Thursday saw Whisky Kiss perform at two packed events in lower Manhattan for Scotland on Stone Street, a very cool part of New York down in the Financial district near Wall Street. Anyone who is a fan of metaphors and irony would have enjoyed the afternoon gig in particular. We were performing outdoors by Wall Street, in the very shadow of the great banking houses of America, when there was a power cut right after we'd finished our set. Greed may be good, we mused, but does anyone have a spare nickel and dime for the meter? Panic and confusion on Wall Street – it was all very 2008, darling. This time round, thankfully, all it took to fix the problem was one electrician, as opposed to national financial ruin, public-sector cuts, and a trillion-dollar bailout using taxpayers’ money.
[img_assist|nid=1670|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]The night-time gig was a belter. The venue (Beckett's) was packed to the rafters, absolutely bouncing. Stone Street is a really cool wee lane in the oldest part of Manhattan. The lower Manhattan area is unusual in that the streets are all intertwined and higgledy-piggledy. They don’t follow the grid pattern that the rest of the island does, and around Stone Street the local community seeks to preserve its buildings. The people have been lovely and a lot of them were at pains to point out the very historic architecture in the street. At the risk of sounding cynical, ‘historic architecture’ appears to mean (in American terms) anything pre-JFK. The Cockburn Association would have their work cut out here, I suspect.
[img_assist|nid=1671|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=150|height=200]Back to the music, and Whisky Kiss have been delighted this year to support the Tartan Week events in every way we can. We invited a few acts to support us last night at Scotland on Stone Street, as there are a few bands and groups over from Scotland who are self-funding their tours. We have been delighted to open the stage to them during our events, as well as providing access to our PA equipment and providing technical support.
Last night we worked with a group of dancers (including a number of Scottish and world champion Highland dancers) called Assemble & Leap, who take Highland dancing moves and intertwine them with more modern ones. It worked really well with our music, which is itself a very modern take on the great Highland tunes from the past. Last night’s show has sparked an idea for what Whisky Kiss are going to do with our final 'big' show of the tour, the star-studded Tartan Day Parade Afterparty which is on Saturday.
We had already invited our good friends the Brooklyn B-boys (breakdancers from New York) to be a part of our afterparty show on Saturday. We performed with them at Dressed to Kilt on Tuesday (see Snog Blog 1). However, we are going to do two little additional things with them now that we just can’t wait to see. First up, we’re going to bring in the girls from Assemble & Leap to do a dance-off with the B-boys, all very RunDMC vs Jason Nevins. The line of girls will face off against the line of Bboys, with the girls doing their Highland dancing versus the B-boys breakdancing. We'll provide the soundtrack, as some of the tracks on our new CD Twisted Tartan feature hiphop loops and rhythms while the band throw live fiddles, whistles, pipes and beats over the top.
[img_assist|nid=1672|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=150|height=200]Second up, later in the night (when the Dutch courage will have kicked in) we’re going to run a 'Pro-Am' breakdance tournament. Normally the preserve of golfers, the ProAm is a concept where you get professionals (pro’s) to team up with amateurs (am’s) and see what happens. So, we’re going to get our world-champ breakdancers to do their show, and then lay down the gauntlet to the guests to see who reckons they could do better. When you factor in kilts, alcohol, some Hollywood A-list guests, and a spot of national pride, we don’t think we’ll be short of participants. It all ought to be spectacular (one way or another!).
Our B-boys did something similar with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong at the launch party of the Broadway show American Idiot. You can see it here (though the soundtrack for this video is not Whisky Kiss and there are a couple of wee naughty words, so beware!) Very cool though, and we should have the Tartan Day afterparty doing something similar tomorrow.
The Tartan Day Parade down 5th Avenue is on Saturday afternoon, with the star-studded afterparty being at a chic venue in Chelsea. If you want to hear some of the tunes from our new CD you can find them on the Twisted Tartan page of our website http://www.whiskykiss.com.
More tomorrow!
Cheers, Iain