Ben + Vesper Tour, Day 5

11 March , 2010

I know it’s a little late to start blogging about the tour, but you have both more and less time than you’d think. And most of it is spent in a vehicle with no internet, and I’m not about to blog on the iPhone. I may not say anything pithy or erudite here, but hopefully deep thoughts will come today on the drive to Chapel Hill.

Ben + Vesper at IAM Encounter at Cooper Union

Ben + Vesper Illustration by Stephen Crotts

We started the tour on Saturday night in NYC at the IAM Encounter conference at Cooper Union. What a fabulous night–we played on the same stage where Abraham Lincoln spoke. It was a beautiful room, and beautiful audience, and there were big projections of us on either side. Crazy. We had Tim Cronin joining us on trumpet, and he played marvelously. We wish he could come on tour with us! He did play with us in Brooklyn, and he may join us at SXSW (fingers crossed!) Also, one highlight of the evening was this portrait that Stephen Crotts drew of us! Thanks, Stephen!

Ben + Vesper at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia.

Sunday night was our first night playing with Danielson and Ortolan, and it was Ortolan’s CD release for Time on a String. The stage is tight, but it was nice and intimate after the huge stage at Cooper. We had a great and enthusiastic crowd.

Ben + Vesper LuvInIdleness CD release at Knitting Factory, Brooklyn

Monday night was our CD release at the new Knitting Factory space in Brooklyn. It’s a great space and it was wonderful to see many of our friends there. We released our new EP, LuvInIdleness, which was produced by our dear friend Sufjan Stevens. You can pick up a copy of Luv and our other releases on SoundsFamilyre.com. Justin Catania delivered our hand-printed woodblock prints, too. Oh. My. Gosh.

And so, after a day off, we found ourselves last night in the back back seat of Daniel Smith’s tour van, Danielson uniform hanging beside me, watching the Hartz trailer bounce along behind us. It was a little surreal. For Ben, especially, it was a dream come true. We’ve really had so much fun playing with Danielson. It was incredible of him to ask us to play, and we’re really trying to live up to the honor…and the challenge. So let’s see…Ottobar in Baltimore…well, it was a show. But we got this great picture:

Ben + Vesper and the Danielson Trailer

And with that, it’s on to Chapel Hill. See you at Local 506 tonight!

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