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"You.....you make playing fun!!"


The taping of the WMUR-TV "Good Morning New Hampshire" video segment at the Auburn Pitts
The taping of the WMUR-TV "Good Morning New Hampshire" video segment at the Auburn Pitts

You all make playing so much fun!! If it wasn't for "you" we might as well play in our garage or basement!


John's basement in the 80's
John's basement in the 80's

And because you are such great people, the club owners and staff love you too. You guys are respectful, congenial, thirsty, hungry and love to dance!

When all the stars are aligned like that, good karma spills over and we get asked back again and again.

We began 2025 in March at the Stark Brewery in downtown Manchester, which is our most regular gig, despite Peter's apparent aloofness (ha, ha), but not so the staff and manager extraordinaire, Freddy.




Here are some of the smiling faces we love to see that came to the Stark that Saturday.



As usual, we heard stories of coming to the La Cantina/O'Donnells shows way back when and how much fun it was. Neil, who came to shows from the very beginning, met up here with his nephew, Graham, who now loves to come. Alan and his crowd came and harassed Bill about his attire, ha, ha (he has his standard outfit!). We met Heather, who found us online and finally came to see us play and she came solo! My camera settings weren't quite right that night, so forgive me for a little blurriness, but the photo of Zen and Stevie is the only one we have of Stevie. Allyson and her group were also a mixture of older and newer friends. We were also honored with the first appearance of the newly married couple, Marty and Lucy, at one of our gigs as well as the regulars, Murph and Deb.

We chose some songs for that night which included a couple as tributes to the friends who recently passed away, Rob and Charlie's cousin Pete. It was so special that Allyson, Rob's daughter, was there. She took guitar lessons from John and played with Lichen at Penuche's for a few songs one night. Rob said he was so proud of her. He was a great, long-time friend with a big personality and John always says Rob would say "You know I love you Man".



Here is the setlist from that night:

1st set - acoustic

Sugar Mountain

1980 - Steve Cook original

Masterpiece

Back on the Chain Gang

One More Cup of Coffee

Before You Accuse Me

Love the One You're With

Riding in my Car

Big River

2nd set

Cleaning Windows

Cortez the Killer

Get Back

How Sweet It Is

I Will Not Be Denied

He's Gone>

Jack Straw

(for Rob and Pete)

3rd set

The Blues is my Business

Hold On, I'm Coming

Brown-eyed Women

There Are Times - Diane Zevos original

Southern Man

Revolution 1

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

When we head outside in the nice weather we'll have some very interesting artwork to enjoy on the trusses of the Bridge Street Bridge!



Another thing that happens besides being hired back, is being offered gigs at another venue of the owners that turns out to be so much fun! That was the case with the Auburn Pitts (photo leading off blog is from there), which led us to the outdoor gigs at The Barnyard in Candia. What a great place....fresh air, good music, good food and drinks, and good atmosphere!



One of the gigs at the Barnyard was on June 2nd and was attended by the family of another one of our friends who had just recently passed away......Sonny. The love of Sonny brought us together and we all posed for a "peaceful" photo. During the show Charlie talked about how Sonny honored our band by tattooing some of the melody notes from 3 of our originals on himself. He was such a special guy!



 

I'd like to mention a poignant moment that I had upon scrolling back on the fb Lichen group page to see Sonny's tribute posts and finding this collage made by Rob for Sonny.......and so shortly after......Rob passed.




 

We have a couple of gigs booked for the Barnyard this year. Keep informed of Lichen's upcoming dates at lichen.net. Come on down to the next Barnyard gigs, see below a sample of the friendly faces to meet up with and share some music together.

Remembering a few more friends who have passed and I just obtained their photos, Mike and Jim. Mike actually hired us to play at his house once. Jim and Dusty are long-time friends that in their later years would keep in touch by getting together at a Lichen show........sweet memories.



On my website lichenarchives.com I have a "Lichen friends" page and there are many more pictures of our friends there https://www.lichenarchives.com/lichen-friends

I will be updating the friends page with a lot of the above pictures soon. I try to post as many photos and stories that I have or become aware of, but if on facebook or my site I have omitted anyone in error or if you just want to tell me a story, please send me a message.

Hope we'll be seeing you soon!

 
 
 

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