My intially packed weekend shifted around partially due to the postponement of the Arts and Music Festival – one of my favorite things about Hoboken – but managed to be enjoyable nonetheless. With Lisa leaving Friday to visit friends and family, I took the opportunity to hang out with Andy and crew at the Nag’s. Sometimes all you really need in life is a few pints of beer, a bucket of wings, and a crowd of friends. It wasn’t as big of a night as I used to have over there, but there was a nice throwback feel to the “good old days” and it pushed me to sleep faster than anything else could have.
Saturday turned out to be incredibly lazy, although I drifted towards cleaning duties by midafternoon. Even Joseph pitched in when he stopped by to chat later on. After the many philosophical discussions we’ve had lately I’m completely sold on creating a new blog for us (and others) to share their opinions and writings on such subject matter. Now I just need to come up with a name…
By Sunday I was pretty stoked because, despite the postponement of the Festival, Donovan was still slated to perform. Sadly, I realize that even with the big hint in the title many of you may not realize of whom I speak. Donovan was one of the great singer/songwriters of the 60’s, and penned such classics as “Mellow Yellow”, “Colours”, “Hurdy Gurdy Man”, and “Universal Soldier”. Having the opportunity to catch him live (in the rather intimate setting of DeBaun Auditorium) was beyond my wildest expectations. And certainly, he met and exceeded even those.
Donovan began the show with an acoustic set, and played for about an hour by himself. This portion of the show focused much more on his ballads and soft-sung pop music. The real kick, however, was the second half. After a certain point he brought out 4 musicians he had met and practiced with in Hoboken that very day! They proceeded to rock out on some of his best songs, including a real rocking version of “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and a brilliant outro in the form of “Season of the Witch”. I surreptitiously taped the show (shhh! don’t tell anyone!), so it’s possible that I’ll be able to write more on this later (I took a picture in case I go the whole Ticketstubs route). But for now let me just say that it was a wonderful experience, and if you are unfamiliar with his music I urge you to buy his Greatest Hits at your earliest convenience (personally I may upgrade to Troubadour whenever I see it).