I can’t think of anything worse than setting foot inside a store — any store — the weekend after Thanksgiving. To me, Black Friday is an idiocy; I don’t care if they’re GIVING HDTVs away; I’m not going.
So I’m part of another, different tradition: A group of us get together to play and perform music.
Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday (secular celebration of thanks, no blow-up helium lawn ornaments and nerve-jangling Christmas muzak, and in my case, no fixed traditions that must be adhered to). Even if the Thanksgiving story we tell IS a fairytale, I like the IDEA of it. It may not be entirely true, but it SHOULD be.
Black Friday? Not so much.
Fortunately, our friend Greg has been hosting a “Black Friday” jam at his place in New Jersey. Invites go out to a core group of musicians and friends, and anyone else in the area we happen to know. Lately, Black Friday has expanded into a music weekend, as we’ve gotten an annual “gig” at a teeny little coffeehouse. In fact it’s so small there’s barely room for the band, and the last couple of years, I’ve set up my keyboard in the store window, which pretty much put my butt right out there into the street (We called ourselves “Amsterdam” the first year). This year, however, the window was already all pretty for Christmas, so I had to keep my butt inside. The fun of this gig is that it’s –well — FUN. It gives us a chance to try out new material and see if we really can play in unison on “Low Rider” (Verdict’s still out on that — the sound set-up was was pretty challenging, making it difficult to hear when the vocals were coming in…).
But most of all, it puts sharing music where it belongs: In the middle of a holiday with good friends.
So : You can go to the mall, get trampled, fight over a TV that you probably don’t even need — or you can get together with friends and play music.
No brainer, as far as I’m concerned.
We’ve been invited back for next year. The gig is the Saturday after Thanksgiving; It’s in Hightstown, New Jersey at the Slow Down Cafe. See you there.
