8/28/02 Private Party - Arizona Cafe - Danville PA
This was a special gig, combining a birthday celebration and fundraiser into one. Alice Rader was celebrating a birthday, and was helping to get donations for the capital campaign for the expansion of Greenwood Friend's school.

I was asked to help provide live and taped music, while also functioning as an MC of sorts. Dave and I did well with our oldies covers, and a Tom Waits fan in the audience gave us justification to work in three Waits covers. Dave did a few of his own tunes, and we all had a good time. At one point we had half the people dancing and th other half singing along.

This was probably the best Dark Honey gig get. We got fed, played to an appreciative crowd in a non-smoking environment, got paid, and we were home by 10 pm. Can't beat that.

5/31/02 Private Party - Bloomsburg PA

"Well go ahead and call the cops... you don't meet nice girls in coffee shops."

There's something strangely satisfying about living a line from a Tom Waits song. The latter half of the line above was clear many years ago, and the first half relates to my most recent "gig."

It wasn't a gig proper, since I wasn't paid, and there was no scheduled time or publicity. (Wait a minute... I've had gigs like that!) One of our neighbors on 4th street (Sonna) saw me schlepping my guitar one day, which automatically qualified me and Audra for an invite to the local party they were planning. Sonna's husband John, a long time musician turned dad, hadn't played in some time. They also hadn't partied in a while, so they thought it would be fun to have a get together with friends with some entertainment. The possibility of 100 people being there made it worth bowing out of a potential Dark Honey opening slot at Fiddlestyx the same night. Besides Dave didn't mind, and we figured Dark Honey could cover more ground that way.

The party was mostly neighbors, but there were also a fair share of out-of-towners, including people from Lancaster, Seattle and Philly. The male/female, and musician/non-musician split was favorable to both me and Audra, and it would once again prove why life is friendlier here in Bloom. Here's an account of the musical ramblings...

To see if I was worthy of tribe membership, I played an old Davey Graham blues cover as an acoustic warm up. The locals approved, and all was well. The true "performance" didn't start until at least 7:30 or 8:00. John brought out a rather ancient-looking Peavey PA head, complete with two tall, thin speaker cabinets with red grill covers. In the right light, or with the right buzz they might appear as two Royal Imperial Guards. These days, an amp with the same features would probably take up 1/3 of the space, and it would come complete with XLR connectors, which this one didn't.

Anyway, after a few technical modifications, the lineup included 3 electric guitarists, a bass player and me, acoustic guitar-wielding singer guy. I was lead to believe a drummer would be present, but in true drummer fashion, he did not show up. In true dePrisco fashion I became the unofficial (but apparently welcome) host and spokesperson for the group, quietly christened "Cacophony".

We started with an unnamed instrumental warm-up. I moved into Thick As A Brick (the song, not album) while some set up modifications were made. All for Me Grog is always a good party song, especially with 3 electric guitars. The players were all from fairly broad backgrounds. From bubblegum alternative to blues and rock, we were able to render passable versions of Morning Blues, Rockin' In A Free World, a half-instrumental version of Pink Floyd's The Wall (the song, not the album). All Shook Up and Ol '55 were hits with the crowd (by now 30 people, not counting the rest of the neighborhood and the police that showed up later).

Umm... the police? Well, Sonna, the hostess, had been talking about getting a permit for the party since she was having a DJ and "band". Whether or not she ever got around to that was unclear, but two boys in blue decided they had better make an appearance. Sonna talked them out of giving us a hard time (sighting the college rowdiness that us locals deal with most of the time), and we agreed to go unplugged the rest of the night.

By then the tiki torches were burning and I was rocked on my second Pepsi. I hadn't had soda in years. I segued to the acoustic set with a blues rendition of Living In The Past, and then we moved into Bad Bad Leroy Brown, City of New Orleans and Do Wah Ditty. Dave offered up a John Prine song whose name escapes me. Downtown Train was a hit, and by then it was after 10 pm. Sonna was itching to dance, so we wound down with another couple songs by another gentleman, and ended with a group version of the Blues Traveler tune "Runaround".

We didn't even get through a 1/3 of my really good material, and looking back there were probably a dozen other songs the guys would easily have picked up after we got in our groove. Everyone had something to contribute, so had there been more time, we probably could have gone for a few more hours.

Matt, the DJ, took over with his 30 GB hard drive and laptop sound system, which I have to say was pretty sweet. Dancing lights and everything. We left around 11:00.

All in all, it was a good night. I didn't drink at all, nobody had any drugs, the food was healthy, and I didn't wake up in a laundry closet. I made some potential contacts, maybe some new friends, and I didn't even have to drive. How cool is that?!

Here's to Summer!!!!

Jeremy

Phillip's Emporium
Our March 23 performance went well considering Dave and I were both sick as dogs over the past week. I was able to premiere Volume Contest, and we mixed it up a bit with some story telling about my twisted musical past. Oldie's Night with Dark Honey on July 6 was a lot of fun. It's a good thing too, because the next day Jeremy was at the Geisinger ER with viral meningitis! Jeremy has mostly recovered but is taking it easy now in preparation for Dark Honey's WVIA debut and a recording project.

Rose Marie's
Our March 15th gig went very well, considering I had been sick for a while, and we played very late. While Dave is used to playing after midnight, I'm a wimp and usually pass out by 10 pm. In this case, we played from 10:30 to 1:30. By midnight we had everyone singing along with Ruby Tuesday, and the night ended with one of Dave's Oldie's medleys. A good time was had by all, and we are told we will be regulars this summer, so look for us again in April.