It's Stefania, and I'm here to talk about a truly special night at Bear's I witnessed a few weeks back. My apologies in advance for the very poor quality photos courtesy of me.
Upon first entering Bear's a couple of Tuesday nights back, I heard the beautifully painful songs of Merrie Sloan.
She later told the crowd that she could turn anything into a sad song.
But I was happy to see Merrie, and pretty much the entire Bear's crowd, quite jubilant and drinking together while watching Cinnamon Girls perform Neil jams, as well as Bowery Blue Boy's psuedo-homecoming show.
Left to Right: Sam and Zeb of Bowery Blue Boy, Jason Groth, all three as The Cinnamon Girls.
One of the mom's of the member's of BBB even came up to me and offered me a Coca-Cola, as she realized I was a journalist on account of my sobriety.
One of the greatest parts about looking back on that show is realizing how connected Bloomington musicians are with one another, even after folks move or start new bands.
Jason Groth,who was performing as part of Cinnamon Girls that night, but you can also see him as the MC of Bluebird Karaoke, member of Magnolia Electric Co., Coke Dares, the list goes on.. filled me in after the show about the closeness between everyone.
Merrie Sloan is in a classic B-town band by the name of Crooked County and played in a band called Grande Rouge with Brad (of Fatted Calf), Evan Farrell, and Kate Long. Evan Farell, of Japonize Elephants and Rogue Wave recently passed away, which really hit the community hard, but you could tell they were playing for him.
Zeb from Bowery Blue Boy is married to Megan Weeder of Japonize Elephants. Zeb, along with Sam from BBB, used to be in Jason Groth's wife's former band, The Decanters.
Also, anyone who was at Rock N Roll Prom this past year probably saw the last act, Le May, the 70s boogie that Groth and his wife, Nicole were a part of.
So you might think this Bloomington music scene is quite small, but it encompasses a lot more than most folks would think. And it's just a great place to be right now.
