We have a guest post from Arden Gild Hall. I was unfortunately not able to attend. In my absence we have a guest haiku and photos from Sisters Dissonance friends Meghan and Amy!
Thanks ladies!!!
Singing together
Instruments play magic
Brothers forever
;
I think I speak for both Ady and I when I say that Jim Thorpe, PA has solidly planted itself at the top of our list of favorite towns to visit together. We were there the for the first time last year when the Brothers blew into town and played the Mauch Chunk Opera House, and we were quickly taken in by the old world charm oozing from its every nook and cranny. The town’s residents welcome their visitors warmly, and when the Felice Brothers arrive it’s as if there is a conspiracy of fun erupting—doors propped open and residents standing at their doorsteps to say hello, music players set on the porch blasting Felice Brothers albums, posters announcing their arrival plastered on every flat surface available—turning the town into one giant welcome party.
We had such a great time during our first visit that I was inspired to work on the illustration Two Sisters and a Tavern when we returned home. After spending many hours working on the illustration back then, I found it disorienting and surreal to be walking around Jim Thorpe once again. The illustration, a semi fact/semi fictitious geographical mash up of places and events, consumed me and became so vivid in my mind during its creation that when I stepped out onto the streets from our hotel room, it seemed that buildings had become displaced (“That shop/bar/tree should not be there! Should it?”).
After my own personal wave of bewildered nostalgia subsided, we headed out and about prepared for our Jim Thorpe adventures that awaited. We traveled there (almost exactly a year later from last year’s show, and this year, no tire blow out!) for the 2012 return with two wonderful friends, Cindy and Kristi, with much anticipation and excitement. We knew (rightly so) that the town would once again turn into the veritable Felice Brothers cheering squad. We tooled around the main drag for several hours before the show before finally tucking into Crave Fine Food & Spirits, a little gem of a tea house/restaurant that also serves spirits and other beverage delights, before we set out to the show, the pinnacle of our trip that involved four friends/two sisters plotting our convergence on a single ultimate destination—Kristi (author of Not That Kind of Groupie) traveling from Dolores, Colorado, Cindy from Brighton, Michigan and me from Cleveland, Ohio to meet up with my sis, Ady, traveling up from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the perfect trip and reaffirmed what Ady and I knew: Jim Thorpe and the Mauch Chunk Opera House is the best place to see a show—especially when it is the Felice Brothers.
James and Ian Felice of the Felice Brothers live at Mauch Chunk Opera House 6/23/2012
It was everything I had hoped the trip would be, great company traveling to and from, a fun day on the town followed by a fantastic show from the Felice Brothers, who also sung praises for Jim Thorpe and were visibly charged by the audience’s exuberance. A single math equation to sum it all up: Jim Thorpe + The Felice Brothers (@Mauch Chunk) = THE magic combination.
(A little shout out to Meghan and Amy, who we ran into again, always nice to say hello to new friends!)
Full photo set from the Felice Brothers at the Mauch Chunk Opera House 2012 on Flickr
Last year’s show: Felice Brothers Live at Mauch Chunk Opera House 2011 photoset via Flickr
Two Sisters and a Tavern illustration original post – prints available! Please contact us if you are interested!
Six hours driving in a car is a good amount of time to spend letting your mind drift. That was the duration of the commute from my home base in the Cleveland area to meet up with Ady in Lancaster for the Felice Brothers show at the Chameleon Club.
On the way there I probably spent too much time pondering, among other things, why no one goes to smell concerts (after all we travel to hear music, people flock to see movies, and frequently obsess over the best foods, what about scent events?) Oddly, once I approached Lancaster on Rt 283 I was bombarded with smells. Lilacs or maybe honeysuckle? For at least a mile or two. Then the smell of cows, which lasted a little too long, then industry. Finally on my approach into Lancaster the air was filled with the smell of hot dogs. So there you have it, I got my olfactory joy.
