--- In clandestinesrocknreelclub@yahoogroups.com, balindsey
<no_reply@y...> wrote:
> ... for Clandestine's last appearance? Tell us about it, please!!

I was there for all 5 shows (sort of, see below).

The first two shows on Friday were great fun, but there didn't feel
too much like the impending end. They were just like old times, almost.

They did rib a certain fan who had travelled all the way from DC who
had a seat literally at Jen's feet for the 8:00 show, and didn't
bother to show up! During the 8:00, the running joke apparently was
about sending out search parties or writing eulogies for the missing
fan. Emily described him as a "freak" when he showed up in the same
seat for the 10:00 show, though EJ leapt to his defense, since said
fan is also a piper. (What can I say? Dinner ran long, and I *was*
sitting outside for the last half of the show! Oh, and that was my
seat for all 4 evening shows, the Jen fanboy in me says glowingly...)

The Sunday brunch show was much more powerful, very emotional. By this
time, a lot of the olf-time fans were wearing black "Clandestine:
1991-2003" t-shirts, except for the Telfer clan, who seem to have had
the same shirt made up in yellow just for them.

The set lists on all the shows were all fairly similar, and basically
the sets they've been playing for the last few months. They brought
back a few older tunes, inc. Dunlavy's Castle, The Ale is Dear,
Miner's Lullaby, I even heard The Haunting once. They finished up
their first sets at the 10:00 Fri. and Sat. shows with The Bush Reels
(IIRC) before taking a break, and the second sets ended with Back to
Chico.

We were treated to Matt Telfer on electric guitar with the Telfer
jigs. There were the usual songs: Long Journey South, A World Turned
Upside Down, Babylon, Both Sides the Tweed, and Peggy. The 10:00 Fri.
and Sat., and brunch Sun. shows included the Breton set, and by the
Sun. show there was a pretty long line of dancers. Sadly, there were
apparently only two men, though I was proud to be one of them.

We also heard the new set of reels that they haven't recorded (I only
know Jenny Dang the Weaver from that set, I think another is an EJ
original).

It's a shame the band broke up when they did. The sound of the
instrumentals has shifted slightly since November, now that EJ is
playing a pipe chanter in A rather than the usual Bb, the sound is a
lot warmer, deeper, richer - and the fiddle and guitar don't have to
tune up half a step to the pipes, giving them a more natural sound.
Gregory's electric fiddle was only brought out for one song. I'd have
loved to hear another CD's worth of instrumentals with the new sound.

On the Sat. 10:00 show, and the Sun. brunch show, at the request of
Theresa & Rusty, the Duck's owners, we had a moment of silence for the
Columbia crew, and the band played Amazing Grace as a very powerful
lament.

The encore sets were Bold Riley (emily added signs bearing "O" and "E"
to her schtick, for that Sesame Street effect), and The New Reels. On
the Sat. night 10:00 show, the Duck's onwers brought a bottle of
champagne on stage before the encores, and the band shared a toast to
the fans and each other.

While singing Bold Riley on the Sunday show encore, Jen was briefly
overcome and broke into tears of farewell, and Emily and the audience
picked up the slack for her and sang while she got her voice back for
the final stirring verse. And with that, they launched into The New
Reels, and to the final notes of Brenda Stubbert's reel, Clandestine
passed into beloved memory.

The band shared another bottle of champagne after the show back at the
CD table, and there were hugs and fond wishes for every fan who talked
to them afterwards.

Duck regular Jay Ford took a lot of really great pictures of the final
show (300 meg worth), and we're working to get them up on a web site.
I'll let you all know the address once it's up. For those of you in
the DC area, I can burn a CD-ROM of these pics for you, just email me
at peter@... and let me know.

So I wish EJ the best of luck in his upcoming projects, the Willow
Band, among others. To Jen, good fortune with finishing her BFA at
Carnegie-Melon and in her hopes to go to grad school in conservation
biology, and here's hoping we see her solo show still! To Gregory and
Emily, may they enjoy their breaks, and I hope to see them on stage
again very soon (May, you promised, Emily!). And Gregory, please show
up at the Wed. night Irish sessions at the Duck and whip those
slackers into shaps; they desperately need it!

Cheers,
Peter