Ryan, who has booked all our shows so far, got us this show and I knew about it for a few weeks but didn't know who else we were gonna be playing with. A couple days before the show, Ryan emails me and Jimmy with the details, other bands, set times, etc. To my surprise on the list of other bands playing was The Feverfew. "SO WEIRD!" I played one of my first ever solo shows with Bethany, aka the Feverfew, at my old house, 120 Hamilton, in New Brunswick years ago. We've also been friendly for years through mutual friends and I'd also seen her play (awesomely) a bunch of times.
The Feverfew
The Feverfew - Goodbye Blue Monday:
So come the day of the show, me and Ryan meet up at the venue a little early. Interestingly enough we find out that the venue portion of the bar was being used as a Polling Place for the primary election (Obama vs. Clinton '08). That being said we realized that the show was probably gonna start a little later than expected. So me and Ryan decide to head across the street to another bar/venue called Johnny Brenda's. I'd never been there but I knew that some of my favorite bands play there when touring through Philly. As I walked over to the bar to order a drink, Ryan took a look upstairs where they hold the shows. He comes back downstairs to ask me if I knew that Foals were playing tonight. "WHAT?!?" Foals are an awesome band from the UK and just last summer I had the pleasure of being one of the assistant engineers during the tracking of their album, Antidotes, with producer Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and engineer Chris Moore.
Foals
Foals - Red Sox Pugie (Live)
Their album just came out early April. I knew they were touring the states and I actually have tickets to see them in a couple weeks at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ, but I hadn't realized they'd be in Philly that night. I go upstairs to find Jack, their drummer, doing sound check and we immediately greet each other with a simultaneous "Holy sh!t, what are you doing here?" I explain to him that we happen to be playing a show right across the street. He walks me downstairs to meet up with the rest of the band who are just as shocked to see me as I was to see them. I introduce them to Ryan and we all sit down to grab a drink and agree to watch each other's sets. We went on 9:30pm at the M Room and they went on at 11pm at Johnny Brenda's. We also actually ended up lending them our floor tom because they forgot they needed 2 for one of their songs and didn't to pack a second one.
That's basically the bulk of the story.
Ryan and I were super appreciative of the guys from Foals coming over to watch us play since there weren't many people there besides Bethany of the Feverfew and a few others. We had a great time playing, though. We got to watch Bethany kick as$ right after us then we ran to grab a bite and watch Foals across the street. All in all it was an awesome night full of crazy coincidences. We'd like to thank the dudes of Foals for checking out our set and tearing it up during theirs. Thanks to Bethany of the Feverfew for playing an incredible set. It was really cool seeing her again. Also thanks to the people over at the M Room for having us play and for helping us out.
-John Valencia
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