Post by Fiction Plane Info Center on Jan 26, 2009 23:01:42 GMT -5
The Lower East side is a dingy-yet-bustling area of New York, then again, what part isn’t? The district is riddled with bars, small concert venues (for open-mic nights), and several popular pizza joints. It seemed like an area where Sha Na Na would hang out or a place where The Warriors would run through in their desperate attempt to get back to Coney Island. But tonight would be a more tranquil evening – no brawls, no police sirens, and thankfully, no gunshots.
In fact, as dusk turned to nightfall, a different breed of New York denizen would emerge – the post-yuppy, college-aged co-eds, looking for a place to kick off their Saturday night festivities. This was to be Amy Kuney’s audience.
As we walked into the bar affectionately called The Living Room, we could not get over how quaint and cozy this bar was with sofas and faux dinette sets strewn about the floor. And behind a thick black curtain at the back of the bar was where the concert venue was. It resembled a coffeehouse or a really small comedy club, but again, it was quaint and cozy. As we went through the curtain at about quarter to five (Amy was scheduled to begin at five), we were shocked to see that we were the only ones there, aside from the band, which was just setting up. We settled in to an unobtrusive, tiny table off to the side and ordered a beer, more out of guilt than thirst.
The band were tuning their instruments, and Pete saw us, came over, offered his patented cheery smile and thanked us for coming out, while warning us that it is a departure for him. We assured him that it would be fine, and he went back to adjusting his cymbals. A couple minutes later a tall, lanky fellow wandered in with a guitar case, and the band members all came up hugging and greeting him. Turns out it was local music guru Ari Hest, with whom Pete had performed with several times in the past, as well as recorded an EP many years ago. It should be noted that the guy was taller than Pete!
After they get settled, Kuney runs through a bit of a soundcheck performance with the song “Simple Things”, which also happens to be the first song on her MySpace page. The sound was great for such a small room, and Kuney and the band quickly left the stage, through the back of the room, and into the bar. By this point it is already 5pm. After a couple minutes in a strange silence, the curtains are drawn back, and people literally begin pouring into the room, filling every available table, swiping chairs from tables that aren’t using them and packing the house! We were relieved. It looked like the house was split between Kuney and Hest fans. If there were other Fiction Plane fans in the house, they didn’t make themselves known. Interestingly, the entire front of the house was lined with college-aged young men.
Then the lights go low, and Kuney and the band maneuver their way through the sea of bodies to the stage, and the show begins. Kuney starts in playing acoustic guitar and singing, Hest is on piano and doing backing vocals, there is an electric lead guitar player and bassist, and then, well, there’s Pete. It truly was an odd sight, seeing Pete performing with a different band and not being super-animated. We joked that he wouldn’t break a sweat at this gig!
Kuney’s voice is smoky and smooth, reminiscent of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat. No wonder all the guys were up front. She was also an entertaining storyteller, offering humorous backstories to her collection of emotion-filled, folk rock songs. After two songs, Kuney switches places with Hest, introduces the band, addressing them all by their first names, excepting Hest, since, well, his full name is only two syllables. Again, it was strange to hear Pete so nonchalantly introduced as “Pete on drums”. The band runs through a fun (yes, I said it was fun) set of songs including “Rocket Surgery”, which Kuney admits was inspired by a moment of her mother’s frantic, verbal dyslexia, and “Love Is Trippy”, which reminded us strongly of a mid-career Beatles number.
After about 5 or 6 songs, the band leaves the stage, and Kuney plays 3 songs alone with a microphone and an acoustic guitar. An excellent finish, she received a massive applause, and began making her way around the room to meet and greet everyone in attendance!
We used this opportunity to head back out to the bar to catch up with Pete a little bit. When we got out there, he was talking to Michael Brunnock, another folk musician with whom Pete recorded and performed. Shortly, he came over to us, by one of the straight-out-of-the-70s sofas and chatted.
Apparently, Hest offered Pete the gig a mere three days prior, which was why there was such short notice about the show. Hest had sent him a selection of songs and told him to learn them. Just the day before, Friday, January 23rd was actually the first time the band had ever performed together. By the way they played at the show, you could not tell at all! Even Hest’s vocal harmonies were flawless. What an amazing group of musicians to be able to pull something off so well so quickly. Pete said that it isn’t always that good. He’d played some seriously awful shows in the past under the same circumstances.
Somehow we got on the subject of NY geography and he mentioned an outstanding documentary he had recently seen that talked about the development of NYC over the centuries, which included factoids like Wall Street being named as such, because at one time it literally had a wall running down it for protective purposes. He also mentioned that a mere block away was one of the best places to get pizza in the Lower East Side.
We told Pete how fans were getting really excited for the Arlene’s gig and how it was turning into quite an event. We also mentioned that several fans were making plans to attend from all over the country, even coming to NYC for the first time. Pete was both flattered and excited to hear this and happy that word is spreading so quickly about the show. He is really looking forward to playing the show in a few weeks. We told him we would definitely see him there, and with that, we went our separate ways.
unless I can work some magic, I'm not counting on it. 
What an excellent review admin, really great job. It was almost like being there! The photo's are great - Pete scrubs up very well!! It's so weird seeing him in a setting like this and not going for it big time - I wish I could have seen it for myself. It's great that things are heating up for the gig in Feb - they will be surprised to see some European fans there as well I think!! I know one or three are planning on heading over 
I wish I could be at that one too!!! Bah. Lottery win where are you?! Thanks a million for sharing - was dying to hear how it went from an audience point of view and SO glad there was a good turnout. 