I Sang With The Nields: Rae's Adventures In Albany
Albany is not a place where things tend to happen (although it is the home of the Albany Yankees, Andrea says). Sure, it's the capital of New York, but when have you ever heard of something really hot happening in Albany? Well, on Friday Night, April 16, Andrea and I decidedly have found that exciting things do happen in Albany.
It all started when the lovely Ofer offered to take Andrea and I to see our favorite band, The Nields, in Albany. We said, "Sure, why not? That would be crisp!". So, we waited outside of the Dairy Mart in Northampton, in the rain sitting on my pajama bottoms, when Ofer pulled up, ready to take us on our Albany adventure.
After a drive of about an hour and a half, we arrived, with cramped legs, at the Eigth Step Coffee House, in Albany. All of us needed to use the bathroom badly! Luckily, even though we got there late, we didn't miss any of The Nields' set. After making a mad dash for the bathroom, without first assessing the venue-it was very cute!-we found Bruce, who had saved three seats for any fellow Nookers who came along. "Perfect!" We said ("word", rachel said).
The Nields played two short sets, which were amazing and wonderful as usual. The real excitment didn't come along until the encore (where they played three songs, two requested by the audience, and one of their choosing). We were grooving in our chairs along with "James", when suddenly Katryna beckoned Ofer to come sing with her onstage. We thought he was lucky, and we were also a little jealous. Almost immediately, Nerissa said "Rachel and Andrea, come up too!", while Katryna motioned, also. All of a sudden, in a very surreal experience, we were onstage, sharing a mic with Katryna, singing the last verse of "James". Once it got to the chorus, however, all of the surrealness faded, and we could freely rock out!!! They let us stay 'till the end of the song, and all gave us big hugs when it was over. Being budding folk/rock musicians, it has also been our dream to share the stage with our favorite band, The Nields. Overall, it was a very, very, very, very AWESOME time!
On the way home (after waiting forever after the show, because Nerissa said she needed to talk to me, and then disappeared-luckily I found her!), we got junk food at a 24-hour convience store (unfortunately, not a Circle K), sang songs from a religious info-mercial, tried to keep "I Tried" from getting back into my head, and talked non-stop about total randomness!
