Ode To A Band

Breakin’ up is hard to do...

After 20 years (12 for me) my local Boston band has decided to go our separate ways. The Mavens, or Musical Mavens as some people knew us was a Jewish band specializing in Yiddish Theatre music.

We had our good times, our bad times and over many years we did lots and lots of gigs. We even did an Italy tour. We were together through babies, Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, deaths, graduations and job promotions. It was real.

But all good things must come to an end. Well, not really, but in this case it was getting old. When the gigs become fewer and fewer because everybody local has heard us dozens of times, it’s time to move on. And so, we put it to a close.

So then we have the property. Who gets what? Well, over the years we accumulated so much crap,er, gear. It belonged to us, the band. We sorted through most of it and decided what should get tossed and what we should keep. But who should claim custody? Keyboard, a gazillion cables, mics, mic stands, speakers, amps…ok…you guessed right. At the moment a good part of it is in my car waiting to be transferred to my already loaded basement. After all, I’m still in several other bands. Granted they are in Trieste, but we do gigs here at least once a year so the equipment is necessary. And the things that are unnecessary? Craig’s List is a beautiful thing.

Then there are the web sites, which I handle. Should I cancel them? Should I just let them sit? myspace and PureVolume are free sites. Might as well let people enjoy the music on them. OK, for the time being I’ll just leave them alone.

It was a bittersweet last meeting, but I know we’ll all see each other again. Thanks for the memories, Mavens. We had a good run.

Dedicated to my bandmates: Beth Aaronson, Kenny Fine, Mikey Klein and in loving memory of Linda Rose who was the most MAVEN of us all.