Post your reviews....

I won't see the guys until Sunday! Bonnie, Mary and Bob - I know you'll have a good time.... I'll tell Ben you said "hi",I'm sure he'll be in NY....

I'll be at the IMAC show in New York.

The Blair Mansion Inn:

Time was when I felt lucky to be able to get my live AA fix once a year like clockwork every fall. Feeling positively spoiled now because this is the third time in the last 10 months that The Lads have come to the DC area!

The Blair Mansion is a big old, well....mansion, built around 1900! We walked in - and just around the corner, the Ruthless One was siting at a table of AA and Grainger CDs, happy to chat about the place and this somewhat unusual booking for AA.
We were led into the main room and were taken by its small size! It looked more like a dinning room (with small tables of 4 to 8 people) than a concert venue. (I don't think there were much more than 100 people). Mr. C mentioned during the show that he was genuinely surprised at how "intimate" the setting was. We were also delighted to discover that we were seated with two VIPs (!)from SmoothViews (see the Links page @ this site).

Decided to do some exploring before the show, was greeted by a very friendly Gary G. walking up the stairs, and ran into one Mr. Gilderdale in the men's room (apparently, they're real people - just like us!!)

As for the show - what can I say? The Lads never fail to delight with their talent, energy, humor, and genuine appreciation for the fans. Several tunes from This Way, a few from The Beautiful Game, and a smattering of the classics for the folks like us who've been with them for the last 20 years.

Afterwards, the Guys were just hanging around in the Grand Foyer, happy to mingle and chat with everyone, which was much more personal than the typical meet-n-greet line, and typically AA in the way they make themselves available to us regular folks.

Stewart said that they probably wouldn't be back until the Spring (WHAT? - I have to wait almost a year?? - Outrageous!), so this one will have to hold us for a while.

Great to sit with Mary and Bonnie again (did I say VIPs??) - and, as usual, a terrific night!

Bob

The show at the Towne Crier last night was great!

I have really good pics, but you're going to have to hang on until Tuesday night.... and I hope to get some more good pics at BB King's tonight.

Wish I could have been at Blair Mansion with you guys. Maybe 2008 at the Birchmere will bring us together again.

Friday in Boston! Can't wait

Thanks to everyone who has sent pics - from BB Kings and from Scullers. I'll take some tonight at the IMAC.....

Last nights shows were great - Boston did not want to let them leave the stage!

And I'll try my best to take pictures. It'll probably be harder since I won't be in the front. Either way, I'm excited for tonight. I'll see you there, Kat.

Excellent show tonight! Unfortunately, I don't remember the full set list; just bits and pieces. What was it? In the meantime, I've put up as much as I could remember in the recap post on my blog. I also have a picture of me with the band afterward. I won't link to the post yet because it's incomplete, but click on the link in my signature and it's the first thing you'll see.

The post has been completed:
http://mikechimeriblog.com/2008/06/22/acoustic-alchemy-concert-recap/

Hey Bob, The Blair Mansion Inn is a really cool place. As a matter of fact, the Mansion's a twenty min. walk from where I used to live(My dad's still there!). I remember doin' receptions there back in the late 80's. It's a small, but intimate place. that's one of the spots I plan on checkin' out when I go back home in September now that the G-Men are runnin' it.

Hey, Bruce
Yes - it was a little weird (in a good way) and much different than the typical experience - like being at a house party, and AA just happened to be some of the guests. As I mentioned above, Greg was surprised at just how small the place was. It's probably one of the smallest venues they've ever played, along with Blues Alley in Georgetown.

There is no "backstage" and no private quarters for "the Band." When it came time for the expected encore, Miles joked that this was the point at which they usually leave the stage and come back in response to the screaming fans, but in this case they couldn't because there was nowhere to go - so they just played the finale!

Upstairs, AA's stuff was piled in one of the rooms, and after the show, the Guys just filed out of the main room with the crowd! I walked out next to Gary G. and asked him about the ownership. It's actualy his cousin who owns the place.

