NYC tour Day 1: Disaster Strikes

The Varnish Cooks embarked for Brooklyn yesterday at about noon. We managed to uncomfortable load all our instruments and amplification equipment, pillows, blankets and backpacks into a Mercury minivan with over 170,000 miles on it, and hit the road. Ben had created an iPod playlist for the road trip, and it was smooth sailing at first. We hit a rest stop about halfway to Syracuse and noticed that the tires were rather low, so GP gave them some air. After a quick bite to eat and a bathroom break and we pressed onward.

I'd settled in for a long, boring ride after we went through Binghamton and into Pennsylvania. This is precisely when things went awry. To preface this, I have to mention that Greg Paul (GP), our guitarist, has sworn that the road south of Binghamton is a kind of Bermuda Triangle, where odd weather patterns prevail and bad luck lurks like a heavy fog-bank.

While cruising down 81 and listening to the tunes, a loud bang shook the van and jarred all of us. It was followed by a heavy shudders as the engine cut out and the transmission bucked. Smoke began to fill the cabin and trail behind the van. Ben lost power for the steering and brakes, and struggled to keep the van on the left shoulder. We were on a downgrade and the van's momentum kept us rolling downhill. Luckily a Penn state trooper appeared behind us and was there when the van finally came to a halt. I took a look under the engine and the pooling oil suggested that a piston rod had rammed through the crankcase and the motor had violently converted itself into a paper weight.


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We spent the next 3+ hours scrambling to find a way to get us and our equipment to Brooklyn by 10PM for our scheduled gig. Ben was on the phone with AAA, and a tow truck came remarkably quick. We were taken to a garage in Harford, PA, ("B" on the map) a small town about 30 miles north of Scranton. Ben and the state trooper (who was incredibly helpful) were on their phones for almost half an hour with Hertz and Enterprise trying to find a van to rent. Nobody would drive one to us, so Ben & GP hitched a ride with the tow driver to Scranton and rented a van there, and drove it back to Harford. Greg Fair & I whiled away the nearly two hours by jamming in the shade between the dead van and a shed.

Ben and GP arrived, we loaded the rental van and hit the road for the final leg of the trip at about 6PM. This left us with little time to spare, and we called ahead to Aaron, our old guitarist who lives in Astoria, and asked him to grab some food for us and meet us at the venue. We finally arrived at the joint, Jalopy, at about 9:30, and ravenously attacked the Chinese food Aaron had generously gotten for us. Around 11:00 or so we took the stage and poured everything from this day into a fierce hour and a half set for an amazingly attentive audience. These were old-time and Bluegrass fans, and they danced and hollered for more. One of the best audiences I've ever played for, hands down.

The icing on the cake was that I busted one of the scroll ears off my bass. It's a cosmetic piece and doesn't affect the structure, but it was another unwelcome addition to this wickedly crappy trip. The owner of Jalopy generously offered to glue it back on, and it's left there overnight to dry.

Bermuda Triangle in Pennsyl-tucky? You betcha.

Today: busking around Manhattan and an 8:30 show in Greenwich Village. Let's hope we spent all our bad luck yesterday.