Kat Wright Indominates NYC!

Words by Kat Wright.

The majority of Kat Wright & The Indomitable Soul Band set sail for our New York City debut last Friday! With six of us in the van and all our equipment (bass, bass amp, Fender Rhodes + amp, Hammond B3 organ + Leslie amp + full drum kit, saxophone, trumpet, microphones, music stands + more) - it was packed & quite cozy! Our trip down to New York City was seamless, and we got lots of double takes & people who could not take their eyes off our boldy spray painted ride. A father & his teenage daughter (eating an ice cream cone) were mesmerized at a gas station, countless smiles & extra long glances on the road - even a toll booth operator asked with a grin "did you stay in the Bronx too long?" (referring of course to the paint job). But once we were in NYC, we fit right in. Plenty of spray painted vans down there for sure!

Our New York debut was at Rockwood Music Hall in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With brick walls, a small stage & red lights - we felt right at home, the venue is the NY version of Burlington's beloved Radio Bean for sure. We played to a packed house full of a perfect mix of old friends, new fans & some of our bass player Josh's family from Long Island. The applause was raucous after every song, people from the crowd shouted requests for our original songs and when our set was over the room clamored for an encore. Total success. Thank you New York City!!!!!!

The next day we had an amazing brunch & departed from Bushwick towards Saratoga, NY to play Putnam Den. Saratoga is a happenin town, but Putnam Den is not on the foot path for all of the heavy traffic downtown. So while our set was not packed like the night before, we got to see our fantastic opening band The Big Takeover do their set, played a short set of our own & then enjoyed the fact that Saratoga's nightlife scene lasts until 4am. Some of the guys ate three slices of pizza. We stayed at a little motel called The Robin Hood, and headed back to Burlington Sunday morning. The van was a total blessing for us as we are such a large group with so much equipment that we would never have been able to sort out getting to NYC together, let alone finding parking, loading into the venue & arriving on time - in a cohesive fashion were it not for the generosity of Jim Lockridge & Big Heavy World. We would've had to take at least four cars down to NY which would've been stressful and extremely time consuming. Plus its so fun to ride together, the stories that come out of long car rides are epic & new ones are always born on the road. The van drove like a chariot & we are SO GRATEFUL! Thank you so much Jim & BHW! Until next time - stay Indomitable.