winter wonderland



i had fun in the blizzard this past weekend. the white wonderland illuminated my spirits.... we started the weekend off in philly, as dirty on purpose stepped on to the khyber stage for the second time. however, this time around, there was no window to be broken. the khyber had replaced the broken window (accidentally smashed by doug last time around) and also built a wall in front of the windows. smart move.





it was awesome because we had dtl, jersey dan, builder, howerton, jenna and more in the house to support the team. i hung out a little bit with jim from phillyist, and discovered that the khyber had a band room. the khyber has a very mercury lounge feel to it. narrow bar area with a similarly sized show room. the difference is that the khyber has an upstairs bar that always has a party going on every night. parties like "destroy your liver" on sundays -- all you can drink for $10 -- or "In My Pants" -- described as "pussy footing music." hmmm.... but let's not forget the indie rock party, "no tan lines." i love it! the band also played with some other cool bands -- audible who are on polyvinyl -- sweet melodies and happiness all around. relay were also pretty cool, also melodic indie rock.





the next night we rolled into new haven, amidst small flurries. the last time we played new haven, we played at BAR, which provided us with free pizza and beer all night. we were sad to find that BAR had a terrible fire destroy the upstairs, and subsequently closed down. however cafe nine was pretty cool. the stage was small and the setup of the bar was very similar to magnetic field in cobble hill/carroll gardens over here in brooklyn. oh and cafe nine happened to have a neon budweiser guitar on the wall. pretty sweet (see below).







they played with a great new haven band called diamond j and the rough. i had listened to the music on myspace before the show and really liked what i heard. the band is even better live. total bright alt-country. they were so friendly to boot, and even invited us to crash at their house -- which we took them up on after seeing how much it was snowing. diamond j said, "first we have to go to a birthday party." so we drove in the snow to a birthday party -- which turned out to be a birthday party for jason -- the guy in mates of state. so much fun! ran into the bishop allen kids there, and later a bunch of us explored kitchen karaoke. afterwards, we headed back to diamond j's house. their house was huge and cheaper than my apartment in new york, and the best part was that it was right by the ocean. look out and there was just water. of course, hard to appreciate as much with 2 feet of snow below, but still pretty breathtaking. what am i doing living in new york when there are places like this to be had? at their house, we watched dvds featuring the band, david cross, the aristocrats... and made breakfast and lunch -- fun!

even still, i missed new york and i missed mikers, so we all returned home the next day, despite snow still falling down. the best part about coming home is sleeping in my own bed. le sigh!

check out more terrible, blurry photos on my flickr page.