Tuesday, July 20, 2004

St. Stephen's Demise

A little while ago a new Irish dance started up on Tuesday nights at a pub called St. Stephen's Green, in Los Altos. I decided to go tonight, play some banjo, and see who dances there. When I arrived, though, I found that the pub had been closed with virtually no notice, at least for the dancers, who were all outside dancing in a small, nearby plaza. So they're looking for a new venue now, which is kind of sad. But we got to play tunes and dance outside for a while, so that was okay for tonight at least.

I didn't know any of the musicians, but it was an interesting group. Aside from me, there was a guitar/vocalist, a pennywhistle, an electric bass, and a marimba. Yeah. Didn't hear much out of the latter two, though. When I showed up with a banjo, the whistle player decided he needed a break, so the guitarist told me to pick three jigs and had me totally carry the whole first set, without even a warm up. Very trusting of him, but it worked out alright. We did a few more sets and some waltzes after that, but it didn't go too late.

Bob and I convinced three new people there to come to the contra dance this Saturday, so that's very good. I'm going to try and get a whole Stanford contingent to show up this week. For reals, this time.

1 comment:

Miriam said...

For reals. That was a good one. :) My condolences to St. Stephen's dancers...I hope they find some sort of solace at the contra. Maybe you can bring that electric bass player from yesterday along, and then everyone can do an electric slide. :) Congratulations on your new arrivals, by the way. Have fun with them...I'm looking forward to hearing/reading your review.