December 16, 2011
Okay tonight repeats a night in history on the 365 Bar Crawl! On May 8th, I went to the 118th bar of the 365 journey. The bar was the Lakeside Lounge in the East Village and my friend Chris Erikson was playing there with his band, Chris Erikson & The Wayward Puritans. Chris was one of the first editors I worked with when I moved here way back in 1993. He was working at the Manhattan Spirit weekly paper and I was writing choice assignments for between $35 and $50 bucks a pop! Who says there’s no money in freelance writing? Anyway you can read the whole story over at that post here: Saturday, May 8, 2010.
Time has moved on and Chris is now employed at the New York Post and I’m working my night shit shift job. But I’ve taken tonight off, because back by popular demand, Chris Erikson and The Wayward Puritans are playing live tonight at Lakeside Lounge! This is going to be like stepping back in time. Sherman set the Wayback Machine and awaaay we go!
As I posted yesterday, The Waverly Diner has reopened! I stopped in for a snack last night, but I had to have my favorite for dinner before the show...
The Waverly Melt on toasted rye bread and extra well done fries.
Delicious! Okay, on to the show!
Here we are, The Lakeside Lounge.
Tonight: Chris Erikson and The Wayward Puritans!
This is a great dark, New York bar.
Leslie the friendly and pretty bartender serves up a bottle of Budweiser.
A shot of the bar from the opposite end.
Here's the band stage in the back room.
And here's Chris and the band setting up their gear.
The dueling guitars of Chris Erikson.
The set lists and key changes are out.
Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for: Chris Erikson and The Wayward Puritans! From left: Chris Erikson—guitar, lead vocals, Jason Mercer—bass, backing vocals, Diego Voglino—drums and Jay Sherman Godfrey—guitar, backing vocals.
The songs are all Chris Erikson originals, great songs.
They have a CD coming out soon, stay tuned for details about that as it happens.
The only song that's not an original is a song by Chuck Berry's original piano player, Johnnie Johnson called, "Johnnie B. Bad." This is cool because both Chris and I have interviewed Johnnie Johnson.
I'm not the only one taking pictures in the crowd.
Here they are playing the encore song of the night.
Shows over, time for a drink! A great show and I'm looking forward to the CD! Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.
Lakeside Lounge
162 Ave. B (Near 10th St.)
212-529-8463
Further Reading: New York Magazine, Chris Erikson & The Wayward Puritans on MySpace and For Pete’s Sake.
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