·central·florida·blitz·
We just got home from our Central Florida Blitz: 4 concerts, 1 creepy bird, 1 tv show, 2 radio interviews, 1,434 miles, 5 green libations, 1 radio performance, 1 car wreck, 14 cupcakes, 1 bitchy goth dj, 39 hours of sleep (3 people’s added together), and countless leathery, overly tanned, old people in obnoxiously revealing bathing suits. Here’s the gist of it, in a fashion atypical for me (Sarah)… short on words (well, sort of).
·orlando·live·
We were invited to perform on the internet tv show Orlando LIVE. Unfortunately, as I was performing, I have few photos—and the ones that I do have are awful… mainly because I was trying to keep my camera out of reach of the homeless man who was standing about 2 feet from me, holding a flashlight in my face. I guess these things happen to everyone?
Orlando LIVE host Peter Murphy asks Charlie’s niece Marni (who was standing on the street watching us) what she gave up for lent.
·plaza·live·theatre·
Before our show at the Plaza Live Theatre, we did some promotional stuff around Orlando to build up the hype. After all, this was the first time that we had actually played Orlando in almost five years. We sampled some of the best of Orlando’s locally owned establishments, bought artwork from a local artist and met some fantastic local musicians. In addition, we were able to forge a relationship with the Plaza Live Theatre, which is an amazing venue to that we’re excited to report, we’ve been invited to again. Stay tuned! Thanks Orlando, for being so hospitable to the Sarah Mac Band. We’ll see you again soon, especially since we accidentally left two of our mike stands with you.
Charlie was born ready to play.
Sarah Mac Band keeping it real at: Blue Bird Bake Shop; Austin’s Coffee; Drunken Monkey Coffee; Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux; Rollins College; Park Avenue CDs; and the White Wolf Café.
We had to stop to take a photo with the bus because we actually have a similar photo of ourselves with the same bus during our last Orlando trip (5 years ago). We’re just carrying on the tradition. Expect to see one of these from every Orlando trip to come.
Oh snap! That’s for real my name on the marquee between Robert Cray and Gordon Lightfoot. Mister Elwood would be so proud!
· wmnf ·
A trip to Tampa’s community radio station is always a highlight of any trip. We stayed up far too late the night before doing all kinds of crazy rock star things. Then we had to get up and get out the door by 5:45 the next morning to get to Tampa in time for our radio performance. And we still sounded kind of composed and (semi)professional on the radio. Let’s hear it for the Sarah Mac Band!
·hideaway·cafe·
We had several hours before we had to load in at the Hideaway Café in St. Petersburg. So, went to get some sleep.
This freaky bird watched from a neighbor’s yard as we pulled up to our host home. He crossed the street and watched us unload our van. Then he followed us all the way to the house until I rudely slammed the gate in his face.
After load in at the Hideaway Café, I played Star Wars with the club owner’s children while Charlie and Claire broke the “we-don’t-drink-before-we-play” rule and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day right with green beer. When I noticed that they still had the decorations that I made for our Christmas show hanging as their backdrop, I decided to celebrate as well and had a green wine (I know, right?).
Interesting that our time in St. Pete has a “crane” theme.
As we were loading up our van (which was parked in the street outside the venue) that night after the show, a drunk driver slammed into cars parked next to us. Glass and pieces of cars (literally) were flying all around us and amazingly, none of us were hurt nor was our equipment damaged. Claire was standing on the sidewalk when it happened, while Charlie and I were in the road loading the van. She said, “I’m not sure that we’ll ever be able to convey to people who didn’t see it happen how close you guys came to dying.” It was scary for sure (that’s why you DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, KIDS!!!), but we came out okay. And since we couldn’t leave for a good hour and a half afterwards because of the first responders and the police, we just hung out with all of the people on the sidewalk, including this guy who displayed his strange singing/beat-boxing/mouth-electronica-music-making skills for us.
