The Commonwealths

April was book-ended by some fabulous shows and always exciting travel. Easter weekend took us to the cold and snowy mountains of far western Virginia and far eastern Tennessee to see Scott Miller and the Commonwelth for their CD release party two-night stand at The Down Home in Johnson City, TN. We stayed in Bristol, VA to take advantage of a two night free stay on earned points so we were about 40 minutes away from the venue. About the distance from the homestead to the Dame, actually.

The Friday night show we arrived and saw no sign of the few people we knew who were supposed to be holding seats for the group of acquaintences to us and friends to others. Luckily they drifted in soon and snagged some up front. I say luckily, but Josh had a monitor in his lap all night that was making his beer drinking from the pitcher a little harder than it should of been, but I digress. It is always nice to sit up front. Scott and the guys looked happy to be playing together again after Scott's solo stint over the winter (which we happily enjoyed on another cold evening in Dayton). Other than Shawn's hi-hat malfunction the guys were in good form and ready to rock. Saturday night we arrived early to snag a table up front since we were closer than our Knoxvillian friends to the venue and after standing out in the cold waiting for the doors to open we finally got in to find no tables up front; coats were draped everywhere and we had to sit and wait for a looong time with Josh seething. Luckily, we got a hold of Jason and he said another boarder was already there with a table so we introduced ourselves and ended up having a great night swapping stories until showtime and then enjoying a great show with a great group of fans. We headed back home Easter Sunday tired, but happy we made the trek.

The last weekend of April we ventured up to Newport to the always fabulous Southgate House to see the boys again. They featured a new lineup and were on fire. It was pretty hot in the basement too, but that coulda been the bourbon talking. (Thanks to myspacer Angela Dina for posting a pic so nice I just had to share.) We met up with some old faces, met some new, and had a great time again hanging out with our board friends. Knowing these people have made these shows so much more enjoyable than I ever imagined. We're also getting to the point that we recognize people from past shows so I'm reminded of my fuzz days of happily bouncing around the room talking to all my "show friends" who I got to see once a month. After the show we ended up chatting up Scott, Shawn, and his one-night-only keyboardist Mike Webb for about an hour. Mike was way cool and plays keys with The Wreckers on their tour, of whom I'm also a fan (10 years ago I would have completely found myself in their lyrics, but 10 years out I can still appreciate it). It was a great night top to bottom.

It is sad to realize that there are no Miller shows in our area until the end of June, I've gotten so used to seeing them here recently. The next show is June 22 at Phoenix Hill Tavern, a place worth visiting itself there's so many corners to hang out in. If anyone is still reading this, please come out and let me know that you are, you'll definitely treated to a great time, I promise.