Last Night's Surprise Concert

Last night while driving past the tiny lit up City of Monsanto on the Mass Pike, I got a phone call from Jose Ayerve. He asked me if I wanted to play a show that night at ten o'clock at Bishop's Lounge. I would be filling in for someone in the slot right between Jay Johnson and Jose Ayerve. How could I say no to that?!

So, there. Suddenly I had a gig. Cool. It felt like it had been a long time since I played out. I guess it has. All my stuff except for my guitar is pretty much packed up in boxes right now, so I couldn't bring any cds or mailing lists or even guitar cables, but all that stuff is just extra.

I arrived just in time to catch Jay's set. He was great. I think he was playing mostly National Carpet songs. Really nice solid pop-rock songs, like the good tunes on all the Replacements albums. Jay's voice never sounded better, I thought. Afterwards, he told me that he had a cold, but I thought he had sounded excellent. He even had bassist Anne come up for a few songs.

My set was very fun. There was a nice audience of people just sitting there seemingly listening, laughing, smiling, and even drumming along. I played:

• Thinking of a Time
• This Time It Looks Good
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• Periscope
• Homeward Bound (Paul Simon)
• Superhero
• 20,000 Dollars
• Stereo Glow
• Something's Taking Over
• Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
• Waiting for Life
• Campground Daughter

I think that was it. It felt good.

Jose exploded onto the stage after me, double amping his crunchy electric guitar and captivating the audience with his crunchy voice. Really passionate and intense. He also did a number of songs just on his bass guitar - which was also double amped and crunchy and reverby and beautiful. Mark Schwaber came up and joined him on one song that may be on the new Spouse album. I can't wait to hear it.