PapaSweenBean’s Friday Night – Brian Kane Trio

Brian Kane Trio – Friday Night Block Party – Twisted Fiddler – by Liam Sweeny.

It’s 6pm and I’m full of linguini alfredo, home cooked, and because of that I’m full of vim and vigor, and an outright taste for some sweet music and groovy people. That’s where the Twisted Fiddler comes in. Or really I should say it’s where the Fiddler comes out of their spacious digs, beyond the stage that sits before the screen against the wall, out into the very street itself.

It’s a block party, and setting up when I arrived was Brian Kane. I know Brian plays around, and I mean everywhere. See, I write out the weekend show listings and I see his name so much I could make him a tour poster.

I enjoyed a Dirty Slider from the Slidin Dirty truck, and what a treat. Little burgers, three, a half dozen mouthfuls of lettuce-wrapped ground beef, barbeque sauce and jalapenos. Add a fresh glass of water offered by a friendly face inside the Fiddler (I don’t drink) and I could enjoy the happenings on a full belly.

I meet up with Ralph Renna, former Radioradiox and current WABY93.3 bearded prophet; well, small beard. He’s there in the work van, all decals like our own van, and we compare notes. I know when my car stb, I have a place to catch a fleet vehicle on the cheap.

Also ran into publicist and Troy icon Duncan McCrary. We grab a drink and shoot the breeze. Cool guy, and he’s got a side quest that I won’t share here, but it’s wild and I hope he makes headway on it. I’m all about side quests; got a few of my own.

But to the focal point of the nascent eve, Brian Kane Trio. Amazing. Tight, rock like rock ought to sound live. And even though it was out in the middle of First Street, it was an environ of acoustical finesse. Maybe it was the way the buildings climbed just so high to either side, just funneling the sound to the easy hundred or more people in attendance. No clue, but reckon the best stage for a show turned out to be no stage at all.

I didn’t know the other players, except for Luke MacNamee, also known as Sax-O-Claus, now growing his beard to save on the costume. Probably just wants a beard.

I swing over to El Dorado after that, just a quick drink and a loan of an ear to a couple of exuberant twenty-something girls in the back tapping full lung volume before a projection karaoke screen. And in the spirit of karaoke, I concluded the night with Donnie MaGoo’s in Cohoes and the musical stylings of Matty D and karaoke done be musicians like Xavier Morris.

Till next time…

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