So on May 18th I was in NYC to play at Caffe Vivaldi. I started off the day by visiting Fairfield, CT to see a few friends and to take the Metro-North in…basically because I do not want to drive around the city with my car. I also love talking the Metro-North for some reason. To be honest, I just really love Connecticut in general.

My ride in to the city left me hungry so by the time I reached West 4th St., I had to hit up a personal favorite, Papaya Dog, for a chicken sandwich and fries (honestly, its some of the best food in NYC in my opinion). Then I went over to Matt Umanov guitars down by West 4th to check out some new guitars I may be purchasing in the near future.

At 7PM i went on at Caffe Vivaldi. The venue is easily one of my favorites and I spent many days there last fall while I was still living in the city. It is just so cozy and perfect for acoustic tunes. I busted out “No Woman, No Cry” and chatted it up with bar goers as they stopped in to the cafe to say hi. I am so happy I had the opportunity to play at Vivaldi and I always love being there. I can’t wait to get back to what really feels like home base for me. Below are the pictures I took from the day: 

Today was all about Burlington VT. After an awesome Philly show I was so ready to get going to Burlington that I didn’t realize there were impending hail and thunderstorms. Lets just say that this show was probably the hardest show I have ever had to travel to and that flooding was a common theme on the back roads of Vermont.

By the time I did get to Burlington, the weather had cleared up and I began to meander the city streets. I had a delicious dinner at the Vermont Pub and Brewery and took in all the lovely brick buildings everywhere. Everyone was also so friendly and nice that I really can’t say enough about how much I loved the people. I met a fellow guitar player on the street too, who said he was from Portland, Oregon. We struck up a conversation and he ended up coming to my show. Burlington folks….you guys rock. 

The set list was longer today than in Philly and I played a little cover by Griffin House called “The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind”. I also ended up playing not only for the room of people at the Radio Bean, but also playing for numerous people outside the shop. I loved the foot traffic from outside, especially since the room itself was rather small. Still, it was a cozy and fun place where I felt very close to every single one of the people at the venue. Burlington, you shall be missed. Below are the pics we took, I hope you can find some you like!

Thanks for listening

-Stephen

Today I kicked things off with my first date at The Grape Room in Philadelphia. The afternoon was spent wandering the city of Philadelphia finding the perfect cheesesteak (which I did) but then lead me into Chinatown for a nice little snack. I didn’t know Philly had so many Peking Duck restaurants but I have to say, I didn’t have a bad meal all day. Independence Hall was great and I recommend to anyone that doesn’t live in Philly to check it out. The rest of the Old City with all the historical stuff was really cool as well

The show was great and I played favorites like “Colonie” and a new song called “Kings”. I also had a lovely discussion with the other band on the bill “Via Lotus” about beards. The sound guy was amazing and I am really happy I got off to such a great start….Philly I will be back soon I promise. Off to Burlington, VT tomorrow. Here are some pics from today’s Philly Phun for ya

Thanks for listening

-Stephen