Dragons 1976 Brooklyn May 28, 2007

In New York for the week here at the end of May. Was invited by Fred Frith to play the Stone on the 29th, so planned a week long visit. Turned out Jason Ajemian had also planned to be out here, so we talked to Tim Daisy and he felt he could come out from Chicago so we could reconvene for a show. Good timing. We played at Union Hall in Brooklyn, a nice sized bar that features indoor bocce ball and a downstairs music room nicely separated from the other ongoings. A solidly nice place all around - the music room reminded me of Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. As we hadn't played together in about four months (back in January when we did a week long southern swing), we met up a few hours before the show to refresh our memories on our music. Things fell back into place perfectly. That's the best thing about playing with good friends - no matter how long it's been since the last time you played, you remember how you play together - just as comfortable as picking up that conversation you left off last time... We played two sets that night - in between which Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone played. Their music was great to hear - almost all written out, but with a loose feeling that isn't typical of notated music, except for when the musicians know each other well. Our first set was mostly older tunes from the Winter Break disc (which we are going to print another hundred copies soon) and our second set was mostly songs from the new album which will be released by the Polish label MultiKulti sometime this summer or early fall. Our faithful crowd brought us back to the stage at the end of our second set and after some banter form me we played Heater, off of On Cortez. On our last night Matt Bauder walked up to the stage with his tenor and played a duo with Tim - a good ending to the night. He is an original Dragons after all. A good night to have with Dragons in Brooklyn.