The Wood Brothers & Piers Faccini - Rams Head On Stage - 2/6/2007

Review by Nicole Parisi-Smith. Originally posted to the Surfrider Washington, DC chapter message board on February 7, 2007 ---

I got to the venue (Rams Head On Stage, in Annapolis, MD) before the doors opened and had no problem getting in, or setting up. Piers' road manager, Peter, was great and put me in touch with the venue's manager. Megan Kelley was going to join me but got stuck at work- thanks for trying, Meg!

I set the materials up on the baby grand piano to the right of the stage, and hung our chapter banner from the front of the piano.

This was a seated show- venue serves finger food and drinks during the shows. As people came into the show and sat down at the tables, I approached most of the customers, told them about Surfrider, put in a plug for Brett Dennen and Piers Faccini, talked about the Save Trestles Campaign, and gave them copies of our December 06 magazine and Save Trestles info sheets to read while they were waiting for the show to start. People were really receptive- they listened to my pitch, anyway, and at least 2 customers were already Surfrider members:)

I hung out by the piano, next to the stage, wearing a Save Trestles t-shirt, and made sure I was visible to fans who wanted to come up to sign the Save Trestles petition I had mentioned when I handed out magazines.

In the course of this I met Wayne from Everloving, which is Piers' record label, and a gentleman from XM Radio. They were wonderful, and Wayne told me that Surfrider is more than welcomed to table at ANY Everloving artist show we want to! Everloving put out Jack Johnson's first album. See www.everloving.com for a list of the label's artists.

Piers' set was fantastic, but too short (about 45 minutes)- I wish they could have played longer. The sound was great, and they received lots of positive feedback from the crowd.

Piers, who plays the guitar, was joined on stage by Adam Topol on drums and Jose Esquivel on bass. Both Adam and Jose are in another band, Culver City Dub Collective. Adam is also in Jack Johnson's band. Adam wore a "Save Trestles" button on stage and asked about the t-shirts, but unfortunately we were out of size large. Jose took a DC Surfrider sticker for his guitar case. After the show, they helped me pack up the table and asked me questions about Trestles.

The Wood Brothers were also fantastic- they put on a great show with a stand up bass and guitar. Made me want to take out the violin I gave up years ago and start playing again:) Educated a bunch of people about Surfrider, got some signatures on the Save Trestles Campaign petition, and handed out some stickers and buttons.

Thanks to all who made this night possible!