So we rolled the round table on up the road to Vermont last Thursday (the 17th). Those of us who got to Montpelier early got borscht prepared by Anais, our hostess for the evening. But those who were late didn't even get a tamale. Of course we could have gotten a grilled cheese or even a tempe rueben. That is to say that the Langdon St Cafe has a slightly limited menu, and no more than ten tables. But that little cafe has something else that is quite delectable. Before we played we were looking at each other asking questions like why would a handfull of (supposedly) grown men drive three hours to play some songs for a bunch of strangers? Money? HA HA HA HA HA HA ...THAT'S A GOOD ONE.
 Anyways, you probably didn't know that Ry has a lot of hight tech gear tucked into that nondescript retro-looking suitcase he carries around. Sometimes you need it, sometimes you don't because sometimes it makes strange loud popping noises and starts smoking. Well when that happens there is not much you can do. Luckily the Langdon St. Cafe is one of those places where it doesn't matter so much. The room has a sound of it's own; so warm that we could just plug in and let 'er rip. Even tuning seemed easier (well for me at least ). I think we suprised a lot of people there, not knowing what to expect from us, and I know they suprised us, raising a ruckus and making the whole night a lot of fun. They even filled up the tip bucket pretty good and spent whatever they had on t-shirts and CDs (is 17$ Canadian a good price for a CD?)...By the end of the night we were consulting with nutty Sarah (granola queen of the northeast kingdom) whether we thought "Duty Bar" was a good name for her latest chocolate concoction. I was told I was a 'fun' singer (as opposed to 'good'). And when we got to Bill's brother-in-law's
where we were to sleep, he had a fire going and enough wine open for a wine tasting...."Yes I detect hints of leather, chocolate and borscht!"...Thanks Matt.
 He and his wife have a beautiful spread up there on the edge of the forest. What a place to wake up to, and with nothing to do (except Kimon who had to practice for a gig with SOME OTHER BAND!). So we sat around and watched him playing bass while listening to his ipod. Pretty exciting eh? Well we almost got lost. OK so asking for directions isn't really very interesting either. Well Ry did climb into a burning building to unlock some hapless woman's apartment door. It's true, there were cries for help, there was something burning on the stove filling the place with smoke, and there we were. So this woman turns to Ry "You're skinny" she says, "climb in there and unlock my front door." The smoke wasn't really the scariest thing about the place either. It was just a strange night.
 The Middle Earth Cafe is a great little club up there in Bradford. We had played there once before and had a fabulous time, but we somehow couldn't get all that fancy equipment to sound right on this night. The lights were too bright , then they were too low...Don't get me wrong, the place was almost full (Dinty alone was responsible for 45 ticket sales). We played a bunch of our favorite tunes and people seemed to love it. Alayna Howard was there and did a great job singing way down low. She did this scary kids song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Dinty said it was her 'signature' number. I call it spooky...But some nights are just 'funny', where you don't ever feel like you have gotten it quite right. Maybe Bill's drum set was facing too far to the side, or Sean was wearing the wrong shoes; I dunno, it is all pretty subjective. So maybe I should quit while I am ahead...Thanks to the Middle Earth and all the folks who came out to support us way up there in Vermont. We are definitely looking forward to being part of the Bradford Town Pig Roast on Sept. 23. Yes, vegetarians are invited. It's Vermont.