Dad had a car event in Virginia, so he stayed with us Tuesday and Wednesday. He had an event dinner Wednesday, but no plans for Tuesday, so we took him to our fave local seafood place, Hooked. It was good timing, they’re closing their current location at the end of the week to prepare for a move to a larger location in Potomac Run Plaza and I had an email coupon for 25% off. We started with some sushi (Dad’s second time having some, he was game) that was good (and Dad and I split a bottle of sake), then on to more seafood. We al split some of the mini crab cakes, Dad had the steamed mussels, Jill had the Miso Sea Bass and I tried the Mahi Mahi served over a citrus black bean salsa, very tasty.
On Thursday we headed up early to Rockville (still hitting a fair amount of traffic). We got to the Strathmore before they started serving food at 6PM, which was a good thing as it got very crowded very quickly, I had a Sam Summer Ale and Jill had some sangria while we grabbed a table. I’d seen on their site they were having “Party on the Patio – With Tiki Bar, Innovative Wines and Tapas”, and all the food they were serving looked good. We had Grilled Pacu Fish Ribs with Fresh Lime & Jicama-Citrus Slaw, Spicy Chicken and Mango Brochettes and Mini Buffalo Burgers on Garlic-Pepper Roll with Jarlsburg with Tomato & Basil Aioli. I also had Thai Red Bean Samosas with Sweet Chili Sauce and Jill had a yogurt, granola and fruit cup. I would not have thought about fish ribs, but they were nicely grilled and there were only a couple extra bones that were easy to pick out. I enjoyed everything, then we sat and enjoyed the weather and scenery, the Strathmore is an elegant place (and it was our first visit).
The show itself was a tribute to Woodstock’s 40th Anniversary. It was put on by BandHouse Gigs, who have done a number of tribute concerts in the area, and very well run, even started a minute early. They kicked off with eddie from ohio and Bill Danoff doing the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song “Wooden Ships”, joined by The Wall of Jo(h)n. The Wall of Jo(h)n is Jon Carroll (keys) and John Jennings (guitars) (making the fifth time in a year I’ve seen him). They toured with eddie from ohio during 2002, superbly documented on the live CD Three Rooms (we were at one of the three shows recorded for it), and this is the first time I’ve seen all of them together since the album release show in 2003. After the first number, they switched between a number of artists (all covering songs performed at Woodstock, of course). My favorites were Joe Uehlein and the U-Liners with Jon Carroll doing the Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen” and “Mama Tried” (adding fiddle to the tunes was great), Tone Rangers doing an a capella version of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Spinning Wheel”, GHz covering Jimi Hendrix’s “Spanish Castle Magic” and Patty Reese with Cravin’ Dogs performing Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart”.
In the second set we finally got the rest of eddie from ohio as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. They started joined by John Jennings for “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”. I’d heard a version before, but John Jennings just nailed the guitar licks, really stellar and the highlight of the night. John left and they performed a nice version of “Helplessly Hoping”, then John returned with Jon Carroll and Jon sang lead on “Long Time Gone”. We had to leave after that (Jill had a 12 hour shift today), but I was pretty happy with the show. We probably wouldn’t have gone if efo hadn’t been there, but I’m glad we did. You can see some footage from the show (and they filmed some of the interviews right next to where we sitting outside) here.