BLACK ROVER BLOG

Right. I was gonna do a post on The Ocean.  Some time has passed since I last journaled about our thing. [Much of this post was written before our Newfane show. Sorry the chronology is a little off.] Darcy calls it Life in 3D and even wrote a song about it entitled Life Sucks In 3D. But somehow, despite tooth infections and broken ribs and general old-fart fatigue we've managed to keep plowing away. Our Darcy is an unstoppable force of nature. She would be practicing every day, 7am to 7pm, if she had her way. We manage to wrestle her down to two full band reheasals a week, Wednesday and Sunday, with sectionals with her and Ben or me or all three on however many of the remaining days we can. Then when we're there, again, she puts that stupid pink rabbit to shame. She plugs herself in, grumbles about the amp a little and we take off and work at high intensity, loud, turned up. Play a tune. dissect what went wrong. Drill a spot, looping a phrase over and over, repeating it until ...

 If you have a Swan Song, meaning your last gig ever, your final gasp, that last wave to the adoring crowd, then what is the opposite? For your first shout to the world, your debut performance in front of real public:  A Goose Song? Hawk song? Should be waterfowl, I guess, so perhaps Loon Song?  Whichever, Black Rover had its Loon Song last Saturday night.  After nine months of work, practice, study, personal adversity, and sheer determination we had our baby in the Union Hall in Newfane, Vermont. And boy was it fun.  Black Rover on stage in Newfane It should be mentioned that Newfane, about 12 miles north of Brattleboro, is perhaps the prettiest and most iconic New England village in all of New England. The Union Hall was built in 1832, serving as a grange and community gathering center.  Union Hall in 1922, long before Led Zeppelin.  We pulled in for the sound check about 2pm and found out that we were going to be the featured band, playing second; i...