Hi all!  I just posted all of our dates for April.  If anyone is exceptionally bothered by the show postings by month, drop me a line.  And I will amend it.  Otherwise, I feel like it's a slightly better method.

Some fun things happening in April; we'll be joining Erin Harkes and Blaze at Gaffney's in Saratoga!  Playing with those two is always an incredible honor and a great experience.  Be sure to not miss that one, if you're going to check out any A.A this month.  We'll also be making our debut at Troy Night Out, doing some sets at the Living Room in Monument Square on the 27th.  If any of you are familiar with exceptional acoustic local music, I'm sure you have heard of Steve Scarlata.  If you haven't, educate thy self in his music.  You shant be disappointed.  Steve and his lovely fiancee Elizabeth are the proud owners of this cute little antique shop.  Some of the stuff is really interesting, definitely go down and check it out.

That's all for now though!  Hope to see you at some shows.  If anything exceptional happens, you'll hear it here first.

Weeeee.

--Dave

Just so everyone knows, some dates have been posted on the page.  Casey and I miss playing shows very much and are excited to get back into the mix.  However, we do appreciate our hiatus and were able to have some personal reflection, some rehearsal time, and some sound testing in the studio (all three, we feel, bringing us to a better place).

We're very excited and hope that you are too. 

Two important shows on the list:

March 2nd @ Jitters Cafe!!!  Our EP Release!!!  We are putting together a live 5-song EP from our show that we recorded at Green Mountain College in Poultney Vermont on November 11th.  It will be released @ 7PM and will cost a minimal $5!  Here's the catch...purchase our new EP (appropriately titled 'Crisis Averted') and receive TAP at an even bigger discount than normally!  Both the CD and the EP, a mere $10.  And if we have them, you may even find yourself receiving a free sticker for your purchase.  What could be better than that??  Nothing, I'd say.

The other important show: March 4th @ the Arts Center in Troy!!  4-8PM guys, come on out and show your support for local music and local arts.  Sirsy will be there, Maurizio will be there, Erin Harkes will be there, and we will be there.  For only $5, we've got some of the best talent the capital region has to offer.  And some of the nicest people, at that!  Moral of the story is that it's going to be SO much fun, and such an amazing show, and just a really really good vibe in general.  You need to come down.  For the good of yourselves and the rest of humanity.  Enter the raffle, win a CD from all the bands, purchase some homemade cookies, drink some coffee, anything you can do to support the cause.  Or just show up and pay your admission, that means the world as well.

I think that's all though.  Stay tuned every month about mid-month as the dates for the upcoming month will be posted.  Just so you're all not bombarded by such a long list of dates, I figured I would make it easier.

You all rock.  It's nice to be back in the scene, and we'll see ya at some shows.

Peace out,

--Dave

Hello friends-- as most of you probably know, Casey and I have had quite the exciting ride since joining forces in August of last year.  We got off to a very fast start that kept right on going and eventually took us to 115 shows in our first year, 300+ albums sold in its first 6 months, and the hosting of two capital region open mic nights.  It has been a whirlwind of crazy shows, crazy gigging, and crazy promotion. 

It was fun.  It was stressful.  It was satisfying.  It was frustrating.  It was fulfilling.  Almost Awake has definitely seen its ups and downs.

I'm writing all of this to you because starting after the new year, Almost Awake will be going on a temporary hiatus from performing.  You'll still find us hosting our open mics every week, but in terms of shows, we're going to take a lot of time off.  Just because we are at a point now where we feel we need to take the next step, and performing as much as we do keeps us from actually taking that step.  There's a lot of new material to be rehearsed and worked out, and a second album to start and complete.  At this point, there's been an overload of gigging and we find ourselves playing the same songs 4-5 times a week, which (no matter how satisfying an individual performance may be, can get exceptionally unfulfilling and mechanical). 

So there you are.  We certainly plan on re-surfacing at some point in the future, but in the meantime, life takes us elsewhere.  All we can do is take ourselves to the next level and look forward to getting back into our groove, right back to near the top of the local acoustic music scene. 

Thanks so much to everyone for their support and we'll be in touch.  Come on out to our open mics and talk to us/play some tunes.  And hopefully we'll see some familiar faces at shows for the rest of '07.  It's gonna be a really good rest of the year, I promise :)

You guys rock, and we'll see ya soon.

--Dave

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to let all readers know that the following shows have been cancelled, for reasons out of our control.  Our apologies to anyone who was planning on coming out them, we'll hopefully get to see you soon.

--September 22nd @ Night Sky Cafe

--September 30th @ Coffee Planet

--October 27th @ Samantha's Cafe and Catering Company

Thanks so much for coming out when you do, it always means a lot.  We have a lot of new material coming up, so in a different perspective, it's happy because the time off gives an opportunity to rehearse it!  So there you are; negative into a positive :)

Yay Almost Awake.

-- Dave

Hi guys!  So it's been a long time since I have posted anything, but I figured it was about time I broke the silence.

