Frealane at Somerville, NJ - June 28, 2013

This evening came as a surprise. A pleasant surprise.

Since coming back from vacation last week, Basia and I have been just getting back into the swing of things. I thought that we would be fully back by now, used to everything again (if not happy with it).

It feels somehow like we're both still somewhat on vacation. Perhaps it is that the time just flew by, and a part of us obviously still wants to be there. Yet, here we are.

But life goes on, and it's Friday night. The one thing we did not want to do was have a repeat of last Friday night, when we were both too exhausted to really do anything, still jet lagged. We did not even have enough energy to do the laundry!

Today was a little different. I had suggested the beach earlier this week, but the threat of thunderstorms made that unlikely. By the time that we talked in the afternoon to cement our plans for the evening, that was out.

She suggested going to New Hope, an idea that she has been flirting with for some time. No problem. But when we started driving there, it looked very gray and rainy west of here (which is where we were headed). They had already cancelled the fireworks that they have along the Delaware River, so I asked if she was certain that she did not want to postpone the trip to New Hope until sometime in the future - maybe even next weekend. We turned around and headed back, and she told me to go to Somerville.

Hmmmm....I thought. Somerville is a nice enough town. It seems to be filled with antique stores, and it has a few decent places to eat, some of which even try to have outdoor sidewalk cafe atmosphere, like we had just enjoyed in Europe, where such things are standard.

Why not?

We got there and walked around for a bit. She likes to window shop, and looked at the window front of some of the stores, including clothing and jewelry. We even actually went inside one shop that sold hippie kinds of things. But we were hungry, and both wanted some nice, sidewalk cafe kind of place to relax in. It was a very nice early evening, and the weather was accommodating, although the gray clouds seemed to constantly keep the possibility of severe rainstorms imminent. In fact, it never actually did rain heavily, only a few drops here and there, and that was it.

We found a French Thai place, Origin. It was along Division Street, which once actually was a street, but which had closed off to traffic not long ago, presumably to attract people to the place, which has tons of small shops and places to eat. It had atmosphere, and I wondered, not for the first time, why such places still seem so uncommon on this side of the Atlantic.

Origin is actually a pretty good restaurant. Basia wanted pasta, and she made sure that it was not spicy, as she has little tolerance for it. I got wild boar, just because it was something that I never had before. It sounded intriguing, and I like trying new things like that. We also got Vietnamese Ravioli, which was a decent appetizer. It was not Europe, but the atmosphere was pretty cool nonetheless.

As we were more or less wrapping up the meal, we noticed that the band that was scheduled to play was beginning to set up. This was right by the Division Street Stage. During the summer time, the town has free concerts here. They had just begun the sound checks, and it looked like they were getting ready to play. So, after dinner was done, we would stick around and check out the band.

The band wound up being Frealane, a New York-based rock band, and they actually sounded pretty awesome. My expectations for one of those free, public place in town kind of concert was for a cover band. You know, pick your sixties or seventies classic band. The Beatles (who I love), or the Beach Boys, or Elvis, or Elton John, or something along those lines. Something like that, you know?

Boy, was I wrong! And I was glad to be wrong, too! These guys were actually very good!

Now, I did not know them before last night, and so I can't tell you what their setlist was, or what songs they played other than, ironically, the few covers that they did play. They played a version of the Beatles "Come Together", and they played teasers of Queen's "We Will Rock You" and a couple of other songs that, for whatever the reason, are not exactly coming to me at the moment.

Ultimately, that's not the main point. The main thing is that they sounded really awesome!

You would hardly know that this band was playing in a small town for a small summer audience of locals and passers-by. The way that they sounded, it would not be surprising if they are playing to a much larger audience in the near future.

Everyone was on point, and worked well together. Every member of the band played more than capably, although the guitarist, who's stage name is Coque, really stood out with incredible guitar solos! Again, this was not the kind of band that you expected to run into playing some small town's summer stage shows.

I would not be the least bit surprised to see them performing some much bigger venues in the near future. I checked out their Facebook page, and they apparently already have a date in Paris in September, and presumably, some other European dates as well. I wish them well there, and if they were anywhere near as hot as they were last night, they should represent themselves very well over there!

If you see that this band is playing in a place near you, I would definitely recommend going to check them out! Nobody in the audience looked disappointed last night, and I doubt you will be, for that matter!

At this point, I have to reiterate that I was not familiar with them, so I cannot well tell you the name of the songs that they performed with any authority, except for the last one, "Never Too Late". That seems to be their most successful song to this point, and if you are curious, you can check the video of it out  right now, by clicking on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/TlQ9pP2_DUs

The band's manager came up to us at some point during the show, and asked if we were enjoying ourselves. Absolutely! I joined the band's mailing list, and when we got home, looked them up. Before we went home, we saw them eating at a sidewalk cafe on their own. I almost went up and told them that they really had put on a great show, but my natural inclination is towards shyness. We would up walking by, and letting them enjoy their night peacefully.

Frealane are:
Andrea Dee -vocals, keyboard

Brian Tully  - bassist

Aaron Knight - drummer/producer

Coque - lead guitarist

Here are some of the links that I checked out, where you can find out more about them:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/Frealane/info

info@frealane.com

www.frealane.com