I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 20, 2019] The Well Wish

The Well Wish is a married duo (sometimes with a band).  They are from NJ and were picked to open for Lily & Madeleine at The Saint.

Because of a miscommunication with the woman at the door, I wound up missing almost their entire set (and I was a block away).

I saw two songs by them.   On the first one, singer Anya Schildge played keys while Patrick Angeloni played acoustic guitar.  For the second (and final) song, Schlidge switched to guitar.  They were accompanied by Lily & Madeleine’s cello played Shannon Hayden because their violinist couldn’t make it.

I really enjoyed their music and am quite bummed that I missed so much of their set.  There was a folk feel (complimented by the cello) but with pop sensibilities [their influences: Florence and the Machine, Radiohead, and Bonnie Raitt].

I also felt bad because there was hardly anyone there–seriously, about 8 people.  NJ had been hit by a snowstorm which shut down all traffic in the state.  But by the time of the show, the snow was now rain and the roads were fine, so I drove the hour to Asbury.  Apparently I’m one of the few people who bothered to go out.  So after the set Patrick and Anya came over and started talking to me and the other guy who drove out there.

She said they were married and sometimes have a band with them.  They are both teachers by day (Anya’s students are probably too young to appreciate a rocking teacher) and play mostly locally.  They have one EP out on Spotify.

I really enjoyed what I heard and again, am really bummed that I missed the rest of the set.  How could this happen when I arrived at The Saint way too early?

Well, when I walked in The Saint, I was the only person there.  I asked what time the band went on and the person at the door must have assumed I meant the headliner, because she said 9:30.  It was 8.  There was no way I could sit in that bar by myself for 90 minutes (you can only nurse a coke for so long), so I decided to go to Mark’s, the Jamaican place around the corner.

I had a delicious oxtail dinner and some unexpected excitement.

When I walked in there was a guy sleeping on a chair.  When the owner came out a moment later he said, why is that guy sleeping there.  He said he’d been gone for five minutes, what happened?  They clearly knew the man (they knew his name).  I guess they said he could use the bathroom.  But now he was sound asleep.

The owner told me they were about to close, but I could seat and eat while they got this guy out of there.   But the guy couldn’t be woken up (he wasn’t dead, presumably just drunk).   The owner said they were going to have to call 911.  So I made an exit and ate in my car.  Then the ambulance and police came up and blocked in my car (not that I was going anywhere).  I watched them haul the guy out and put him in an ambulance.

And basically that’s what I was doing while The Well Wish was playing.  It’s a great story but I’d have preferred to see the band.