First and foremost, the tour!  The first leg of our tour was really nice.  Some hours were a little bit terrifying in terms of bad weather, but the moral of the tour was that we met a lot of really amazing people that we would not have met otherwise and saw a lot of really great places that we would not have seen otherwise.  And it was a real experience.  If I were to try and thank everyone that helped us out, this post would never end.  But we'd definitely love to get back to the central NY area for some shows, because we made a lot of really wonderful contacts out there.

The last leg of the tour comes up on Saturday and will be much more drawn out than our previous experiences.  We'll be traveling to Saugerties, Kingston, Beacon, New Paltz, Sandy Hook (CT), White Plains, Brewster, Arlington, Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, Liberty, and Bainbridge over the course of 8 days.  After that, we'll be ending the tour with a special trip to the Cambridge NY Farmer's Market on the 20th from 10:30-1:30. 

We have our One-Year Anniversary Party coming up at Slow Jed's Mudhouse on Thursday (August 10th), and encourage everyone and all to attend.  It's gonna be a REALLY great time, as Casey and I rehash some memories and stories from the first time that we ever shared a stage together, on August 10th of last year.  We've certainly come a long way since then, and many exciting things have happened.  And we could never have come as far as we have without the amazing group that is our fans and listeners.  You guys rock!  So you should come and celebrate with us :)

Other than all of that, the myspace page should pretty much say it all.  Don't forget about our open mics at Coffee Planet and Slow Jed's Mudhouse (on Tuesdays and this Wednesday respectively).  6-7 sign up for the Planet, with the open mic lasting from 7-9 (please keep in mind that signup closes at 7:30) and 7-8 signup at Jed's, with the open mic going until 10pm. 

You guys are amazing and I'll be more prompt next time with my tour sum-up, and will most likely have a lot of fun stories to tell (that I will actually have time to go into with more detail). 

Word.

Peace.

-- Dave :-D

So there's been a change of plans with the first leg of the Farmer's Market Tour.  The first half of it, with the exception of Cooperstown, kinda fell apart all at once.  In the last week, we've lost Ithaca and can't get a straight response from Syracuse or Cortland.  Which means that we have nowhere to play Sunday-Tuesday.

Therefore!!

Because Oneonta is still kinda hazy, we are going to do Cooperstown on the 8th and then come home.  We will be there for open mic at Coffee Planet on the 11th, as well as church on the 9th.

Wednesday will be the official beginning of the tour, consisting of Vestal, Whitney Point, Greece (maybe Rochester), Dansville, Canandaigua, Auburn, Endicott, and Johnson City. 

The planning for the second leg of the tour is moving along smoothly.  The only shows we haven't been able to book yet are Saugerties, Kingston, Stamford CT, and Fishkill.  Everything else has been contacted and given clearance.

But that's all!  Just wanted to give everyone the heads-up.  Hope that all is well in your world.

Mucho love.

-- Dave

A.A

Hello all-- tis a very gross and rainy afternoon here in the Burgh, and I can imagine everywhere else.  If this keeps up, I'm building an ark.  Maybe it will convince the landlord to let us have pets....hmmm... :)

So we went out to Samuel's Coffeehouse in Alplaus last night and played a couple sets, and it went pretty well!  It was our first show there, and the staff was very nice and responsive.  Got invited back, something we certainly plan on doing.

Went to the Grind open mic this past Thursday and it was the same old grind it used to be.  It really is my favorite open mic in the world, hands down.  Greg was there, and it was really good to see him.  For anyone who might not know, Greg Barresi is a very old friend of mine and we played together in a band for 4 years in high school/college.  That was back when I was a set player.  Which seems like decades ago, let me tell ya.  But the whole night was a lot of fun, I got up and played with Steve at the end and it was a good time.  Casey and I played really well, the instruments sound great, and everything just sounds really good right now (jinx, knock on wood...).

Tonight, we are venturing out to the land of Coxsackie to play our first show at the Purple Cactus Cafe.  I think it's gonna be a real good spot; Casey and I are very optimistic about the show, not so much about the drive, haha. 

For anyone that doesn't know how to get there, and would like to go there, you just find Rt 9W and drive for a very long time.  You'll hit it, just past Ravena.  It'll be on your right hand side :)

Tomorrow, we're playing the Cambridge Farmer's Market, which I'm VERY excited for.  It'll be the first Farmer's Market we've played that isn't the one in Troy, so hopefully, it'll give us a little bit better of an idea as to how we'll fare on the tour.

Also, in other news, the tour has reached a setback.  We unfortunately will not be able to go to the two markets in Manhattan because collecting tips, selling merchandise, and having percussion for live entertainment in NYC parks is against State Law.  So, we unfortunately have to come up with an alternate plan.  We've already started work on other plans, stay tuned for that.

I think that's all for now.  It's been a really mello day so far.  With the exception of pushing a car out of the mud in Power's Park this morning.  What a wonderful experience that was!  It was SO nice, these two people were stuck in the middle of the park, and their front tires had made quite the divot in the ground.  Casey and I happened upon them and between us, them, and 3 other friendly passers-by, we got them successfully out of their jam.  It really was a wonderful sight, to have total strangers just come together like that.  As stupid as it sounds, it was a real high point in the week for me.

