it was my birthday that day, so fran and rob and ian [i can’t breathe without you] took me to moshi moshi – a korean owned japanese sushi spot. thanks, kristen beam [you are a sweetheartface & we’ll have to go have dinner when i come back to town], for recommending it. it was delicious. northampton is delicious. i almost forgot to mention that kristen writes for masslive.com and wrote an article with pictures on our show and interviewed us before we left for tour.

The Venue: the iron horse was really dope. the layout, everything was fantastic. except… for the bathrooms. i don’t know… they were just really small, booth-like rooms and they smelled horrible. other than that i dug the whole spot.

The Show: the show was our best yet. kevin our sound man stepped it up and started working the lights. it was a lot of fun. a sweet man came up and presented me with a tequila shot in the middle of our set, i’m sorry i forgot your name but i appreciate it and i thank you…

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i don’t really remember… that’s how much fun i was having…

Interesting Things After The Show: ha! well we met some guy who bought the west indian girl record in the dollar bin and there’s a whole elaborate story that he promised to email fran and soon after he got kicked out of the club because it was closing. after everything was loaded and locked up we went across the street to a nameless bar. it was so weird because i saw a bunch of scenester kids dancing to hip hop music — badly. it was like being in LA on a tuesday night. i felt right at home. we drank, i had some serious dancefloor time with both nathan and rob but the most intense was with mark lewis. jesus, can that boy dance. god bless idaho.

another interesting thing happened before the show not after. the marvelous mccabe family surprised me with a birthday cake [vanilla and chocolate gelato and chocolate cake] and hat. it was so much fun… becky, thank you for the earrings… they are beautiful, but not as beautiful as your family.

THE JAMES REPORT

The Iron Horse in Northampton was oozing positive vibes. It was a veritable love fest. I loved the city, the people, the star lit crispy aired delights hovering over all our heads like guardian angels…making us happy to be human beings. What a wonderful night to have a birthday!! Here’s to you, Q. Thank you Northampton.

kevin happy to not be behind the boardrob and qbelow stage in the dressing roomnathan, kevin, ian, q, and lewsciouslewscious at becky’s house the night before

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