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captainsblogYesterday was my all day adventure about 70 miles south of here in the Land of Mania. I'd finally seen the current incarnation of 10,000 Maniacs twice in less than four years after missing out for close to the first 40, but this was the "home" stop on their 40th anniversary tour, at the historic downtown Jamestown venue which they chose for this event. This will be the first post about my repasts of this day, beginning here with the Walk. The Comedy, The Show, and The Fun Wow will follow in turn beginning tomorrow.
Despite my occasional visit to its outskirts, I'd never previously been to downtown Jamestown that I can remember. Although it is the largest municipality in Chautauqua County and one of only two cities there (Dunkirk is the other), the stovepiped poobahs decided in the 1800s to put the county seat in the much smaller village of Mayville one exit down the 90, so that is where court hearings have brought me over the years. Closest I came was my long-awaited first time seeing the band in the fall of 2018; that was at JCC, not a Jewish gym but the community college campus located north of downtown proper.
The show was at 7 p.m., but a full day was on tap, because Steve Gustafson, founding band member and their bassist, had offered to take fans on a morning walking tour downtown of the places where they made their oldest memories and history. I'd arranged with nearby-to-us friends to meet up for this event and then foodage before the show, but we drove separately since they planned to stay over and I didn't. This will be important in a later post. I passed them on the 90 at some point, but since I didn't know quite the directions of things downtown (Ellen was a classmate of Steve's and others in the group at Jamestown High), they got to the meetup point sooner.
Yeah, they're in there somewhere. Steve our tourguide's the one sitting on the curb in the fedora. Once 11 came, we made our first stop round the corner-
Across the street behind him was a building that, in their early days, was a youth center that cities and schools went to in the 70s to try keeping the kids occupied and off drugs. They let them rehearse their early band groupings there, and Steve got in a fight with a future band member that scared Youth Center Lady out of her hairnet. The guys are still together 40-plus years later, so they must have gotten over it.
Lots of formers on this walk.
The upstairs here, a earlier 20th century ballroom they used. The ground floor is now a brew joint called Beer Snob, where their opening act played an afterparty I did not attend.
Another former: a cavern club known back then as the Gatsby, which hosted the first full performance of the Maniacs' original lineup under their original short-lived name of "Burn Victim."
And finally, this one: now just another hipster bar and grill, it was revered in Steve's day as The Grog Shop, which by all accounts was exactly what you would expect from a name like that.
Also, alleys: some with artwork,...
this one, "Cotton Alley," named for a member of the Jamestown constabulary of some note, more recently serving as a onetime Maniacs performance site and as the name of one of Natalie Merchant's early songs with the group-
-and lastly this one, site of the music video for their early song (played last night) "Pit Viper" where John Lombardo strangled Steve.
He got better.
Speaking of the local constabulary, some things haven't changed at all:
Our Man in Hat revealed to us his longago exploits hiding out in here from a cruiser in hot pursuit and then sneaking out the back to finish drinking somewhere I (and possibly he) can't remember.
And we finished near the theater, where our night with the band would later end (and mine would barely begin /spoiler)-
Hey, there's Ellen, hands on hips in the Maniacs t-shirt to Steve's left! Here, he's showing us the site of the closest sitdown restaurant to the legendary downtown movie and theatre palace, which he bought early in their rock star days along with the building next door. Wound up selling both after his restaurant effort failed and the commercial landlord gig wasn't really his thing. It's reopened under new management; we couldn't get a table.
Also on the walk, the closed bank headquarters he once was a delivery boy for; the police headquarters he tried hard to stay out of; and the Art Deco Jamestown High School that brought the core of this band together.
We were all pretty worn at this point. By day's end, I would log over 16,000 steps on the app for that on my phone. I usually don't pay attention to that, but no day earlier in the week went above 6,000 (not counting the mile on the treadmill). And these were on inclines; Jamestown is not as hilly as Ithaca, but as you can see from the Pit Viper video's alley, there's a bit of a drop....
a word which will also be important later.
Despite my occasional visit to its outskirts, I'd never previously been to downtown Jamestown that I can remember. Although it is the largest municipality in Chautauqua County and one of only two cities there (Dunkirk is the other), the stovepiped poobahs decided in the 1800s to put the county seat in the much smaller village of Mayville one exit down the 90, so that is where court hearings have brought me over the years. Closest I came was my long-awaited first time seeing the band in the fall of 2018; that was at JCC, not a Jewish gym but the community college campus located north of downtown proper.
The show was at 7 p.m., but a full day was on tap, because Steve Gustafson, founding band member and their bassist, had offered to take fans on a morning walking tour downtown of the places where they made their oldest memories and history. I'd arranged with nearby-to-us friends to meet up for this event and then foodage before the show, but we drove separately since they planned to stay over and I didn't. This will be important in a later post. I passed them on the 90 at some point, but since I didn't know quite the directions of things downtown (Ellen was a classmate of Steve's and others in the group at Jamestown High), they got to the meetup point sooner.
Yeah, they're in there somewhere. Steve our tourguide's the one sitting on the curb in the fedora. Once 11 came, we made our first stop round the corner-
Across the street behind him was a building that, in their early days, was a youth center that cities and schools went to in the 70s to try keeping the kids occupied and off drugs. They let them rehearse their early band groupings there, and Steve got in a fight with a future band member that scared Youth Center Lady out of her hairnet. The guys are still together 40-plus years later, so they must have gotten over it.
Lots of formers on this walk.
The upstairs here, a earlier 20th century ballroom they used. The ground floor is now a brew joint called Beer Snob, where their opening act played an afterparty I did not attend.
Another former: a cavern club known back then as the Gatsby, which hosted the first full performance of the Maniacs' original lineup under their original short-lived name of "Burn Victim."
And finally, this one: now just another hipster bar and grill, it was revered in Steve's day as The Grog Shop, which by all accounts was exactly what you would expect from a name like that.
Also, alleys: some with artwork,...
this one, "Cotton Alley," named for a member of the Jamestown constabulary of some note, more recently serving as a onetime Maniacs performance site and as the name of one of Natalie Merchant's early songs with the group-
-and lastly this one, site of the music video for their early song (played last night) "Pit Viper" where John Lombardo strangled Steve.
He got better.
Speaking of the local constabulary, some things haven't changed at all:
Our Man in Hat revealed to us his longago exploits hiding out in here from a cruiser in hot pursuit and then sneaking out the back to finish drinking somewhere I (and possibly he) can't remember.
And we finished near the theater, where our night with the band would later end (and mine would barely begin /spoiler)-
Hey, there's Ellen, hands on hips in the Maniacs t-shirt to Steve's left! Here, he's showing us the site of the closest sitdown restaurant to the legendary downtown movie and theatre palace, which he bought early in their rock star days along with the building next door. Wound up selling both after his restaurant effort failed and the commercial landlord gig wasn't really his thing. It's reopened under new management; we couldn't get a table.
Also on the walk, the closed bank headquarters he once was a delivery boy for; the police headquarters he tried hard to stay out of; and the Art Deco Jamestown High School that brought the core of this band together.
We were all pretty worn at this point. By day's end, I would log over 16,000 steps on the app for that on my phone. I usually don't pay attention to that, but no day earlier in the week went above 6,000 (not counting the mile on the treadmill). And these were on inclines; Jamestown is not as hilly as Ithaca, but as you can see from the Pit Viper video's alley, there's a bit of a drop....
a word which will also be important later.