nophillyrev

Any review of the 9:30 Club has to include the day before in Philadelphia. We were supposed to see GBS in Philly on the 9th and DC on the 10th. The gods conspired against us once again. Apparently Autumn and GBS doesn't mix well in Philly. In September of 1999, GBS were supposed to play at the Trocadero Theatre but had to cancel since a goodly portion of Philadelphia and the surrounding area was under water because of Hurricane Floyd. This year another disaster happens! See below for the story out of the horse's mouth.

Sorry Philly, Biting off more than you can...

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Posted by Alan, yes me on October 07, 2000 at 12:53:55 from 63.20.240.218:

Hey all
As most of you know, I phoned in sick yesterday for the first time in my music career. After a week of Buffalo-Vancouver-New York-Boston-Calgary-Edmonton-Toronto-etc... my pipes were spent. Most of the days had more than one appearance and heavy travel. It is my own fault for agreeing to do it.
By the time we hit Rochester, my voice was shot. The last thing we wanted to do was cancel again in Rochester considering the disappointing rainout this summer past. The show went on, but by morning yesterday I could not speak.
Reluctantly I told Louis, our manager, to cancel Philly and that the day off would restore my voice.
I still don't feel 100% but my pipes are much better today. Thanks for all the well wishes.
I feel awful for disappointing the fans in Philadelphia and Jesse from the promotion company who worked very hard to sell this show. I hope we have not lost you over this. I promise to make it up in the future.
I am looking forward to the 9:30 Club tonight. Last night in the hotel room sure sucked.

Thanks again for your patience & get well soons.
Cheers
Alan

Philly's Non-Show
On Friday, after having a bad week and a horrendous day at work, I gathered what was left of my sagging spirits and headed to the Trocadero. Dropped some local Tastes of Philadelphia (Soft pretzels and Tastykakes) off for the band at the venue, thought I saw Bob on stage with the accordian. Still think I did.

Met Vic, Karen, and Jane downtown and since there were 2 more hours to go till the doors opened, went to the Gallery to eat. Introduced Jane to Philly cheesesteaks. Hey Mikey! She liked it! Went back to the Troc and saw everyone looking at a sign on the door that hadn't been there earlier.

Oh man! I was NOT ready for that announcement. "Great Big Sea has cancelled. Allen lost his voice." The wind was just taken out of my sails. All we could do was plop on the steps outside and moan and groan.Of course, first Karen took her magic marker and changed the spelling of Alan's name. She wrote it on the window since we couldn't get to the poster. They erased it and then after our complaining about the spelling again, finally changed it to ALAN.
We sat on the steps and watched the expressions of the people who arrived smiling rapidly change to disbelief and then dismay! Geez! Last year they had to cancel because of Hurricane Floyd. And now this. We were worried about Alan and really wished someone could tell us more but that was not to be. Then I figured I had a hallucination when I thought I saw Bob for sound check. I must have wanted to see them so badly; I conjured them up in my mind. We met a fan from Newfoundland named Karen who was really upset. Some people tried to talk us into attending the concert for the opening band, Entrain, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to attend a GBS show minus GBS.
After the disappointment (and that word is not strong enough, believe me!) of the cancelled show in Philly, we came back to my house and Jane and I had a little jam session of our own till about 1 AM. The next day Jane was introduced to another Philly delicacy - scrapple. This passed muster, too. Don't ask what's in it