Bowerbirds visit! Hooray!
Phil and Beth are homies from Raleigh, NC (the town from which I moved to come here). They were part of a wonderful friend group who made summer 2009 the best I’ve had yet. They play in a band called Bowerbirds, and they are good. Very, very good.
They were to play The Independent on Thursday, and I happen to live a couple of blocks from it. Perfect grounds for reunion sleepover time.
The show was lovely. Julie Doiran opened, and this photo does a good job of describing her. Her voice is absolutely beautiful and she is hilarious. She apparently got her boots from North Carolina. I am not one bit surprised.
The birds have a new addition – Dan “Yan” Westerlund. I had not met him before tonight, but I traveled around the country with his brother this summer, who is in Megafaun, who was touring with the Bowerbirds at the time. I have also stayed with his best friend in Tuscon, Arizona. Worlds colliding.
Will Hackney from Trekky Records also came along to tour manage and guest on mandolin and vocals. I had never met him before, but we both weren’t sure how this was possible, as we shared many many friends while I lived in NC.
We spent the rest of the night having a slumber party, drinking white russians and catching up on life. Come morning, we were up and ready for adventure.
All of us except Phil and Beth, that is. After a couple of hours of waiting for them to rise, we decided to greet them at the bedroom door with a morning song about breakfast. They finally got up.
We grabbed a tasty breakfast at Kate’s Kitchen, passing by Beth’s new favorite store – Silky Touch. Then we headed to Alamo Square, a block away from my house, to run around and reminisce about Full House.
We tumbled down the hill for a while.
As we all got back home, Beth and I went out into my jungle yard and I photographed her new dress and bonnet, compliments of artist Monica Canilao, while the boys packed.
With that, I reluctantly sent them off to continue their trek across the US. It was difficult not to jump in the van with them.
Seriously, go listen to them right now. bowerbirds.org. That is all.
END!
5 Comments
Please tell me that’s the park from the opening sequence of Full House (did I ask this before?). Also, Beth’s hat reminds me of Joanna Newsom and is full of awesome.
Yes!! It’s a block and a half from my house. We played the Full House theme on my phone multiple times on the way there to prepare ourselves emotionally. ALso – Funny you say that, bc Beth purposely made that hat different from Newsom’s to avoid the inevitable comparisons (since they will be playing shows together soon). Newsomesque or not, I want a bonnet now.
PS – You can see my blog now? Yay!
Fantastic photos. I can not wait to see them play again. The Bowerbirds are very, very good.
helena, heck yes. i love spending time with those guys. we housed them for pitchfork fest this year and even though it was a hectic weekend, the bowers are some of the nicest people on the face of the earth. great photos as usual!
-Ian
PS. Holy crap does Dan look just like Joe…!
Bruce – Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them.
Ian – Dude. Tim and I were definitely well-done-touring and in Chicago that very weekend – Almost met up with the birds then, but we waited until Omaha to join forces. How dangerously close to crossing paths can you get eh?