What's Right With The World

A week ago Friday night, my husband and i went to see one of my top 3 favorite bands: Poi Dog Pondering. They were playing at a little bar in Denver called The Walnut Room. It was Tim’s first time seeing them live, but he’s really begun to like them from hearing me play them around the house.

I have been following the band since 1989 when I was the record department manager at Benjamin Books & Records in Ridgewood, NJ. My rep, Sandro, told me about this new release called Poi Dog Pondering. I usually bought 1 of everything that sounded good so we’d have a great selection. When it arrived in the store, the cover was so interesting, so I opened it to play. I ended up buying it for myself and playing it almost every day in the store. Every time I played it, someone bought it. That’s how happy and infectious Poi Dog is.

The last time I saw them was at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, over 5 years ago. I went alone. In fact, this may be the only band I would ever go and see alone. It seemed odd to me that I never knew anyone who liked them as much as I did, but that was ok, because as soon as they started playing, it didn’t matter that I came alone. I was part of a family when the music was playing.

The Walnut Room was not only sold out, but full of joy. Everybody was so happy to see Poi Dog. We got the core group of players (the stage sometimes has something like 15 people on it when they bring out the big guns) – Frank, Susan, Ted, EJ, Dag. There’s something very reassuring about seeing a band that’s been together over 20 years, even without big radio airplay and big corporate sponsorship. And they clearly love what they do — you can see it on their faces.

After the show, my husband went up to Frank and asked him to talk to me (I was sitting on a stool in the corner so I wasn’t standing on my fractured ankle for more than was necessary) and he DID! He seemed genuinely happy to say hi and listen to me babble about seeing them in the now-defunct Green Parrot in Neptune, NJ and how I asked him to sign my jeans. I was (and apparently still am) such a fangirl. I can’t wait till they come back to Colorado again.

Ok, now go listen to some of their music and tell me how happy it makes you.