wedding bands (part II)

Starlight Orchestras
we met with the booking agent for Starlight Orchestras in their lovely Upper West Side offices.
the Starlight Orchestras schtick is that all the bands are led by female bandleaders. cute, no?

although the two principals of Starlight Orchestras (Valerie Romanoff and Marianne Bennett) were booked for our date (at their going rate of about $28K per wedding), there were two orchestras still available: Laurell Eastman and Sarah Scott (just under $20K).

both singers were very talented in their genre, but we felt that when confronted with hip-hop or rock, their interpretations left something to be desired. for some reason all the Starlight bands evoked the Sweeney sisters to me.



however, the booking agent told us about one other band he had, which was "the anti-wedding band." we were informed that this band was "like no band you have ever seen and people either love them or hate them--there's no in-between." the band we were about to see (on DVD) was called "One Nation" and Thurston was convinced, from the name and the description, that what we were about to see was clearly going to be something truly offensive, such as a white supremacist band. this was not the case, however. One Nation was a (mostly) black band that kicked some serious ass. the musicians were actually talented and the singers had chops.

we all loved One Nation, but were concerned that as great a band as they were, they might not be a great wedding band, a category unto itself. setting up the timing and keeping people on the floor, all while incorporating the toasts, the romantic first dance and breaks for the guests to eat is a lot to handle. this notwithstanding, we walked out of the Starlight offices with the feeling that, in any event, we would be happy with One Nation. our worst case scenario was not so bad!

then we headed to Harlem's Dinosaur BBQ and the night ended on the highest of notes. T was able to down the entire portion of his Tres Hombre and i was no slouch in finishing my two-pork combo.