Cuneiform Record’s CEO, Steve Feigenbaum,
Recalls First Seeing (Then Signing) Ahleuchatistas Live

In October, 2004, not too long after Cuneiform Records released Larval’s album Obedience, Larval did a small tour of a week's worth of dates, including a show at a Baltimore club that Simon Mertz, my long time second-in-command at Cuneiform and Wayside Music, helped set up. Besides Cuneiform, Simon was doing a lot of booking and dj-ing in Baltimore and was getting a lot of promos from bands wanting to play there. He was handed a promo of Ahleuchatistas' second album by a label from Alexandria, VA (about one hour south of Baltimore) who had released it. When it came time to book a supporting act for Larval, Simon contacted Ahleuchatistas, thinking the band was from Alexandria, to book them for this mid-week show.

Shortly before the gig Simon found out Ahleuchatistas were from ASHVILLE, NC (9 hours away), NOT Alexandria! He called them to tell them that he had no idea that they had to travel that far and that it was totally cool with him if they had to cancel for what was going to be a very poorly paid show. They said, "no, we want to play this show and we'll be there." What they didn't tell Simon and what I only found out years later was that they wanted to do this show to play in front of ME!

So, it's a typical Baltimore rock-club mid-week night that goes WAY WAY too late. I don't know anything about anything other than I'm getting to see and meet Larval (who I'm putting up at my place outside DC for the night). Larval finish their set and I'm helping them get ready to leave and I have NO INTENTIONS WHATSOEVER of seeing ANY other music, as it's already something like 1:30 am on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and I'm beyond exhausted.

I walk past the stage on my way to tell Bill Brovold of Larval that I am leaving and to follow me back to my place when I witness 20 seconds of Ahleuchatistas, who are in full SLAY mode in front of maybe 8 people. I couldn't believe my eyes. They were (and remain) the most amazing musical sight I had ever seen cold. I do remember sitting down next to Simon who was also watching them with his jaw dropping and saying to him, "Simon, I'm so tired. My judgement is shot. Are these guys as good as I think that they are?", and he replied, "Better!"

They were quite different than other bands I had worked with up to that point on Cuneiform, and even though around that era I was trying very hard to expand the sound of what Cuneiform was known for, I must admit that I was fascinated but unsure. A couple more performances at various long-gone dives in DC convinced me, and we signed them for their third album in July, 2005 with their album What You Will released in January 2006.

Things started moving very fast; their amazing shows were finally gaining them the attention they 100% deserved. And Cuneiform had a really good promo team in those days, led by Joyce (now heading The Music Outpost–Publicity), and that helped them too. Javier Diaz, who set up the 2006 WUMC show, came on board around this time, first as an intern and then as promo team staff. I don’t remember much about the tour that the poster included in this package came from, but Ahleuchatistas were definitely leaving the East coast for the first time. Was that the same tour where they played SXSW and even made it to California? I don’t remember.

The Ahleuchatistas were smart but a little bit innocent in my view; I remember Shane talking about people contacting him about free CDs for ‘promo’ (a big, big scam in those days) and my warning him that there were a lot of scammers out there and to forward any inquiries he had to our promo office, who knew how to sort the legit from the not-so-legit. One of these times, he told me that he had been contacted by the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria to play a gig; they were offering all transportation costs and a good fee. I remember telling him that it had to be a fake invite and asked him who the email came from. “booking@jazzfestsaalfelden.at”, was the reply. I blinked a few times and said, “Get ON it.”

The two shows on this live album, THE SUMMER WE WENT WEST [and EAST] – LIVE 2006 are by far the best recordings of this trio at their absolute peak. 20 years later, I’m thrilled to share these recordings with the world. ¬
– Steve Feigenbaum