The Heavy Pets Tour Report – 9/28/2011

Words by Jeff Lloyd

“Immediately following the Catskill Chill Festival, most of us headed to Philly for a few days off.  I caught up with the boys from Dopapod on Wednesday the 14th at the Blockley and was invited to sit in.  They are a smoking band and we played a raucous jam – one of the most fun sit-ins of my career.  We will be announcing a few Southeast dates with them soon.  The Pets reconvened the next evening for another throw-down at the 8X10 in Baltimore.  We have a long history with them – they gave us a chance on our very first tour (2006) and we are always pumped to get back in there.  After a particularly fiery set, we were joined by the legendary Tab Benoit and his band, who had played in town earlier that night and caught the end of our show.  They weren’t ready to stop playing for the night and neither were we, so the 8X10 graciously allowed the music to continue and kept the place open.  A mega-jam ensued, followed by a mega-hang including many drinks, and a passionate, mouthwatering discussion of New Orleans cuisine.  We drove through the night to Massachusetts, in time to get to our hotel and catch some shut-eye before our evening performance at the Wormtown Festival.  We hadn’t played the fest before and to be honest I knew little about it.  It is pretty damn big relative to what I expected – 6k people, camping and raging in the woods of Northern Mass.  We had a great time – despite a few issues.  There wasn’t enough power at our stage for our loud-ass selves, which resulted in a fried bass amp, and Mike and I needing to turn our amps up nearly all the way to hear them – a very dangerous proposition considering what would happen if there was suddenly a surge.  The main stage sounded great however, so we were lucky enough post-set to catch our boy Zach Deputy ripping it up as usual.  All in all it is a great festival in the rather uncharted territory for us of Massachusetts, so we really hope to get back there to rip it up next year without distraction.  Inspired by the previous night’s discussion with Tab, on our way out we grabbed some festival vendor Jambalaya.

“The next day we woke up, hit a diner and drove to Burlington.  Nectar’s is always a rage, with history dripping off the walls like melted cheese off of a gravy-fry.  After sound-check, we went down the street to our buddies’ German restaurant – Das Bierhaus.  It was the first day of their Oktoberfest promotion, so we had some delicious brews while listening to a German band ripping up oompa inspired versions of tunes like Funky Town.  We made our way back to Nectar’s to catch our Albany NY friends Timbre Coup (pronounced “tamber coo”) tearing it up, and followed them with one of my favorite sets of the tour.  Sunday the 18th we woke up, Jim ate some leftover chicken nuggets and we hit another diner before heading to Stowe.  The Matterhorn is a real gem -a music venue, sushi bar and pizza place.  After an endless stream of delicious mountain-top Sushi followed by two delicious pies, we played our jammiest show of the tour, with our friends 7Lbs of Pork opening.  It was a real hoot, and after a significant after-party and many delicious Long-Trail Ale’s we bounced for my hometown of Goshen, NY.  I went with my family down to the Meadowlands for the Monday Night Giants-Rams game, and enjoyed a victory followed by a few relaxing nights with the band and my family at home.

“We left late Wednesday night for the 8 hour trip to Cleveland, and pulled our usual move of check-in early and sleep until sound-check.  2 sleeps for the price of one.  The Cleveland show had some fine, fine moments – including a rare Jackie Bones opener where I tried an even rarer “slow-hand” take on the solo.  Afterwards was a trip to Denny’s and one of the band’s most epic brainstorming sessions.  We reworked some tunes while eating pancakes, and were able to unveil these changes over the next two gigs.  The next night was in Buffalo with our friends Thunderbody again.  They tore it up with a great set including a version of the Kinks “Strangers” that stole my heart.  We also had some of our Canadian fans cross the border making for quite the international rage in the old green room.  We played the best flowing set of the tour with every song seamlessly segueing into the next via a very well crafted Justin penned set-list. We hung until the bar closed at 4, even stayed a little later.  I passed out before we got out of Buffalo that night, and woke up as we were pulling into our hotel in Newark, Delaware.   Since the venue was literally next door, we loaded in and sound-checked as soon as we arrived and slept until rage time.  Jamie’s other band Spontaneous Underground was also on the bill and we packed the house – completely oversold the place.  SpUn absolutely ripped it up.  Keyboardist Dr. Jimmy Dunstan Jr. was completely on fire, tearing lightning-fast jazz lines across Tony D’Amato’s tasty bass licks.  We humbly took the stage after them and had a blast playing to a very enthusiastic crowd, which always seems to bring out the best in us. Thus followed a house party with seemingly everyone from the show, DJ Tony D spinning until sunup, fridges full of PBR and some bottles of Corralajo making the rounds.  I got to meet a ton of the peeps I saw dancing at our show, which is really a pleasure and something we don’t often get to do. I managed to get some sleep, but for most the party rolled right into the 1 o’clock football games, which we watched back at the venue with some Bloody Mary’s.  As per the usual we all split up for our 3 days off, and are preparing for the next 4 shows which begin Wednesday.  Boston, MA – Milford, CT – Albany, NY – and Wind Gap, PA for the Stir Fry Music Fest.”

Meet you back here next week.  I hope all is well, and we send our Brotherly Love from the road.
-JeLlo