Saturday in Baltimore
One of my favorite bands, Soulive, was coming to the area. These guys are one of the best soul/funk bands around and I have been seeing them since December 2001. Not only were they playing a Saturday show, but it was at Rams Head Live! which is one of the best places around to see live music. The venue itself is very spacious with many bars. If you want to just chill and not be bothers you can, want a seat, they are available, you can get a good view from the balcony, or get down to it on the floors right in front.
Since the show was on a Saturday August 16th I decided to make a day of it in Baltimore. I got there early in the afternoon to eat some food, do some shopping, reading and walking around. When I arrived I got a parking spot in a garage near little Italy. I was hungry so I got some food at Sabatino’s. It came recommend by two Italian customers and if anyone will know good Italian food it would be these two guys. I must say I was impressed with the place. It is definitely a small family run place. The food was simple stick to your gut goodness. One thing I quickly noticed was the waitresses. It was very professional and attentive, but none of them were lookers. Everyone working there could have been my mother, but it added to the charm.
Baltimore's Italian Festival
When I was finished my waitress asked if I want dessert and coffee. I told her no, which seemed to break her heart, but she then suggested something. She suggest I check out the Italian festival happening a couple blocks a way and then come back for some tiramisu, they even closed at 3am. That last part I took note of, 3am is pretty darn late.
After paying the bill I walked and found the Italian festival like she said. It took over several city blocks and was a great little festival. There was music, food, beer(!), and even some bocce ball. One thing I did notice was all the gambinos around, never had I seen so many in one place before. Lots of tight shirts and slick back hair.
The Players
Once I couldn’t stand the smell of pasta I walked to the inner harbor. This is what Baltimore is best known for. There is so much to do there that every weekend it is packed with visitors. I decided to take a seat on a bench and watch the world go buy. After that got boring I finished the book I was reading, Dangerous Days of Daniel X. After watching the sun set it was time to start making my way to the concert venue. On the way over I found a free concert from The Players, a local Baltimore ska band and decided to stick around for them. Glad I did as they rocked the house! Come to find out every weekend there was another band playing in the common area between the two shopping centers in the inner harbor. It was great to see such a diverse crowd gather to watch.
Finally I got to the venue and was getting ready for the show. I ditched my back pack and was lean and mean for a long night of rockin. Soulive is always a funky band that loves to play, they would play all night if the venue let them so I was getting ready for a long night. The only disappointing thing about the show was the number of people attending. There were so few tickets sold the second level was closed and only the main bar was open. Despite all this the crowd showed much love to Soulive that night. About the time the band should have come on was the exact moment Michal Phelps was going for his eight and final gold medal in the Olympics. Fortunately the venue showed it on the tvs around the venue. I am pretty sure that the band was watching as well, 30 seconds after he won the medal the band comes walking out on stage.
The band did not disappoint with the set list. This was a classic show from back in the day. Filled with a groove and a funk that was infectious in the crowd. For just over two hours I was dancing and grooving to the tunes. I was so happy I didn’t miss this show. The last few times I have seen the band they were changing up the sound. They added vocals with Reggie Watts (of Maktub) and Tosan (spelling?) after that. It was….ok, not the stuff I liked best. Soulive was still there, they were just muted, under the surface in my opinion. But not this night, they rocked the house and I couldn’t get enough, disappointing when the show was over….but not the night.
takes the stage about 11:18pm
Set 1:
Elron
Stepin’
1 in 7
Bobby Bird
Flurries
Reverb
Tuesday Night Squad
Lenny
Dig
encore:
Tighten Up
Do It Again
show ends about 1:12am
After the show I headed over to Sabatino’s for some tiramisu and some much needed coffee. You see during the show I had a few beers and I was still a little drunk. To drunk to start driving home. Since the restaurant didn’t close till 3am on Saturday I knew I had a place to go and sober up a little. The tiramisu they have was delicious and the capacino I had went perfectly. After about 30 minutes I could feel the life coming back to me, with the help of the coffee of course, and hit the road. Just to make sure I could get home I took a capacino for the road, it would go well with the cigar I had for the drive home.
After getting to my truck I started the 1:30 hour drive home. I had some good music playing, a nice cigar and the excellent capacino from Sabatino’s to nurse me home. It was just after three o’clock in the morning when I got home and I promptly crashed hard. The next morning I was headed to Fredericksburg to visit my mom for lunch and I was not looking forward to getting up.
All in all that was one of the best days I had had in a long time. Most of it was un-planned and it turned out pretty darn well.
