|
Folks, I never wrote here about our show last weekend. I got a cold this week and pretty much didn't do much of anything much. Too much "much"? Woah, "much" is a weird looking word. Much. Looks German.
Words were a big part of Saturday's show at The Montague Bookmill. Not only were we surrounded by books but we ran a custom Madlib, which by the way, turned out hilariously.
I began the evening with a nice egg sandwich at the Lady Killigrew. Lesa, Brian, Tony and I sat out there pre-show and enjoyed the deliciousness of the food and the hint of autumn in the September air.
Later, when we had moved all the chairs and tables and we had set up our instruments, Linda Draper took the stage and put on a real nice intimate performance. She traveled to the venue by bus and cab and finger-picked her way through a set of nice tunes. I think she made a few fans.
Although we brought a P.A. up for this gig, we opted at the last minute not to use it. My acoustic guitar and voice set the volume and because the guys in this band are so awesome they were able to keep it all at a good level. Max couldn't make it to the show so we were Tony, Brian, Ken and I. Ken played keyboards so we were bassless, but it was great to have him fill in all the in between Madlib breaks with songs about words. The show was loose and casual and it just felt really crazy and fun to me. Not having a cord or a microphone allows me to move around wherever. We stumbled our way through a request for Sunday Morning by the Velvet Underground with help from audience members on vocals and with Brian taking the lead. We also asked the audience for a style to play "Back To School" in. Somehow it became a funk version. Half-way through I couldn't take it anymore, realizing that if I were me, I would hate the band I was hearing. We cut it out and slipped back into the right groove.
I felt like the show was a huge success. There weren't a lot of people there but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I'd love to play more of these nice long, quiet, and responsive shows. Our next gig, of course, will be quite the opposite. October 9 at Pearl Street, we're playing with Jill Sobule and Fountains of Wayne. Our set will be short, loud, energetic, and the audience will be large. Hey, man, we're easy.
1 comment:
Ai-yi-yi, I can't remember the last time I coughed up so many clams at an SFTD show! But it was okay, cause there was such a friendly, intimate vibe in the room. There were reasons for my many errors- I felt compelled to try to fill in some of the bass sound by comping notes on the lower strings of my guitar but it only made me realize I don't really know what many of the chords to these songs really are- Henning and Max have always supplied that part of the sound. Additionally, I'm always a little intimidated by Ken's playing since he's such an ace and so I would overextend my abilities at times and find I kept slipping off the tightrope.
Either way, I enjoyed myself immensely- the way we just melted into that impromptu cover of "Sunday Morning" was lovely. We didn't plan to have Brian sing lead- he just knows the words better than any of us to the song so he just did it. For my part, I recalled the chords to the song perfectly, as I was obsessed with VU when I was a senior in high school. The only problem is I forgot to use a capo so Brian ended up having to sing like Johnny Cash to manage the transition from F major to C major that I unfortunately forced him into. Still, the magic was in hearing the audience sing along to the chorus at the end. Lovely, lovely.
Didja notice, by the way, that this show fits into a percentage of shows of ours, let's say .008%, that did not feature "Omnivore?"
Mad Lib- delightful. I especially loved how we ended up with the titles of these books: "A Wrinkle in Borscht" and "The Goats of Wrath." It's like the spirit of Connolly Ryan was being channelled through our collective unconscious all of a sudden.
Plus I found a pristine copy of "Ethan Frome" for only 2 bucks to send to one of my former literature-lovin' students who is in her junior year of college in London. She went to school in Hardwick but she also grew up in Vermont so "Frome" will allow her to re-experience a New England winter through... words.
Post a Comment