::Maniacal Laughter::

Another Saturday night and I’m stag at a concert. This one’s a little over an hour from home, and I got tickets for us both, but Eleanor’s varied aches and pains were really getting to her, so she curled up with a heating pad and the novel Mohsin Hamid read from the other night.

Me? Clearing a 37-year old stone from the bucket.

I moved to Buffalo for school in 1981, just as a band from nearby Jamestown was beginning to make its mark. They did gigs at UB, at the legendary downtown Continental, at Mr. Goodbar and Nietzsche's. I’d heard of them, but never HEARD them until my college roommate,  years after graduation, gave me a cassette with In My Tribe and Blind Man’s Zoo on it. They were 10,000 Maniacs, and SHE was Natalie Merchant.  By the time I got to Rochester, they were getting bigger, and my attention was elsewhere. Next I knew, they were headlining Darien Lake, performing on Johnny Carson and MTV Unplugged, and not coming back to Nietszche's any time soon.

Then Natalie left. Their sometime backup female vocalist and violinist Mary Ramsey stepped up to the mike. Their first and last Nataless Geffen Records album came out, and I loved it. I may have been the only one.

In this time came my one shot to see them- at a Rochester outdoor gig over a summer when Emily was maybe 5. We got there early, I took her to use the loo in the Cadillac Hotel across the street (perhaps the scariest moment of her young life, and maybe even mine;), and we waited for the band to come out. Nothing. Word finally got out: longtime member Robert Buck was too sick to go on. Mary and her Maniac partner John Lombardo offered to do some of their duo songs, but no. We left minus Mania.

Rob’s problems continued, and he would pass from liver failure in late 2000.  Soon they were indie again, had a weird fling with a West Coast chanteuse named Oskar, causing Mary and her original Maniac partner John Lombardo to exit, and 10,000 Mania largely faded.   But they’ve largely returned to roots, with smaller shows and at-the-venue albums, and with John back in the fold and Mary doing both her songs and Natalie’s.

So this is the night I am finally seeing them.

——

Bittersweet drive down to Jamestown, ending on a road I'd never taken there from Fredonia. That’s where I reconnected with my oldest friend in the world Janice, when she spoke at SUNY mere months before she died way too soon.




She’d have hit 59 next week, not quite a month before I’m scheduled to. 

Also on the drive down, the signs on the 90 for Erie, PA reminded me of driving there two Novembers ago to help protect the polls. The darkness and dreariness of that whole day paled compared to the news that night: our democracy had also died way too soon.  There was also getting confirmation of The Confirmation on the drive down, which I could (and soon will) rant plenty about. But just as WUBJ Jamestown ended its Kav-erage, I got this reminder on this mostly Rainy Day that some things are bigger and more beautiful than even ass(ociate) justices on the Supremes:

I got there in plenty of time to join these fellow Maniacs in Rocking the Vote and flipping NY23 from Tom, a mealy-mouthed Mostlytrumper to a genuine Democrat.  Since I was earlyish, my "general admission" turned into one of my best concert seats ever, three rows from the stage:



Right on time, it got Maniacal.  They played a mix of stuff from BN and AN eras (though neither she nor Rob was ever mentioned by name), much of it on this album which I got autographed by Bassist Steve and Candidate Tracy after the show:



But they added one from The Earth Pressed Flat, their first post-Geffen CD which Mary said that owning would be rare (we do;), and "Pit Viper," from their longago first album Hope Chest (got that, too;). That was sung by the newest Maniac, guitarist Jeff Erickson (on the left on this earlier song, with John in the middle and bassist Steve to his left with Mary on her stool in her strappy shoes):



By the second half of the show, the stool was gone, the sensible shoes were on, and she and her violin did a lot more jamming, including here on "Because the Night." Although not a Natalie-written song, I associate that one perhaps the most with her as lead vocalist, but Mary adds a virtuoso violin bridge to it that her predecessor never could:



In between halves, Candidate Tracy came out and gave a resounding crescendo of blue to the crowd.  The band "ended" with "Hey Jack Kerouac," but we knew it wasn't over.  There was one to go, and it brought out the singing, the dancing, and the love:
 

"These Are Days" (Watch on YouTube)

That's Tracy in the front row under where Dennis Drew is keyboarding, dancing and hugging and joining in the support. I'd like to see Tom Reed show this kind of enthusiasm ::koff::

----

Got my signed merch, drove home in a wickedly beautiful thunderstorm, and today is back to the usual Sunday routines: good trip to Dog Park, bad news expected from Orchard Park, and a closing of a friend's art show this afternoon. But with one more album on my phone and the best of memories of friends I've finally met:)