On the return home it wandered again and I thought about what I wanted to say about my travels and the show . . . I wrote about 7 different versions of this post in my mind’s eye, but the prevailing thought was how it was most definitely worth the maniacal 12 hours on the road. Not a bad price to pay to spend an incredibly fun and relaxing 24 hours with my sister in Lancaster, going to see one of the few bands in existence right now that I would travel far and wide for. Our accommodations were awesome and alone worth it. And I saw a few other strange (fascinating?) sights to break up the solo drive—the two old guys chatting away and peeing on a fence along the side of the road on I-76 is a visual that will stick with me for some time.
The Felice Brothers show at the Chameleon Club was of course the reason for making the trip (always an excuse for Ady and I to get together) and was the highlight (except perhaps our hotel bathroom, which we tried to figure out how to pack into an overnight bag and smuggle home. It really was a the best bathroom! But I digress). I’d been reading about the shows leading up to this one and everything I read was in agreement—the band is tight, in great spirits and a force to be reckoned with right now. And it was true, the guys were in tip top supercharged form. For us, it all culminated into the most wild and crazy “Helen Fry” you could ask for.
Ian Felice and “Helen Fry” at the Chameleon Club
Other highlights of the evening for me personally were several songs I got to see live for the first time (“Marie,” “Her Eyes Dart Round,” “Where’d you Get the Liquor?”); two sweet covers (Woody Guthrie’s “Cumberland Gap” and Townes Van Zandt’s “Two Hands”); and a goofy, playful version of “Loser Takes All.”
I took a couple videos (linked above) and Ady took some photos during “Loser,” “Ponzi,” “Helen Fry” (check the series of photos at the end of the set when Ian bashed away on his guitar laying on the floor!) and other points along the way. Good show, yes! They always make me happy as hell to be a Felice Brothers fan—and between that and all the fun I had hanging out with my sister, it made driving all that way feel like it was nothing.
Follow the link below to be taken to the full photo set of the Felice Brothers live at the Chameleon Club 2012 via the Sisters Dissonance Flickr account.
Video can be found in the posts immediately preceding this one, and on our youtube page where you can also find the third video taken, “Her Eyes Dart Round.”
Felice Brothers live at Chameleon Club, a set on Flickr.
PS – Cheers to Meghan and Amy, who we met after the show!
As you may already know, the anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday is being celebrated far and wide within music communities and by music lovers everywhere—via festivals such as the Newport Folk Festival and projects like the very cool Bound for Glory Woody Guthrie Centennial Project to name just a few.
Within the shared psyche of Sisters Dissonance are far away memories of being introduced to Woody Guthrie’s music for the first time when, as elementary school kids we both shared a teacher (passing through his class in different years) who’s mission was to indoctrinate every single sixth grader in the school into the world of folk music. More often than not we’d take a break from the books and he would play on his acoustic as we would sing along to the songs he taught us, including a canon of Guthrie’s songs. At the time he was pegged as being too eccentric (read “weird” in the words of 11 year olds), but Ady and I both know looking back with adult eyes, that that the true story is that he was a good-hearted, intelligent soul who’s guidance we were lucky enough to be under at that impressionable age. The musical knowledge, appreciation and philosophy planted by Mr. P still remains for both of us. I think he’d be proud to know that, too.
Flash forward to present day when we got to see one of our absolute favorites, The Felice Brothers, play a rather infectious version of Guthrie’s “Cumberland Gap” at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster on April 27, which ended with Ian Felice dedicating the song to him. I captured the performance, so here on record is yet another sweet little nod to Mr. Guthrie.
Ady and I met up in Lancaster on Friday for the Felice Brothers show at the Chameleon Club, which was part of the LAUNCH Music Festival that runs through Sunday April 28, 2012. I caught a few videos, including this explosive, incredible version of Helen Fry. I knew (and I think everyone else felt it, too), after the first few notes it was going to explode into something amazing, and it most definitely did!
Word on the street is all of their shows on their current tour have been just as incredibly high energy as this one…so be sure to check dates to see if they’ll be near you, and if so GO SEE THEM! (Rx from the sisters.)
I’ve got two more to upload as well as a really great photo set captured by Ady that we are working on getting up on this site in the next day or two , so more about the show and links to all of the above coming very soon.
Sisters Dissonance 