Wednesday, July 18, 2007

No Greater Social Significance!

In local news, my band is playing the Fort Reno concert series tomorrow (Thursday). Fort Reno is a park in NW DC across the street from Wilson High School, about a block or so from the Tenleytown metro stop on the red line. They throw free rock concerts there every Monday and Thursday all summer, so that folks who are too young to go to bars or too poor to pay covers or too free as a bird, man, to go indoors and/or ever stop playing frisbee can go see some of the sweetest local shows in a friendly, safe, and all-around pleasant environment, twice a week if they so choose. Apparently this has been going on now for about 40 years, but our paths didn't cross until last week, when I managed to get there in time to see Greenland and pick up their recently released debut gem, Call/Message.

As far as I can tell, the protocol is as such: everybody sits around on the grass or on blankets, smiling, chatting, and glistening a bit, and picnics are consumed but no booze. Those guys from those local bands look around and nod at each other across the grassy expanse. A throng of underage kids packs in right up against the stage like pigeons around a bread machine and many a minor adolescent drama plays out almost imperceptibly in their midst. The cops sit on the hillside overlooking the stage like shepherds, lights slowly flashing. The stage itself is lit by a pair of streetlights, and the performers sweat like pigs. Everyone has a good time, from about 7pm till just shy of ten o'clock.

Sounds nice, right? It is. Just so you know, they survive off of donations and volunteers.

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