Utica Music and Arts Festival

Sept 12th: The Utica Music and Arts Festival had us scheduled to go on really early – 5:45pm – so unfortunately I only got 3 and a half hours sleep before we had to be on the road. Breakfast was at Dunkin Donuts and we actually sat in the van in the parking lot and ate. I felt like Bob “to go” Stinson of The Replacements, who, regardless of where they were, would order his food to go, then sit in the van to eat it. Afterwards we were on our way to Albany where the hotel was (the plan being to drive partway back home after the gig so Sunday would be a shorter drive. Albany seemed like a good central location. Jack kept commenting on how beautiful the scenery was.

The hotel was not as nice as the one in NJ (not that the Jersey one was all that great) and the rooms were really small. Still, we made the stop and headed to Utica. We were scheduled to play one of the non-main stages, the “Tool and Die Magazine Stage”, and I assumed it was a trade magazine for machinists. Upon arrival we stopped at their booth by the stage and found it was a metal music magazine from nearby Syracuse and all the other bands playing that stage were from Syracuse as well. The band before us (called Drylung Whisky Heave) was very blue collar metal, but has a dark southern rock thing as well – sort of like a dusty road at sunset. Once again we played great and the sound onstage was really good – which based on the pa seemed unlikely. Just goes to show it’s all about the engineer, not the equipment. For the first half of the first song we were pretty much ignored, but like so many times before, people started paying attention fairly quickly, and we got our customary stares and cheers.

Afterwards we chatted with the other bands and their fans, and fielded a lot of questions regarding where we were from. The standard response of “Portland Maine” would get a slight quizzical stare, to which I would have to follow up quickly with “we’re on tour”, and THAT seemed to really impress people. We met a photographer, an older guy, who said he used to play in Ronnie Dio and the Prophets with none other than Ronnie James Dio! The guy seemed sincere and it turns out he knows our Producer Steve, so I’ll have to get some dirty outta him later. The whole vibe of the show felt like playing a gig in Lewiston or Augusta – very “blue collar metal”. By this time we’re all pretty wiped AND starved, so we headed out and stopped at a restaurant, ordering a LOT of food. Over dinner we talked about personal stuff. it all felt very cozy. The best part, though, was when “Fields of Fire” by Big Country came on the music system. Big Country was one of the reasons I started By Blood Alone. We then talked about how well the tour went and what a great time we had, and how we’d all like to do it again. Obviously not very often, as we have jobs and spouses and etc, but 1-3 times a year might be do-able. I feel so lucky that we’re all playing music together.

Afterwards it was back in the van and back to the hotel. Another night of crashing quickly, but at least we knew we could sleep late.