28 Aug – San Francisco Coffee (Atlanta, GA)
w/Daniel Lee, Sue Witty
Once again I played the place with no PA, the same place I didn’t really want to play the last time. I entered in with the same mindset this time, but left with vastly different results.
It was good.
Oh, it was silly, and sloppy. But this time it was good.
I was riffing. Sometimes I go into these acoustic shows and I try to put myself in a mindset where I know I shouldn’t overanalyze, I should just play it casually, keep it all in perspective. But it’s rare that once I start I hang onto that motivation. But last night, for some reason, it stayed. We had one mic to share between us, Sue had brought her PA along. I started things off (se and I were doing this in-the-round) and spent the first few minutes just babbling and being a smart-ass. To what seemed to be an appreciative crowd, which just made me worse. From that point my night was pretty much set and I was good. I botched songs. My voice caught. I forgot words. But I played it all off and it was nothing. I stopped mid-song after having played the wrong chord, just to explain to everyone the thought process involved of trying to decide at the last minute which chord it was supposed to be, like one of those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books.
THAT’S how casual it got.
It was good, and everything I want acoustic shows to be. Interaction with the audience, in a way that is conversational, like they just happened to show up at your house while you were playing. Comfortable, little to no pretense.
How I manage that more often I don’t know. But last night I had it, and it felt great. I felt affectionate to the world after it, I couldn’t stop hugging people. I just wanted to make out with the world.
So, that was good.
A night so strange that the following HAD to happen… someone requested an old Radiant City song, someone I don’t know. She had gotten a copy of the benefit CD the song had appeared on, listened to it not knowing who Radiant City was, recognized my voice on it (having seen me play before, solo) and looked to find it was me.