39,000 New York City Marathon runners agree, The Tash Brothers Band high-octane music at the beginning of the race course was most responsible for keeping them on their feet and running. Will power is a fickle thing but mighty music is not. It fills the soul with joy and the body with energy. Ask the hundreds who gather around the Tash Brothers while we play for the runners. They cheer the runners and spread the joy they get from the music and the thundering masses respond with cheers and smiles and waves of their own, a lot of them breaking their running stride as they pass by to do some dancing to the music and soak up the encouragement.
This year we added to the joy by collecting food for City Harvest, that good charity that distributes food to hungry New Yorkers. People filled a large box with food staples for our brothers and sisters who are hurting. That food is being donated in the name of the Tash Family, the band and all our supporters. This was the Tash Brothers 17th consecutive performance at the NYC Marathon, one of our most unusual and exciting gigs every year. It's not every gig that requires us to rise at dawn, set up early and start playing around 9 in the morning. Rock & rollers are more used to seeing dawn from the other side, staying up all night and trying to crash before the sun comes up, sort of like vampires with guitars. And usually your audience stays put instead of the bulk of them running by on their way to completing a 26-mile run.
But it's one hell of a lot of fun for musicians and damned exciting. On Marathon Sunday, the Tash Brothers expands its lineup to 10 or more players to deliver maximum power and adrenaline. This year's lineup was the usual suspects, original members Tony Burdo and Bob Crespo on guitar and lead vocals, founding member Norman Tash Greenbaum on harmonica, plus long-time Tash Brother Gary Kroman on guitar, Tony's son A.J. Burdo on keyboards, Hugh Boyle on bass, Gregory Brenner on drums, Hank B. on drums, Rick The Rock Thorin on percussion and vocals, Mike Molinari on sax, Bob's son Mike Crespo on guitar and vocals and Jay Silberstein on tambourine. Missing in action was new singer and rub board player K. Paule Pachter. As always, the Tash Brothers want to thank to good folks at Bay Ridge Honda for their hospitality, their electricity and their enthusiastic support.
Some of the band went on that afternoon to a gig in Long Island but many many people repaired to the world headquarters of bobcrespo.com, Casa Crespo, for our annual After Marathon Bash. The weather with us and the backyard was open for business. I cooked all day Saturday and the lovely wife Louise and her equally lovely sister Katherine had the house prepared for hordes of friends and family to come by for an extended luncheon and some stimulating beverages. More music was played, lies were swapped, football was watched and lives caught up on. Everyone from little children to 90-year old grannies and everyone between these extremes were in atendance. Even some new faces showed up and now they are required to come every year.
All in all a good day, and an exhausting one too. Even after 147 cups of coffee, I hit the wall around 4 in the afternoon and had a contented nap on the living room couch while the party went on around me. The women in my life, and there's a whole lot of them, then proceeded to put the house back together again after most of the guests left. So this morning I look around Casa Crespo and wonder where we squeezed all those people. It's not exactly stately Wayne Manor around here, but a cozy enough little house, one that suits Louise and me just fine, and doubles admirably as world headquarters for bobcrespo.com. The squirrels are being kind enough to clean up the last bits of dropped corn chips and baked ziti in our little yard and life is good. God is in His Heaven, all is right with the world.
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