The XPN Festival would be the first time our daughter would see and hear her favorite musician - Josh Ritter - live. Along with saying "I want to see Josh Ritter" several dozen times, she also sang her two favorites songs ("Kathleen" and "Snow is Gone" - click to listen) for much of the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Camden, NJ waterfront (a drive that usually takes 40 minutes). We had planned to arrive half way through the day, allowing her to take a normal nap, and get there just in time for Josh's set. We were successful in doing so but upon arrival we learned that the remainder of the event had been canceled due to the on again-off again nasty weather (I guess "All Weather Event" does not exactly include "All Weather").
Our little one then had her first ever music related meltdown. Crushing emotional letdowns are often the downside of such unbridled enthuasiasm. The episode was equal parts funny, sad, and adorable. She was back to her normal self after about three minutes, her emotional recovery having been aided by her being allowed to splash through the puddles that lined our walk back to the parking lot. To salvage the evening we talked of having dinner in Philly when we heard on the radio that the festival was being moved to the smaller, indoor World Cafe Live - XPN's restaurant/venue in University City, Philadelphia. Turns out Josh Ritter had agreed to stick around and play at 9pm that night to a much smaller crowd - a crowd, we decided, that would include the three of us. We quickly turned towards West Philly and made plans to have dinner at the venue and be one of the first "in line". Our passenger in the backseat restarted her two song Ritter medley with glee. All was, once again, right with the world...or so we thought...
Upon arrival, we learned that the kitchen was closed and that "getting in line" was a literal reference to what one would need to do in order to be admitted into the show. It was 6:30pm. The doors were scheduled to open at 8pm, with the first band (no longer a given to be Ritter, as they were still putting this modified event together) hitting the stage around 9pm. We were faced with the decision to stand in line for an hour and a half on the steps down to the venue and wait for another hour for the music to begin and then who-knows-how long until Josh plays - all without dinner, or cut our losses and hit the road.
We decided to leave. Her 2nd meltown of the day took place on the floor of the World Cafe Live lobby.
Over 3 hours, nearly 80 miles of driving, one $3 Bridge toll, 2 toddler meltdowns, and not a single note of live music was heard. Not a terrific day.
Luckily, we are spending a night in New York to see Josh Ritter play, for free and outdoors (no rain, no rain, no rain...) at the South Street Seaport in August.
If that show happens to be canceled, the 2 year old of the family will not be the only one having a tantrum!
Related Links:
Photos of the Festival
Music from the Festival
Jeff
Out With The Kids
http://www.outwiththekids.com
2 comments:
I'm a big fan of Josh Ritter too. He's from my area... North Idaho. In fact, he went to high school with my brother-in-law, who says, "We had no idea he could sing and play guitar!" I think Josh definitely has enough talent to stick around awhile.
Hi Phil, thanks for the comment. I agree about the potential staying power of Josh in todays music biz. He offers up a geniune approach to songwriting and development of his craft (he is still getting better and evolving as a writer and performer). Now, many major labels do not wait around for such development these days, but I have to think V2 sees him as something more long tern and not a flashy single-of-the-month type of act.
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