A night of fireworks, celebrations and more @ The Goldhawk

Earlier in the day, I sent my usual birthday wishes to my friend Nelson Pla of the band clueLess. It read, “Happy Day of Birth. You are still five months older than me.” His reply was simply, “Thanks. I still get carded.” Is he really allowed to make me feel old on his birthday? That doesn’t seem fair.

I was supposed to go to an event after work and then to The Goldhawk (936 Park Avenue, Hoboken). The event was rescheduled, so I used this as an opportunity to take a nap. At around 9:00, my slumber was jolted by a series of booms and blasts. This scared the hell out of me until I looked out of my window and saw the colorful plumes of a fireworks display over the Hudson River.

What was that all about? By the time I started my walk over to the bar, it was over. Still it haunted me. After all, this was just a random Wednesday night. Unless I missed that day in school describing the historical significance of April 9th. Of course if you ask Nelson, it was for his birthday. Of course the real celebration came at The Goldhawk where clueLess, Jon D’Angelo and Dave Calamoneri took turns spinning musical yarns and downing some shots.

Photo taken with my iPhone [what?]

I was told that clueLess–who never do cover tunes–had not one, but two surprises up their sleeves. The first was an impressive two-man acoustic version of Rush’s ‘2112’. Of course Nelson had to add a kick drum to his usual djembe and tambourine set-up. Still this meant he was like twenty-something drums shy of Neil Peart’s rig. Plus–as Nelson put it–Peart never had to play while singing his cockamamie lyrics.

For the last song of the night, Jon D’Angelo and Dave Calamoneri joined clueless for a rendition of ‘The Weight’ by The Band. Though billed as being the second cover by a Canadian band, only several members were actually Canadian. An even bigger surprise for me was not only running into, but eventually having to save my ex-wife from an apparent stalker. Good times, good times.

See Also:
clueLess
Jon D’Angelo
Dave Calamoneri
The Goldhawk