Enjoying Baltimore's free wireless zone around the Inner Harbor and listening to NOLA music. Still beaming from the musical experience that was the first weekend of JazzFest 2004. As I wrote to a recent reader of "wordsiimageslife":
As for music to make you a bit jealous, I got to see George Porter playing with Snooks Eaglin, Johnny Vidacovich and June Yamagishi. That was definitely a highlight of the first weekend for me. Really just an incredible display of great musical skill and real soul to the music that you can't find anywhere but NOLA. Another highlight was that I did get to hear Galactic for the first time live and of course, the incomparable Dr. John. So, even without going to the Meters show I had enough music to make the weekend a great experience. Actually there was just so much music to hear, from a middle school choir doing upbeat and rocking Gospel to the somewhat mellow jazz tent. And even three days isn't really enough. Because not only do you have the music during the day but there's music at night.
We originally planned to see the Funky Meters at the House of Blues on Sunday morning at 2 am. (Yes, there are plenty of late night shows to choose from). As it turned out, the Meters were $30 a shot at HOB and at 1:45 am that seemed a hell of a lot of money to my friends with one more day of the festival to go. So instead we hung out on Bourbon Street and listened to some unknowns, drank some Abita (well, a lot of Abita), danced and just had a great time until around 5 am. New Orleans is that kind of town and it's surprising how many people are out all night doing just what we did. It's almost like time stands still. You are just hanging out with a bunch of good or new friends (in this case it was myself, Craig, Pam, Denise, Angie, Jen and at least one other person whose name is escaping me right now). But anyway, we all had such a good time just being together, taking in the music, the crowds (which get a little more bizzare as the hour gets later).
Actually that night started out with dinner (Karen, myself, Carla, Robert, Connie, Jen and John) at the Red FIsh Grill which is a fabulous seafood restaurant on Bourbon Street. I had the horseradish encrusted gulf fish with jalepeno cole slaw and shoe-string pototaoes. I also had some fried oysters which I like, though I still refuse to eat raw oysters (texture issue) and the mini-crawfish cakes were awesome as well. After dinner, Karen, Carla, Robert and I went out to this club called "The Dungeon." Now it cost us $3 to get in, for what I'm still not sure, but it was fun with an offbeat crowd (perfect place for me though i wasn't wearing black so i felt a little like an outsider) and the dance floor upstairs was blasting Korn so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. The whole motif was somewhere between Dungeons & Dragons (what did you expect?) and I kept thinking I'd see some S&M characters jumping out of the woodwork, but nope, that didn't happen. The bar upstairs did have bars from the top of the bar to the ceiling and the bartender was dressed in black. It was intereseting that they had two bouncers upstairs on the dance floor. An indication that things get a bit wild up there. Also there was this narrow passage way that you had to walk through to get to the door of the club. After this experience we figured we go watch other people try their hand at pretending they were singers at the Cat's Meow . It was really entertaining and to share a secret, I wouldn't have minded jumping up on that stage and giving it a shot, Really. I have a decent voice and always dreamed of being a rock star, didn't we all, and who wouldn't mind getting up on the stage in New Orleans and belting out a tune. Well, in any case, that didn't happen so I just enjoyed watching other people, including the guy who was so bad, he was almost good.
Well, I will post some pictures later but now it's time to get to work and head to the great indoors. But this has been a wonderful way to start the day. I recommend it to everyone. Just find a wireless access point near a large body of comforting water, a Starbucks and blog away, or dream away, or just enjoy being.
Posted by robdesign at April 27, 2004 09:53 AMGlad the south was good to you on your visit...even if you had a little detour!(scenic drive)lol
A good time can always be had in N'Orlean's.