Tuscany - One Year Later

It's 3:26 a.m. I'm home from the FiKus show, but in a lot of ways, I'm still at the FiKus show. I'm covered in sweat, not all of which is mine. The ringing in my ears probably won't subside until sometime tomorrow night. And above all else, I've still got that sensation in my bones that I feel whenever I've just seen this extraordinary band. It's a feeling that I will carry with me for as long as I can remember, particularly when I think of shows that turned my brains to mush and left me in need of a fresh pair of shorts.

Those were the words I wrote on this day one year ago, immediately after I returned home from my first FiKus experience. It wasn't my first FiKus show mind you - I had seen them perform an hour-long gig at an overcrowded, overheated hole in the wall in Brooklyn less than a month earlier; which in its own right compelled me to write about this fantastic performance band. Little did I realize at the time that I had yet to truly experienced FiKus. Fortunately for me, and for about a hundred other people, that experience would come soon enough - on July 11th, 2009. It was a night where I danced and rocked for over three hours. It was a night where I became a part of the FiKus family. And most of all, it was a night that would set the bar for all shows that seceded it.

But what exactly is Tuscany? To some, it's simply Tuscany Bar and Grille; a restaurant right across the New York/New Jersey border in Tappan. The loft upstairs, with it's artificial hanging plants, painted pillars, and over abundance of Christmas lights, had the right ambience, but didn't strike one as the type of place for a rock show. To a select group of people, however, Tuscany has an entirely different meaning. It was the most grandiose performance served up by a band that only knows how to put on shows that can be considered grandiose. Say the word "Tuscany" to anyone who was in attendance that steamy July night one year ago and the mock-orgasm sounds and facial expressions should give you a sense of its legendary status. For this reviewer, it was, without question, the most epic show that I've ever seen.

Steve, Travis, Pete, Jon, and Kito picked up their instruments promptly at midnight, and I soon learned a lot of the traits that have come to define the FiKus show. First, it's never over when you think it's over. The band finished the first leg of their set at 1:30 a.m. with Jackson Five's "I Want You Back," and I was relieved to find out that they were far from done. That leads me to my second point, which is that you have to be prepared to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, and third, which is that you had better bring your dancing shoes and your ear plugs. This might have been the first time I was drawn to the band, standing right in front of them as they played, but it wouldn't be the last. It was from this show that I learned how loud it can get when you're up front standing face-to-face with this incredible quintet.

Oh yeah, the set list; the one that I snatched from the floor that is still thumb-tacked to the wall in my bedroom. Every time I glance at it, I get flashbacks of this marathon performance. They opened with the crowd-pleaser "Latin" before jumping into a medley that included favorites "Dingo," "Disco," and their raucous cover of "The Bad Touch." Over the next three plus hours, the band whipped out instant classics "Michael Phelps," "Puddin," "Ride The Wave," "Marvin Gaye." and the list goes on. They threw in a variety of covers, from the Stones ("Miss You") to Michael ("Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough"). There couldn't have been a more welcome surprise than their rendition of Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone," which caused everyone in attendance to erupt into sing-along. Even after the band had finished their set with one of their own (the wild "In Your Ear"), we were all begging for one more song. FiKus did better than that - they gave us two. First came their rocking cover of Zeppelin's "The Ocean," with Steve ripping it on guitar. Then came the show stopper - "1:13," which featured Travis on vocals and Jon on trombone.

FiKus, as is their nature, has put on plenty of memorable shows since - the second night of the first Meat Locker shows and Johnaroo come to mind. And, because they are only getting better, they will continue to put on amazing shows, so long as they stay a band. But on that particular night one year ago, the planets were in perfect alignment and the universe was in complete harmony as FiKus took the stage. For three hours, FiKus was everything that FiKus could be, which is the most exciting and entertaining live act in New Jersey. For me, I still hold dear every bit of that show - whether it be memories or pieces of neglected paper. One must when a year later you can still recall that feeling of euphoria that was accented by a buzzing in the ears and being covered head to toe in sweat. That's what Tuscany was to me.