So this whole incident came out of no where. I wasn't looking for any shows because I already had an August show lined up with Miss Jessie Baylin and in light of my trip to Nashville and Los Angeles/Las Vegas I was definitely looking to conserve funds. I was doing my usually Twittering about and I noticed Nick and Emotion of Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights (one my favorite up and coming bands) tweeted about being in the Detroit area soon. Of course I extended an invitation to personally deliver some Suga' Tree Bakery cupcakes to them and wouldn't you know it Emotion (aka Mo) took us up on our offer! Through an exchange of tweets I learned she was particularly fond of Red Velvet and Strawberry cupcakes (two cupcakes I consider to standouts on our menu). The plan was set deliver cupcakey goodness to the band the following day.
I woke up early (relative to my normal schedule) I went on errands refilling supplies we were low on while my mom got started on the first batch of cupcakes. We baked classic white, chocolate, strawberry and red velvet. We topped the chocolate with chocolate ganache and half with our signature creamy butter cream and half with a buttery carmel frosting made with homemade carmel (I myself made). We did the same for the white cake. We topped the strawberry with the creamy butter cream as well and red velvet with creamy cream cheese buttercream.
My BFF and delivery assistant Violeta came with, we arrived at the Crofoot Ballroom (an excellent venue) just before the doors opened there was no one outside but we made or way in and wandered around till we found the band upstairs in the Pike Room. With cupcakes in hand I approached and said we have a delivery. Someone standing in front of a window with sunlight spilling all onto their face says "for who?" and I realize its Jonathan so I say "for you actually". I fill him in on the conversation I had with Mo via twitter and he's very very thankful! We make formal introductions and Jonathan invites us to stay since Mo is out getting food with some others. So we talk and I remind him of our first meeting back in LA. We met through a mutual friend who hand been telling me about their band and took me to see them at the Mint quite a while back. We all actually hung out after which all of us were a little fuzzy on the details of. Pretty soon Mo returned and we meet the rest of the band and pretty much just hung and until the show started. The members each gave high praises to the cupcakes to my sheer delight!
Their opening band (who I still don't know the name of) went on to a crowd of about ten people not including staff and members of JTNL. I'm not sure what to say about the opening band...I feel like I didn't really get a sense of them or their style. I felt like the lead singers vocal was overpowered by the band and I really didn't know what they were singing about. When they finished their set the place emptied out besides myself and Violeta. I was desperately hoping people had just gone to smoke (in light of Michigan's new smoking ban). JTNL was getting ready to go on and no one had come back in yet...but just before they went on stage the smokers came back! And a few others trailed in and after one or two song a few more came in. The crowd was about 20 or so people strong in the end. The set started out a little rough with some sound issues that Nick (the bassist) very quickly fixed. Jonathan joked that they would get it together and they did! Even with the small crowd, they put on a show! Once the tech issues were worked through and a round of whiskey shots were had by the band the atmosphere was relaxed with exchanges back and forth from the crowd and the band which included requests. They jammed on a few songs and in general were just fucking awesome. After the last song the crowd was rallied by a few to demand an encore which the band obliged only after making sure we really wanted it and of course we did. One of the instigators of the encore was called out by Jonathan to come up on stage to sing the song he had been requesting and he was anything but eager but the band wasn't taking no for an answer so he got up there and embarrassed himself to our entertainment. After the duet they finished up the song and ended the performance with an invite t the merch table.
We hit the merch table and got more compliments on our cupcakes which were down to the last few if any (my head was getting dangerously large)! Violeta and I both bought CD's and I even got two shirts! We hung out and talked with everybody a bit more and after a photo session we said our goodbyes and packed it up.
Mo walked us out and gave us her cd as well. It was a great night there aren't superlatives enough t describe it! I've said it before but f you don't know Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights get to know them and same thing goes for Suga' Tree Bakery!
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