Day 38: Quincy, MA
Welcome
Yesterday we played at In Between Days Festival in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Lobby call was set for 10.30am, the decision being made to sacrifice punctuality for sleep, which we all needed after the accumulated exhaustion from the last few drive days. There was a 600km journey in between us and the festival which was in Quincy at the northern end of the BosWash Corridor, so it was going to be another day of practising our hatred for the cramped seating arrangement in the back of our Ford 350 Transit Van.
Our route began at the Quality Inn Near Princeton, a hotel in the township of Lawrence, NJ, which for those that are curious has about 7.5km of nearness to Princeton, NJ. This could have easily become a day of déjà vu, for we were heading up past New York City just as we had two weeks early on our way to New Haven. Luckily, Tristan took us on a slightly different route, avoiding the New Jersey Turnpike in favour of another of Springsteen’s favourite toll roads, the Garden State Parkway.
We stopped for breakfast at the James Gandolfini Service Area and I found myself a grilled vege hummus wrap at an Applegreen convenience store. It was fresh out of the refrigerator so I placed it on the hot bonnet of our van for a few minutes to help it up to room temperature.
Tristan Deck, thoroughly immersed in the process of documenting me documenting my breakfast.
After this quick stop we continued, entering New York State and heading east until the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge carried us across the Tappan Zee, the point where the Hudson River naturally widens. Crossing this beautiful piece of infrastructure offers you a view south down the Hudson where the skyscrapers of Manhattan are just visible. Then I684 took us north into Westchester and that was where we experienced the most thrilling minute and a half of the journey, driving the 2.3km stretch of this highway that passes through the tiniest part of the southwest corner of Connecticut.
Thank you, yes, I am aware of my misspelling of Connecticut.
The rest of the journey felt dull after this tiny miracle of interstate travel, the crossing of this administrative mini region known as the New Connectiyork Triangle Corridor. We drove I84 across Connecticut, and then entered Massachusetts, heading for the coast and the city of Quincy which is a part of Boston’s greater metropolitan area.
It was 5.30pm when we pulled into Veteran’s Memorial Stadium, a ground that ordinarily hosts the men’s Major League Rugby team the New England Free Jacks. I hadn’t come across evidence of Rugby Union in the United States and it is interesting to see that nearly a third of the players in the Free Jacks are New Zealanders. There was no evidence of Rugby, though, just a few small flags around the place and the artificial turf was busy with people enjoying the warm evening, watching the music or taking a break at one of the many food and drink stores.
Jon enjoys a quenching can of water right after our arrival.
My strongest memory of the festival was how loud it was. The main stage was across the other side of the pitch and was operating at peak volume while we unloaded the van and began to set the stage. Communication was challenging under this blanket of noise and we did our best not to shout ourselves hoarse before playing. It turned out that there was plenty of time to set up but since the schedule demanded both stages running back-to-back, we wouldn’t get a chance to soundcheck through the PA. When we kicked off at 7pm Gabe thought that something was wrong with the speakers. After the ear-bleeding sound level from the main stage our little PA system which was designed for indoor use sounded almost inaudible.
It was a challenging and fun show. The sound on stage was difficult but we tried to put that aside and enjoy the energy of the crowd and the beautiful setting of this venue. It had been overcast when we arrived but over the course of our performance the clouds had fled, and the sky had begun to bleed apricot and crimson with the arriving sunset.
As we started to pack down the main stage erupted back into action with the headliners Modest Mouse delivering the final performance of the night at an impressively loud volume. It would have been nice to hang around and watch but we had a 4.5-hour drive to complete and we needed put a dent in this next big leg to Cincinnati, Ohio. While we had been on stage performing our tour manager Immy had been busy raiding the catering tent and assembling takeaway meals which were now gratefully received by a hungry four Beths and one Gabe. We wolfed these down and got straight on the road, Jon volunteering for this last and most punishing stint behind the wheel. It was 1.30am when we rolled into Scranton, Pennsylvania, and finally put an end to this long day.
Our cake which volunteered to stay behind at the festival on our behalf.
Tristan has been chipping away at this video and travel update for the last couple of days and it’s now ready for consumption.