Barnstable County Fair

So last night I played at the Barnstable County Fair for the 2nd time in 3 days.  This is the 4th year we’ve done that gig, and we have a blast every time we do it; but I think last night was maybe the most fun I had doing it…and I’ll tell you why.

Last night we were on as the “Detour” band, which is the band that plays for our youth group at church (Cape Cod Church in East Falmouth, MA).  Last night was a little different because our friend Dave from the band Phone Calls From Homewas able to play with us after being on the road all summer.  His band played on the main stage of the fair on Monday night, and did a GREAT show, and today they’re playing the Warped Tour at the Comcast Center (formerly the Tweeter Center).  They have a brand new self-titled ep that you should definitely check out.  It’s very cool to see things start to take off for them.

Anyways, so last night was probably my favorite time playing at the fair with the detour group because we got to involve a lot of people and throw out a lot of different looks for anyone who stopped by to check it out.  We had Dave on the drums (he also played and sang a couple on the acoustic guitar), Chris on the djembe and tambourine, Adam on the bass, Kaleigh on some keys and vocals, and guest vocals by Liana and Kristen (I played acoustic and did vocals as well).  Also, the music we did was a lot of fun – I don’t think we did one song that I wasn’t excited to play.  I’ll give you the setlist:

1. My Generation (Starfield)
2. Stolen (Dashboard Confessional)
3. Here With Me (Plumb)
4. Awakening (Switchfoot)
5. High and Dry (Radiohead)
6. Love Isn’t Made (Jon Foreman)
7. New Soul (Yael Naim)
8. Someday We’ll Know (Mandy Moore and Jon Foreman)
9. Stuck In A Moment (U2)
10. Chase This Light (Jimmy Eat World)
11. Rebuild (Switchfoot)
12. Shadowfeet (Brooke Fraser)
13. Happy Is A Yuppie Word (Switchfoot)
14. Waiting on the World to Change (John Mayer)
15. 1234 (Feist)
16. Free Fallin’ (John Mayer)
17. We Are One Tonight (Switchfoot)

We managed to cram all those songs into an hour and a half set, even after starting a few minutes late.  After we were finished and had packed up and headed home, I asked Adam (our bass player) if he had a favorite song from the night, and he said it was “Shadowfeet”.  Brooke Fraser wrote the song – I knew of her through Hillsong United (which our youth band plays a lot of) – and then a couple of weeks ago she was on the itunes “Editor’s Picks” with a solo album, so I checked it out and asked Liana to learn the song.  She did a fantastic job singing it at the fair, too.  Dave’s favorite song that we did was “Someday We’ll Know” – Kaleigh and I sing that song, and I love singing it with her.  I’m not sure what song I’d label as my favorite for the night….”Rebuild” was a lot of fun to play, but so was “Happy Is a Yuppie Word”, “Waiting on the World to Change”, and “Free Fallin”.

After we finished, I was approached by a girl named Erica who works at a local Starbucks – she invited us to come play there sometime (they do a Thursday night music….thing).  I’ll definitely be swinging by to talk to them about that possibility…..so keep your ears/eyes open for the date and time on when we’ll be doing that!!

Catch you all on the flip side….

-Alan