Day 24: Hamden CT
Welcome
Yesterday was show day at the Space Ballroom in Hamden.
The day started with a walk back to our favourite Hamden restaurant Sushi Palace - a slightly hazardous journey due to the amount of snow and icy footpaths on the route. It was a brisk morning with a cool wind making -1°C feel a lot colder. According to the US Coast Guard a human immersed in water of this temperature would become unresponsive or unconscious within fifteen minutes and would not survive longer than an hour. Luckily we stayed dry and warm and returned with a mixed tray of fresh sushi flavours including tuna, spicy salmon, spicy tuna, eel and avocado, crispy tofu, and tempura veges.
In the afternoon we loaded our gear into the venue and completed all of the setup tasks with robotic precision. That left us free to enjoy the best greenroom of the tour. No frills, just six incredibly comfy armchairs.
Hamden was the smallest show we played on this tour but Space Ballroom was well worth the stop. The venue has two great performance spaces, a lovely outdoor area for the summer, and the backstage facilities feature the best greenroom, kitchen, washing, and shower facilities we have come across so far. The audience was fun and engaging and responded well to me relentlessly plugging the blog. After the show I was lucky enough to receive a few pieces of Hamden trivia in the Breakfast and Travel Updates inbox that I’d like to share with you now.
Hamden is the birthplace of the legendary Joe Castiglione, radio voice of the Boston Red Sox.
The town is nicknamed Hobbomock or ‘Land of the Sleeping Giant’ after the nearby mountain which resembles a slumbering human figure.
Until it was removed in 2003 Hamden featured a ‘Ghost Parking Lot’ of cars entombed in Asphalt.
I’ll leave you with a small offering that goes behind the scenes for an exclusive look at one of our famous trailer unloadings.