A Snowy Friday With The Rhodes

The Rhodes are a band from Highland that you might have seen in town playing at the Muddy Cup or outside of Rhino records. I have befriended these four gentlemen and am now their roadie and merch guy. When I saw on their myspace that they were playing a show in Saugerties, I thought PERFECT!

So of course it starts to snow and I get worried that the event gets canceled, but Nick (bassist) and his dad pick me up. We all eventually get to Dave's house (drummer) and get into the big yellow van and head up to the middle of nowhere part of Saugerties. We get to the place and thank god the parking lot was pretty full. Robb (guitar) tells that they're advertised as a Beatles cover band and I thought to myself, "Oh that's not good for them, but is a good aspect to my story." So we start unpacking and I observe and write for a bit. I meet this hip looking younger mother Mimi who brought her daughter to see a band play Beatles songs. It took a while to get her to give me her number, but I got it and a good story from her.

The Rhodes start playing and all goes well. People start dancing. Old people start dancing like they were in their teens and drinking a lot. After the first set I find it's time to start trying to interview people, but I think most can agree a 19 year old interviewing drunken old people can be a bit intimidating. Dave's mom tells me about this guy is from England so I go and talk to him. I explain my situation of my assignment and so forth and ask him about the band. My favorite thing he said was, "So this is like your homework?" while chuckling.

If I was able to write this story in the first person you would have realized that I was "with the band," and you would have had a much more detailed account of how amazing the burgers at this place were. I got to split a burger with Dave with pesto on it, yes i said pesto, and yes it was amazing. Even the lettuce was delicious!!!

I got into a conversation with Jason and Amanda, a young couple from New York City after the rhodes finished. They seemed friendly enough when i handed them tambourines and the three of us danced around. They told me how they were having a weekend getaway so I told them about Mohonk Preserve and how i went up there when snow was on the ground and how pretty it was. I gave them some crude directions and they were very grateful. They were very easy to talk to and thought nothing about giving me their numbers.

Last person I talked to was Chris who was playing harmonica with the rhodes by the end of the night. He was pretty gone, but was still friendly enough to give me his number to talk later.

The van ride home was just as scary on the thruway as it was there. Those crazy truck drivers give you no room! But all in all it was another fun adventure with my friends the Rhodes.