The only AA "gig" (if you can call it that) in my experience that was attended by fewer was when I had the great pleasure of meeting Nick Webb in 1993. Nick and Greg were doing a promotional tour at Tower Records in DC. It was advertised on the local "Smooth Jazz" station, but for some reason only about 40 people showed up. I just sat on the floor in front of them and enjoyed. I distinctly remember Nick looking somewhat disapointed as he surveyed "the crowd" - but that was a long time ago.

Anyway, I hope they do The Blair again. It was great.
Best,
Bob

we have photos coming from several photographers - From BB King's, from Philadelphia and the Towne Crier Pawling, NY. Mike Chimeri said that he would pick out a couple that he took at the IMAC in Huntington, NY.

I'm building a new display for this years photos, so please bear with me...

Kat,

I've tried e-mailing pics from Scullers twice and the e-mails have bounced back saying the mailbox is full. Any tips or assistance?

the info e-mail box is really a distribution list, so if one of the mailboxes is full.... you'll get a bounce back.

I have your pics, so thanks for being so good about sending them!

The mailbox is still full. So, I'll send to you, Kat. I'm sending the same pictures that are in my blog post. If you'd like anymore, let me know.

As explained before ... there is no single "Mailbox" for Info@ acoustic-alchemy.net

The info "Mailbox" is a distribution list pointing to the actual e-mail addresses of multiple people. One of the individual e-mail addresses on the list - has a full inbox.

Please do not resend....my personal e-mail is now full from the from the resends of all the attachments. I know you all have good intentions but I can not re-define the distribution list until tomorrow evening.

Please be assured that I have received all of the photos to my e-mail - via the distribution list.

Thanks in advance.

I have modified the list.... sent 4 e-mails, no bounce back yet.

Will keep you posted, thanks.

No bouncebacks occurred from the test that I ran.

The other thing that I thought about... is that every e-mail service has a different size quote for inbound messages with attachments.

Mine is 12 MB per message.... but other providers have various sizes. Some of the e-mails were 10 MB or more.... and that's another potential reason for the bouncebacks with the distribution list method that we use for the website.

General rule of thumb.... try to keep each individual message to 6 MB or less.

Just wanted to let you know.... that there are some photos on the gallery page.... thanks to Mike Chimeri and Paula Lanier for their contributions.

Our plans are to separate the fan photos of the shows from the professional photographers' work - so in a week or so, you'll see that the 2008 fan photos will be separated into its own album. Todd Gay Photography will be in that group (along with Rick's when we get some photos from him! )

For best results, your photos should be no bigger than 600 x 500 pixels. We're looking for unique views and fun shots.... something a little different than the average photo.

Also, if you've submitted a photo of yourself with the band, I'm still working on a special display. The current "fan archive" is a little teeny-tiny, so I'm working on a better viewer for the 2008 photos. Stay tuned!

I updated my recap blog post. Thank you very much, Kat.

The first set of "pro" photos is out there... will be updating as I receive others...

Now it's on the photos of fans with the band..... I was thinking of calling the gallery something simple like "Meet and Greet", but if there are any suggestions.... I'm open to it.

PS. Mike... you may have to update your blog link to:

http://www.acoustic-alchemy.net/slideshow/2008_fan_gallery.html

Great pics of musicians totally into their music.

Thursday evening can't come quick enough in Seattle for me. Looking forward to saying hi to everyone again.

Kat, I think Meet and Greet about sums it up. Sounds good to me

The "meet and greet" gallery is out there.... but to be consistent with the previous one... it's called "2008 Fan Archive". Look in the right hand column for the link.

I've updated the link in my blog post and added the link to the 2008 Fan Archive. Thanks again, Kat.

The MagicIsland photo forum is up and running.... for those who would like to upload their gig photos. Photos posted in the forum are independent of those submitted for the website.