That's enough outta me though.  Peace, and stay tuned!

-- Dave

All right, so it's been a while.  But we've been busy out of our minds.  Things have been good, since recently becoming full time.  Just today, I booked a show in Rochester.  We're expanding ourselves, and final preparations for the tour are being made.  It's funny, it's turning out like making TAP did...we did the live album so it would be quick and easy.  We're touring Farmer's Markets so we don't have to go through all the hassles of booking an actual tour at actual venues.  And there's still SO much to be done!  Haha =)

In the last week, we've been on WZMR 104.9 with Jim Barrett and WAMC with Alan Chartok (spelling?).  We're also slated to have a feature article in the Saratogian and the Record, so stay tuned for that.  It should be really exciting.  June is filling up real good.  We're playing a bunch of first-time venues.

Casey has gotten a new guitar and I've gotten a new djembe, meaning that we've had a complete instrumental upheaval in the last few days.  But we sound really great, and Casey is actually writing a lot of material. 

This week in A.A Land--

5/23: Coffee Planet Open Mic Night!  Sign-ups start at 6PM, and the performances go from 7 until 9!  Good times are generally had by all who attend, players and spectators alike.

5/27: Slow Jed's Mudhouse with the very talented Hannah Imbesi at 8PM.  I do NOT lie to you when I tell you that Hannah is one of the best performers that the Capital Region has to offer.  Come out.  She's friggin' good.

Next Week!

6/2: Samuel's Coffeehouse in Alplaus, 6/3: Purple Cactus Cafe in Coxsackie, and 6/4: The Cambridge Farmer's Market.  All the times for these shows are on the main page.

I think that's all!  You guys rock; thank you for so much support that you've given us. 

-- Dave

Heeeeyyyyy what up?  It's been a good weekend so far.  Last night, despite an awful technical beginning in which we dropped an entire cup of tea onto our PA, we cleaned up good and had a great show.  We're gonna be back at Starbucks a bunch; the audience is always very attentive, and the clientale is really nice too.  I guess that's generally what we look for in a venue, is a perceptive audience and friendly clientale.  Then again, I guess that's what everybody would want to look for, isn't it??  =)

We played at Coffee Planet, with our friend Nik opening up the afternoon.  He's such a great player, and we're hoping to split a bunch more shows with him in the future.  The show was a lot of fun, Hannah and Chelsea (two of our favorite people) came out to watch it and it was real successful.  A lot of fun, all the way around...

In other news, Casey has updated her blog and it looks snazzy.  You can find it, and read all about her/our adventures at http://almostawakemusic.blogspot.com. 

That's all for now, though!  We're playing at Heritage Day in Ballston Spa tomorrow-- two sets!  One from 1-2pm at the Old Iron Spring, and another set from 3-4 under the Gazebo.  For our second set, we will be joined by Casey's very talented father (and Co-President of A.A.S.S) Richard Chapman, and just maybe by the very talented Maurizio (we haven't talked to him yet, but were hoping that he would say yes :-D).  Hooray!! 

-- Dave

Hey guys!  It was a jam-packed weekend, but very successful.  We made a triumphant return to the Illium Cafe, as well as two shows at first-time venues in Glens Falls and Albany respectfully.

The Ridge Street Coffee Company was a blast, to say the least.  The clientale was very friendly, the audience was very attentive, and the acoustics were very exceptional.  Thank you to the kind people who came out to see the show that heard us on WAMC, as well as the passers-by that stuck around for the music.  It made it a very intimate and enjoyable experience, we look forward to the possibility of future shows at the establishment.

We had our first ever Sunday Brunch show yesterday, playing Magnolia's on the Park from 11-2 in the afternoon.  Once again, really great acoustics and friendly clientale.  Everyone was very nice, and the whole show was very relaxed.  Looking forward to future shows at this venue as well.

We have a busy week ahead of us.  Check it out--

:: Tuesday - Coffee Planet Open Mic 6-9PM

:: Wednesday - Slow Jed's Mudhouse Open Mic 8-10PM

:: Thursday - We'll be making a stop at the Caffe Lena open-mic after a long hiatus.  Good times are anticipated.

:: Friday - Starbucks in Saratoga 8-10PM

:: Saturday - Coffee Planet, with very special guest *Nik without a C*!  This guy is really good, and he's gonna open up the show with a set at 11 and then we'll do a couple sets after that

:: Sunday - Heritage Day in Ballston Spa.  We'll be doing a set from 1-2pm and then moving down the street and doing another set from 3-4pm.

So there ya have it!  Hopefully see a bunch of really cool people, and expect Casey to send you an email in a couple days.  The website is already updated for the week, and there a bunch of new pictures and different things going on.  Definitely check it out if you feel inclined :)

Thanks so much for listening.  You rock.

-- Dave