Presenting Black Zeppa from the St. Pete based band, Fall On Purpose.
·fort·desoto·beach·
After our epic near death experience the night before, we took a little respite trip to the beach on Friday morning before heading to Gainesville. All I can say is: “Wow.” Wow, to all of the old people’s body parts that should be tucked away and covered in Guayaberas or pink polyester pant suits. Beaches aren’t like that in North Florida. We mostly have pasty European tourists, which honestly… aren’t as bad.
In order to avoid looking like our sunbathing friends at Fort De Soto Beach, we were careful to protect ourselves from the sun.
·gainesville·
Welcome to the swamp.
Upon our arrival in Gainesville, Claire and Charlie quickly disappeared into a sports bar to watch the end of a basketball game. I went exploring. We met back up at Brophy’s Irish Pub and loaded in. While we were sound checking, a goth girl with dj equipment and an entourage appeared. Apparently she was under the impression that she was playing at the venue that evening. While she was talking to Claire, she got nasty. Claire’s nobody’s fool, so she got all ninja on the girl and throat chopped her to put her in her place.
Just kidding.
Eventually the owner intervened and cleared up the misunderstanding, but not before the girl took off in a huff. Honestly, I’m kind of glad that she left. She had a traveling security guy with her who was about as big as a house and of that body mass, only about 2% of it was anything other than muscle. And the stilettos on her platform boots looked sharp enough to knit with. Someone could get their eye poked out!
With a kickoff like that, I was sure that our Gainesville gig would be a bust. However, it was actually a lot of fun. We played well, we got to reconnect with our Gainesville super-fans and see some old friends. We made new friends including a “fan boy” (I’m still trying to figure out what that term means) and we got to eat dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.
It doesn’t seem like vegetarian and Cuban go well together, but my sandwich with plantains, cheese and pickles was excellent. Seriously, even Charlie and Claire liked it. I would even go so far as to say that I’d drive to Gainesville one day for lunch just to savor one of those again.
·bob·night·
Back by popular demand, Bob Night! Our friend Grant Peeples (who, honestly, I just can’t say enough wonderful things about) invited us to go on the road with Bob Night and play to a great crowd in Eustis, FL. It was a magical show. Seriously, all around enchanting—the old theatre, the quaint lakeside city with a vibrant, revitalized downtown, and the audience which both surpassed our expectations in size and exuberance for both Bob Dylan and the Sarah Mac Band. Unfortunately, none of the photos that I took do any of it justice. I think though, that the photographers that documented the event will get us some photos soon. Stay tuned and I’ll post them. In the mean time, I’ll end up with photos that I took when we stopped in on one of Charlie’s college buddy’s gigs in Tavares.
Although the old people pickup beach in St. Pete was awesome, this kind of Florida is more my speed.
·coming·soon·
We’re far from done, kids (Not Done Yet?!?). We’re home, but just taking a little breather before we take on the Dixie Theater in Apalachicola this Saturday. We’re actually going over early to spend the day in Apalachicola since our date there coincides with the Apalachicola Wine & Art Festival (complete with a wine tasting at 6pm—another instance where we’ll break the “don’t-drink-before-you-play” rule). The owner sent us an email today saying that the show is almost sold out. I would encourage you to go ahead and call to get your tickets if you’re planning on attending.
If this helps to persuade you, I’m pretty sure that we’ll be busting out the accordion!
What: Sarah Mac Band at the Dixie
When: Saturday, March 26 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm
The show may sell out! Be sure to call ahead to get your tickets.
(850) 653-3200
Tickets are $20.
·in·case·you·missed·it ·
You can click here to listen to the story that aired today during Morning Edition– The Sarah Mac Band on NPR (wfsu).
Thanks for going on this journey guys. I’m thankful that I’m here, alive (and not underneath a truck on the street in St. Pete) to share it with you.
Until next time, keep cool. We’ll see you at the Dixie.
