Gig Diary - Sierra Grille - Northampton, MA - February 7, 2008

Last night I played a solo set at the Sierra Grille in Northampton, Massachusetts. Before heading out, I looked back to see when the last solo show I played was. October 2007! What? That long ago? And that was only a 20 minute set. Before that my last proper solo show was in June! How is this possible? I used to play these shows all the time.

Aye aye aye. Where is the time going? I gotta get back on the horse. Anyone wanna book a bunch of shows for me? 'Cause I am terrible at it.

Here's what I played, as far as I can recall.

Uncomfortable - School for the Dead - Chain CD
Levitation - Unreleased 2006
She's Getting Anxious - Henning's School for the Dead
Feel Like I Should - School for the Dead - A Telephone Built For Two
Can't Believe How Fast - School for the Dead - The New You
She Does, She Does - Unreleased 1992-ish
Overs - Paul Simon - Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends
Superhero - School for the Dead - A Telephone Built For Two
2002 - Humbert - Unreleased Humbert 3
Stereo Glow - Looks Like I'm Tall

It was a pretty nice show. I never completely lost myself in it for two reasons. One is that my stupid persistently aching back is always gnawing at me, requiring some percentage of my concentration. Secondly, there was a table of folks who had absolutely no interest in there being music performed. I was able to control the volume of their rowdy conversation. The quieter I played the quieter they spoke, the louder I played the louder they yelled to hear themselves over me. I don't blame them, but it was a distraction.

I enjoyed trying some of these older less played numbers. I try not to make my sets too comfortable for me. My stage bantering skills were not with me during this show, I resorted to dumb old gags out of desperation. Tsk tsk.

After me was Sitting Next To Brian which was a kick. We put Brian and his drums in the front and the rest of us stood behind him. I think it was a good solid show. We started it out with "Swing Town" by Steve Miller, which was pretty funny. We debuted a new Brian song called "It's Really Coming Down" and we played "Wonderboy" by the Kinks. Not bad.

Then The Campbell Apartment played. They were excellent. It's always great to hear Ari's brilliant pop hits. Look out for their new album. It's on its way.

I saw some people taking pictures last night. I'll link to them when they are available.