Summer sun, something's begun, but uh-oh those summer nights

Part 4

The next month features a show a weekend, wrapping up the summer and plowing straight into the last festival of the summer. The Kate is a gorgeous theatre, renovated in the past few years and now a world class music and performance venue. I throw the word special around a lot, but it’s an apt adjective in this case. The Kate was a special show, the band has never failed to surprise me with their level of naïveté and by the same token their guile, they remain keenly aware of the circumstances they find themselves in and still manage to drink in the entirety of the experience. They exhibit a strange brand of wisdom blended with a joi de vivre that you can’t help but find intoxicating. The crowd feels it, their excitement and joy for the band reflected right back to them twofold, the guys giving as they receive. The audience that night contained a fine representation of McLovination, Dave and Elizabeth Bayne, Krista and Paris, Dave Malloy, Dan O and Eve, Dan Tyler and some new southern Connecticut fans helped bring out the best in the band and another wildly improvisational performance was the result.

The next weekend was the Open House at Gengras Harley Davidson and The Mclovins were tapped to provide the afternoon’s entertainment. John Dailey and Dave Malloy both showed up to tape the show, it dad been a few gigs since I’d seen John and his presence has been missed. Jim Cypher also showed up, a gentleman and a scholar who took some amazing pictures of the day’s events. Summer stalwarts Paris and Krista and The 2 Dans and Eve made their customary appearances. Joe Neckbone and Tom Bavarro with his kids in tow made the show. The band turned in a concise and precise set peppering a few returning “Conundrum” songs in to the mix and giving the crowd just what they wanted. If you listen to the recordings you can hear the motorcycles zipping in and out all afternoon.

And now for something completely different; David Malloy is one of the rock-solid fans; I first met him at the Phish Pre-show last summer, and was instantly struck by his easy-going demeanor and musical acumen. David was in charge of handling the music for this year’s Haddam Neck Fair, and he chose to book the McLovins for a Sunday afternoon Labor Day weekend gig. They opened for Aztec Two-Step, and played to an energetic crowd of a couple hundred. This was an agricultural fair so the redolent smell of the harvest, along with roasted chicken and the slight hint of livestock filled the air. A wonderful turnout from the McLovin faithful, Dan O who sat in with the guys On Cissy Strut to start the second set; Wil Kablik, Joe Neckbone, Paris and Krista and dozens of new friends. The band was at ease during the performance, the setting was idyllic and they turned in a wonderfully languid show, lose and experimental, really stretching out and trying some new things. Now we had to wait 2 weeks for the final party of the summer, for next up was WORMTOWN!