As every musician that has been to New Haven knows, the paramount venue to play (thanks to the Coliseum’s figurative and literal implosions) is Toad’s Place. Located next to the Yale campus in the heart of downtown, Toad’s may be the dingiest night club on the eastern seaboard. The air is musty with the remnants of 35 years worth of cigarette and pot smoke. You can hear the floor struggle to keep its grasp on your feet with every sticky step. Lighting is kept at a minimum, accentuating the already gloomy colors of the walls and infrastructure. Yet all around the club are posters and lists boasting the myriad musicians that have played there over the years - Dylan famously played a 4 set, 5 hour show at Toad’s in 1990, the longest show he has ever played.
This was to be our fourth performance at Toad’s as Bad Apples, though we are much more familiar with the stage than such would indicate. In high school we played frequent shows there as members of 7-piece funk/rock outfit The Elastic Band. We were smart and savvy enough to consistently con a hundred of our high school classmates into coming to nearly every show. Though there were good gigs and bad, as there always are. But the Apples are no strangers to the Toad’s stage. We know what to expect from it.
Thus the day started out as we expected, with a 3.5 hour ahead of us, and no decision yet from Toad’s about the order of the 6 (yes, 6) opening bands for the evening. We could go on at 7:30, we could go on at 11:30. This is an advertising nightmare. As the 3.5 hours became 5 with traffic (Connecticut traffic is the worst traffic), and after several failed attempts to get our set time from the Toad’s box office, we were increasingly agitated. The last employee we talked to told us to get there at 5:30 and load in, as if to tell us to stop calling because you’re probably going on early. With the promise of pizza at the Felsted residence at 6:00, we were not particularly keen on doing that, but knew we would have to in order to get a straight answer about our time slot.
We went to the venue as soon as we rolled in, 5:30, right on time (we are the most punctual band in show business - provided it’s after noon), and marched angrily up to the sound guy. Before we could open our mouths in protest, he greeted us cheerily and told us we were going on at 10:30, the 5th out of 6 bands. This was more than just relieving to find out - we had never played such a good time slot before as Bad Apples. We informed our friends immediately and left to bask in our bounty of pizza. Everything that had been burdening us from the day - the traffic, the run-around, our empty stomachs - was lifted away all at once.
Our set was filled with energy, both from the band and the crowd. A good portion of the crowd for the headliners, Doors tribute band Riders on the Storm, had already showed up, and we drew a hefty number of people ourselves. People were clapping and shouting and dancing, feeding off the funk that was being injected into their bloodstream. The stage lights jammed right along with us, changing moods and intensity with the music. While we normally try to gently caress the sound system at shows for a smoother sound, this night we harnessed every ounce of power we could from a sound system that can bring a grown man to his knees.
Immediately after the set, before I could even start breaking down (which had to be done quickly to ensure a smooth transition), I was approached by a tall man dressed in all black with a long, graying beard, hair wrapped up in a pony tail in the back of his head. “Hi, I’m Eamon from Riders on the Storm. Want to play with us tonight?” Apparently, they had called their keyboard player, who lives in Morristown, New Jersey, at 10 pm and asked him if he was on his way. Turns out he didn’t know he had to be somewhere. I told Eamon I’d play as much as they needed me. “We’ll work something out. Leave your rig up there.”
I went down to their green room and started learning as many Doors song as I could. I already knew a few - Peace Frog, Break On Through, Riders, etc. - but most had to be learned. We ended up with about 12 songs I could play. And of course, in true Doors tradition, their keyboard player plays all the bass parts, too. I basically had to learn two parts for every song, though I figured the bass was more important and I’d concentrate on that.
Well, thankfully, the keyboard player calls 10 minutes before they’re supposed to go on and is looking for a parking spot. I was off the hook on playing a bunch of songs I didn’t know. The guys in the band were still grateful that I was willing to help, so they offered to have me up for a couple tunes anyway. I ended up playing two songs with them, Peace Frog (I played Rhodes) and Touch Me (saxophone!). It still amazes me how people react to the saxophone. It incurs excited and bewildering behaviors that I have not seen anywhere else and that I can’t explain. Yet still I live for those moments.
So it ended up being one of the best shows any of us had ever been a part of at Toad’s. It’s funny how it works like that. Before this show, we had never as Bad Apples had a slot that wasn’t first of the night. We’ve had such mediocre experiences there recently that it felt like we would never have a good night at Toad’s again. But, as BJ pointed out, every once in a while you have a show at Toad’s that ends up being so good you remember why it was worth it to deal with all the other crap that comes along with it.
