As I say, the one(?) good thing about the Days Inn in Elmsford was it had acceptable free coffee in the lobby. And there was a very nice morning desk clerk! Dave brought back coffee while I was in the shower and the cups had a Wyndham Hotel tagline (Days Inn is owned by Wyndham) on them: "You deserve this!" It cracked us up. We had all had miserable night's sleep, the bagged breakfast they gave us contained an industrial chocolate chip muffin, a chocolate chip granola bar, a plastic cup of diced peaches, and a water bottle. And there was still no soap or chairs.
Whatever, we showered with shampoo, had "breakfast," Dave downloaded an aud of last night's concert, and the sun was shining on another beautiful Fall day. After hanging around for a bit, we started to wonder about an excursion, and Dave noticed Tarrytown Lakes Park was nearby.
This was a great excursion! They have about 4 miles of trails and we covered most of them. The day was wonderful as I say, there was some up and down, and there were very few people. The woods there were fascinating, holding an incredible variety of trees from huge old white oaks to tiny cedars we'd never seen before. Most of the area was also covered with vines, and we had no idea if these were invasive or not. There were at least three different varieties of these that we didn't recognize.
The trail started as a wide bike path up on a berm, but there were several different networks of smaller trails that wound and wound through the relatively small park downhill toward the lakes, that used to be the reservoirs for Tarrytown but were retired in 1993. We saw chipmunks and squirrels, many types of birds, a couple of snakes, and a small deer who thought he had found a cozy hiding place until we walked on an overgrown trail near him. There were several mysterious stone structures scattered throughout the overgrown woods, and we ended up in a deserted soccer field back close to where we started.
Wonderful couple-of-hours walk, and the next task was to find a CVS! We were sick of having no soap and the tap water at the Days Inn was not potable (we had finished the water we brought). A quick internet search led us to detour into downtown Tarrytown, headed for the CVS and also in search of a good place to get lunch. Loaded with soap and water, we parked and cruised a few restaurants, and then settled on Sweet Grass Grill. The outdoor tables were full but the inside room was not crowded at all (though it subsequently almost filled up with a late-afternoon lunch crowd) and we got a table near the window, where we had an excellent meal and I had a great local Abbey beer. We'd already decided we liked Tarrytown a lot, especially since one of the places we passed downtown was the Tarrytown Music Hall, which advertised some excellent acts.
OK, time to go back to the hotel (we deserved it!) and get ready for the concert. Left at about the same time as we had the day before and went through the same routine: park behind Kiosko and go in for another Mexican dinner that couldn't be beat. They were surprised to see us back and we got the same table and the same waitress who didn't speak English, though we got by.
Tuesday night was exactly the same band and stage setup as it had been Monday, except Elliott Peck subbed for Amy Helm. No entry delays again, and we were soon settled back in our balcony seats (exactly a row behind where we'd been Monday) with a beer and one of Dave's Twitter friends. Great seats and great timing again and the band soon came out for the first set:
- Uncle John's Band
- He's Gone
- It Must Have Been the Roses
- Brown-Eyed Women
- Cassidy
- New Speedway Boogie
Debatable whether this should be Jam > UJB, but it was a great start anyway! I love the sound of Peck's voice and as much as Helm had done a great job the night before, Peck shone on Tuesday. Her backup vocals on He's Gone and then her lead vocal on It Must Have Been the Roses were surreal. This was followed by another great Brown-Eyed Women that unfortunately stayed a little grounded because of Eric Johnson's lead vocal.
Oh well, then Elliott took over again (with Johnson trying to hang on) for a spectacular Cassidy. And this was followed by a tribal-beat New Speedway on which the rhythm section of Joe and Phil excelled. Elliott has a great low range and sang this with the dread and power it requires. One oddity was that Johnson got out his harmonica on the first verse and played a bar or two, then put it away!?! The mixing problems from Monday were not apparent and Kaufman had apparently been given some more leash and used it to whip up some spacey guitar leads, at times trading off with Grahame. A great first set in which they really played to their strengths!
Halftime again and this really *was* halftime in our three-concert set. I'd hoped they'd be showing the baseball game on the TVs at the bar, as they had when the Mets were in the World Series, but they didn't and I had to rely on phone updates to get the Red Sox score. They'd whipped the Houston Astros in the ALCS on Monday at Fenway Park, but this night the score was closer, Red Sox leading 2-1 (they eventually lost and dropped the series).
Time for the second set, in which we hoped to get some more Phil space like Dark Star and Caution. Didn't get those but this was perhaps the best set of the stand:
- Help On the Way
- Slipknot!
- China Doll
- Franklin's Tower
- Estimated Prophet
- Eyes Of the World
- Scarlet Begonias
- The Music Never Stopped
Again a nice introduction by Grahame and Stuart to a great song in Help (sung by Grahame), and then a powerful, Russo-led romp into Slipknot! ... fantastic stuff and we were dancing in the balcony. And after that, a twist: they calmed down and the spotlight landed on Benmont. He'd done a spectacular China Doll when we'd last seen him with Phil, and this one was almost as good. The previous one had been basically a duet between him and Phil, but this time the whole band backed him up and he sparkled on piano and the bluesy vocal tones. They followed that up by sliding into Franklin's Tower (sung by Phil) to close the set-piece. As mentioned, this was not a turn-on-a-dime band, but Joe did the best he could to glue the songs together and Grahame did the best he could at herding cats.
Another mellow and spooky intro to Phil dropping out the bottom into Estimated, with great backup by Elliott. This then slid into the expected Eyes, and this one was knocked out of the park. Bogie was playing great sax and Tench was swirling around on the organ; Grahame was doing his best Bobby impression and Kaufman was off the leash, running through the forest. Johnson turned in one of his best vocals, and of course Elliott and Grahame supplied excellent choruses.
Next a fantastic Scarlet, with a long intro until Joe convinced them to stop wandering around. And again this featured some great ensemble singing, between Grahame, Johnson, and Elliott. Then a full stop, and perhaps the song of the night. We'd seen P&F featuring Elliott do Music in Bangor a few years ago, and this was just as exciting! She nails those Donna parts, and Bogie's sax and clarinet gave this the swinging vibe this song deserves.
Yikes, that was a great set! Time to collapse into our seats again and realize how much our feet were hurting from dancing until daylight se we could greet the morning air with song. The crowd had actually thinned out a little, as this *was* a work night for some people and there were trains that couldn't be missed. But soon the old guy came out for another donor rap and we all paid rapt attention. Who knew how long he'd be doing this?
He announced they had another song, and this was one of my favorites, Cold Rain and Snow. Phil took the lead vocals again and his voice was still in great shape. And of course Elliott and Grahame just knocked us dead with their backup. Yay, a great concert and we still had another left.
Hung out at the seats again for a few minutes until the crowd died down, but this is one of the great things about the Cap, even when it's sold out there isn't much of a problem getting in and out of it. Back up to Kiosko and then an unimpeded drive up the Expressway to Elmsford. Again, in bed just before 1:00 after a fun night.
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