{"id":33638,"date":"2022-03-21T09:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T14:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=33638"},"modified":"2022-03-21T10:58:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T15:58:11","slug":"friday-night-in-towson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=33638","title":{"rendered":"Friday Night in Towson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday night, Carbon Leaf<\/a> played The Recher<\/a> in Towson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This show had been on my radar since it was announced earlier in the year, but I didn’t buy my ticket until a week before. Meanwhile, the date tickets for their May show in York went on sale I bought one. I don’t like going into downtown York, but I’ll make an exception for a Carbon Leaf gig, and I like going into Towson even less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the traffic circle. I don’t like the Towson traffic circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last two times they played the Baltimore area — late February 2020 and early June 2021, both at Baltimore Soundstage — were the last live music event I saw before the COVID pandemic and the first live music event since it began, and in some weird ways June 2021, a mere nine months ago, feels in my mind as distant and remote as February 2020. Time and life are weird in these pandemic days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I worked out of the office on Friday so I could go to the show after work, and after working all day on the text for the catalog’s manga section I definitely<\/em> needed the show. I stayed a little late at the office \u2014 the doors didn’t open until 7, and the show wasn’t supposed to start until 8 \u2014 and killed time by working my way through the second season of Connor Ratliff’s podcast, Dead Eyes<\/a><\/em>. And getting through the Towson traffic circle wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, though Google Maps’ directions to the parking garage left much<\/em> to be desired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The venue was nice. I had never been there before. The Recher is, I believe, a rehabbed old movie theater, transformed into a concert venue, and the motif has the feeling of a little bit of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a decent sized crowd \u2014 a couple hundred, easily \u2014 but my guestimation skills in this regard are poor, so I won’t even venture a guess as to the number. Very few people wearing masks. I did. I’m vaxxed and boosted. I still wear a mask at the office. You just don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wore a University of Richmond<\/a> t-shirt, since I first saw Carbon Leaf at a fraternity party there nearly twenty-five years ago. (September ’97, I think.) A group of guys about my age noticed and commented on it. They had attended Hampden-Sydney<\/a> and have been fans of Carbon Leaf for almost as long as I have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw someone who looked a great deal like Sean Lennon. He’s actually in the header photo above, wearing a Space Jam<\/em> baseball cap backwards, at lower left. Was it Sean Lennon? Probably not. I certainly wasn’t going to bother him and ask if he was. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a good show. It started a little late, about 8:20, and there was no opening act. Oddly, for a Carbon Leaf set, they didn’t play “Mary Mac.” My only complaint was the stage lighting; I kept getting blasted dead in the eyes by the spotlights behind the band on stage, and I felt blinded half the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am definitely not as young as I used to be, because I hurt<\/em> Saturday. Honestly, it’s my own fault; the shoes I wore to the gig weren’t good for standing in for three-plus hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought about buying a t-shirt. I didn’t; I have a plastic tub in my closet that’s half-full with Carbon Leaf t-shirts I don’t wear<\/em>. And I’m going to see them in two months anyway<\/em>; I can buy a t-shirt then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I see Carbon Leaf in May, that’s going to be a busy week. Besides the start of writing July’s catalog at work, I’m looking at attending a baseball game in Towson \u2014 Richmond is visiting Towson on the afternoon of the 10th. Then, Carbon Leaf at the Appell Center<\/a> in York on the 12th at 7:30. Then, a baseball game in Harrisburg; the Richmond Flying Squirrels are in town to take on the Senators<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are some photos. There’s no narrative to them. I can’t even match them up to individual songs. My phone camera gig photography is not good, it has never<\/em> been good, but these are a few photos that turned out alright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months until the next show!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"At
I’ve arrived! And to prove that I’m here, I’ve arrived!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Inside the Recher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The show begins!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Carter
Carter Gravett, guitar god<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Carbon
“Desperation Song”? This might have been “Desperation Song.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Carbon
The grand finale, “Let Your Troubles Roll By.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday night, Carbon Leaf played The Recher in Towson. This show had been on my radar since it was announced earlier in the year, but I didn’t buy my ticket until a week before. Meanwhile, the date tickets for their May show in York went on sale I bought one. I don’t like going intoContinue reading “Friday Night in Towson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4741],"class_list":["post-33638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-carbon-leaf-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}