Harvard and Stone Celebration

This is a night I had circles on my calendar. Harvard and Stone was celebrating its 7th anniversary and Lauren Ruth Ward was playing a set. It was kind of a secret, I guess. Though I wonder how much of a secret. It was listed on the Harvard and Stone website. Buzzbands listed it. Though posters for the event stated their was a special guest.

Turtles On Speed opened up the night with a rock sound that mirrored their fashion sense of torn and ragged cloths. I did have a conversation with a photographer, Robert Noise, who usually shoots stadium shows. We had an amusing comparison on ISOs. He stated he usually shot around 2500. I said I usually shot around 6400. Yep, the difference between shooting stadiums vs local venues.

Turtles on Speed

Up next was Bjorn and the Sun. I actually first saw them at Harvard and Stone. They haven't been active much recently as from what I can tell the lead singer spends time doing photo tours in Cuba. They provided some joyous folk inspired sounds.

Bjorn and the Sun

Then it was time for the special guest hitting the stage at straight up midnight: Lauren Ruth Ward. When she was about to start her set, she said, "I'm the special guest." Ha ha. The place was packed with love both from the audience and artist. Sure, Harvard and Stone is like 1/5 the size of the Echoplex, but that didn't make a difference. Laurent gave it all and her fans returned it.

Amusing moment: anyone who watches Lauren Ruth Ward knows that she likes to reach out and touch her audience. So I'm pretty sure one individual in the front row was new to seeing one of her sets. She reached out with her hand and there was an awkward ticking of seconds as the person she was reaching out to wasn't sure what he should do. Finally, he reached out and they had their moment.

Lauren Ruth Ward