Day 36: Boston, Day 2
Nau mai,
Yesterday we played a show in Boston, Massachusetts.
There were many submissions for the spelling of Massachusetts, but it seems that most of them were automatically removed from my inbox by the spam filter due to inappropriate language.
My day began with a very greasy breakfast food, I’m sure many of you will be delighted to hear. I went to that classic Boston spot Mike & Patty’s Bay Village and ordered a Baller, a sandwich of Ibérico de Ballota bacon, fried egg, and Vermont 24-month aged cheddar served on a Flourhouse English muffin.
Boston was on its best behaviour for our second day and delivered exquisite weather from the get-go. I headed out for a run and found that once I was warmed up my torso thoroughly enjoyed the brisk temperature, although my extremities did not share in this enjoyment. The park crews were out in force dealing with the debris of autumn and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall had been hit hard. The leaves were collected, sorted by size and colour, and then transferred by hand into large trucks to be carted away. I witnessed one of these trucks departing with a stream of leaves flying out the opening in the back.
The Dr Paul Dudley White bike path was a nice way to enjoy the Charles River and I jogged along it for a while before stopping to take my establishing shot of the Longfellow Bridge, waiting until the subway cars of the Red Line began their ascent to cross the river.
In the afternoon we made our way to the trendy mega dance club & concert venue that called itself Royale. We all vaguely remembered this venue from our show here in 2022 and as we arrived little memories began to reinstate themselves – I’m assuming this is what happened for everyone. I couldn’t remember much of the venue but perhaps that is because all of the rock’n’roll sins I have committed.
The room was on the third floor of a large building that contained a Marriot Bonvoy hotel, among other things. It had a 1930s nightclub character about it with plenty of decorative plasterwork to enhance the character of the space. This turned out to be an easy stage to play on. Apparently, it was filled with salt, or perhaps the floor was filled with salt. I can’t remember exactly so don’t go quoting me on this fact. The fact is that we were feeling good in soundcheck, and it felt even better during the show.
Boston decided that Monday night was party night. Perhaps this is something that always happens in this town, or perhaps this is because we hadn’t visited in a while. There’s no excuse for it really, we have just been slack, and we apologise to the people of this fine city for our prolonged absence. This crowd knew exactly how to enjoy itself, dancing, singing, and constantly trying to request songs. The integrity of the setlist was repeatedly questioned as we were bombarded from all sides. In the end the couple in the front row who had just become engaged were the ones to win us over and we strayed from the script for a song. This won’t work every time – we are usually more cold hearted – so don’t even think about trying this on again.
Thanks for the Squarespace feature suggestions. I will certainly be incorporating the password feature for a secret page as soon as I decide what I need to conceal.