New York is a strange place. There’s history everywhere, but it’s never held on to like it really, truly means anything. By all means, The Bitter End is a musical landmark; Bob Dylan played there in his early days Arlo Guthrie recorded his second album there, and Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby and George Carlin all did stand-up there at the beginning of their careers. It’s been open for just shy of fifty years—that’s almost as old as rock and roll itself—and it still bills itself as New York’s “longest-running rock club.” Yet the place isn’t haunted; after all, these legendary figures performed their at the beginning of their illustrious careers. It’s not like standing on the stage at Veterans Stadium where Bruce Springsteen played to a gagillion people—it’s like playing the Stone Pony in Ashbury Park.
That being said, it was a hell of a night. Sam, Don, and Travis all made it up from South Jersey hours before the show, and I got to the club with -5 minutes to spare, coming from fucking Brooklyn. Everything would’ve been fine, except I ended up locking myself out of the apartment having not yet grabbed my amp. In hindsight, I should’ve asked the super for the spare keys or just had Ryan (of Red Orange Morning fame) direct his car three blocks up 14th Street and borrowed his unimprisoned amp. He would’ve let me, too, because he’s a solid dude.
The place was packed when I got on stage (the boys had long since setup and were waiting for me; I tuned my acoustic in the car), so I plugged everything in and off we went. It had been over a month since our last show—and a ridiculous amount of time since the one before that—but we played a great set. The Bitter End is probably about a 90 degree turn away from being one of the best rooms to play in New York. The sound was phenomenal, at least on stage, and the crowd was very responsive. Unfortunately, the whole lateness thing made setting up my MiniDisc out of the question, Travis didn’t have his recording doohickey, and we never asked if the sound guy had recorded from the soundboard, so there’s no record of the performance. I did, however, try to throw our hat into the mainstream ring by making like the Jonas Brothers and changing the end of the second verse of “Country Song” to “So I don’t think much of country stars anymore.” Sorry, Taylor.
