Breakdown | Michael Brook

House of Blues / Knitting Factory
Boston / New York City
8-9 August 1999
by Hoby

Part Five of Six

Hey Now,

I know I originally laid this out in terms of 5 parts, but in the interest of making it easier for those who only want to read about the shows themselves, I am adding another chapter. This will allow me to separate out - and present in this chapter - my pre-show activities / observations at the Knitting Factory.

[Please be warned. This is a telling of my opinions and perceptions. I do not claim that mine is an objective view. This will not be the cool, clear, detached review one might read in a newspaper or magazine. This will be the recounting of the experience of someone who has waited since 1985 for this event.]

You don't need to know much about my travels from Boston to NYC other than this: on my way down Interstate 95, I passed an exit for (I am not making this up) "Black Rock Turnpike". I took it as a good omen (or at least a sign that I was headed in the right direction).

Hoping to once again do the "fly on the wall" for soundcheck, I arrived at the Knitting Factory at 6 pm (Okay, everybody now: "Get a life Hoby!") Unfortunately, neither an "I do this all the time" attitude nor wheedling and whining could get me in.

So I wandered around to check out the various areas that make up this very hip performance space. When I walked into the first floor bar, I found Jason checking out their CD listening station and we spoke for a while.

He told me how much they enjoyed playing at the HOB (in fact, I forgot to mention in the last chapter that MB made a point of expressing appreciation from the stage for how well they were treated). I told him about the concerns folks had mentioned on the list and how pleased everyone I spoke to afterwards had been. Jason also expressed disappointment that they didn't have more time to check out the city (He was hoping to get in some people-watching but they had arrived late and were flyiing back to the west coast early the next morning).

I asked him how he came to be working with MB and he told me that they met while MB was living in Menlo Park (Jason lives in the Bay Area) and they really enjoyed working together on Albino Alligator. For a discography and other info about Jason's work, check out www. anndyer.com and go to the section on "the musicians". The page for Jason isn't finished yet, but when it is, you'll be able to track down other stuff he's done. Ann Dyer is a singer with whom Jason has been working.

Jason was pleasantly surprised to hear of the Breakdown site / list and promised to check it out when he got the chance. We chatted a bit more and then he had to head back to the stage as they were ready to start soundchecking. Since he was nice enough to chat, I opted not to push my luck by begging entrance to the soundcheck.

So I spent the next 2 days (at least that's what it felt like) waiting, passing the time by trying to guess which other people coming in might be Breakdowners and reading some hype sheets on Lakland and Warwick basses that I picked up at Rudy's on 48th street that afternoon.

At the end of soundcheck, Dickran came out with Djivan and I said hello. Djivan seemed to recognize me and Dickran explained that I had been at the previous night's show. Djivan looked at me like I had two heads. I opted not to explain my Deadhead touring days and instead expressed my appreciation for his music. He was very gracious but I suspect that maybe he thought I was a little nuts.

Things were uneventful, even boring at times, until about 10 minutes before doors were scheduled to open. A sudden rush at the box office left the one person working there rather overwhelmed. In addition to selling tix, this poor soul was manging the guest list, answering the phone, and dealing with people showing up and just walking into the performance space without letting him know who they were (they were running some kind of video shoot but he had no way of knowing that). The people waiting on line were getting pretty frustrated and the ticket seller's people skills were not really up to the task. I'm afraid he kind of lost it at one point and there ensued a stereotypical NYC confrontation. Pretty low-level and run of the mill for natives, but it caught my attention.

Finally, the doors opened and I took my now traditional place just to my right of center stage. To the dismay of many attendees, there were no seats on the floor (only a limited number in the balcony). But, again, in typical NYC fashion, people took matters into their own hands. Someone found a stash of folding chairs in a corner and started pulling them out. Everyone liked this idea and soon we were all comfortably seated to await the start of the show.

The time passed quickly in the study of MB's floor rig with Scott (a guitarist) and in conversation with Bill and Mike, two intrepid Breakdowners who had made the trip to NYC from Philadelphia without tickets. Their faith was rewarded quite nicely, I would say.

Finally, a disembodied voice announced that MB would be introduced by Laraaji. Yes, that's the same Laraaji you can hear playing Eno-sified hammered dulcimer on Eno's Ambient #3 album "Day of Radiance". And he actually did the best concert intro I've yet to hear, encouraging us all to limber up (shaking of limbs, deep breathing, etc) and engage in serious laughter in order to increase our receptivity to what was about to happen. Man, can that guy laugh.

And then the band took the stage.

But that's a story for another chapter...