22 Nov – Eddie’s Attic (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Indigo Girls, Mrs. Fun
28 Nov – 10 High (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Kenny Howes
This may be a peculiarly male thing, or maybe it’s just a peculiarly me thing, but as you look back on your life, in particularly your sexual history, you can see the point where you finally sort of figured out what it was you were supposed to be doing all that time, and you have a sort of unfulfilled longing to be able to somehow go back and show those who suffered your pre-knowledge fumblings that, yes, you have figured it out and you’re really very sorry you were too young to know what the hell you were doing.
This was probably as close to fulfilling that as I’ll ever come.
These were the first two shows since coming home from the tour. I knew all along it would be strange to go back to playing small clubs after a week of 2000 seat venues. It was actually sort of a lucky thing that the first show also featured the Girls. Eddie’s is a familiar place for me, and that was a good thing, but the fact that the Girls were playing basically ensured it would be packed and it was. It was strange to be on such a tiny little stage (which is not condescension on my part, Eddie’s is mainly an acoustic venue and doesn’t have a stage that is meant to hold a four piece electric band. It’s a tight fit) and not be able to really move around much. But the crowd was really responsive and it felt great to be playing to them. I could feel that we were a very different band than the one that left in early November, or maybe more accurately I could feel that we were a BAND. That we can go up against anyone in town and hold our own.
The goofy quote from this show:
Lee – “There are Daemon catalogs and stickers which are probably free… I don’t know. They are now if they weren’t before.”
Me – “You made them free. Just like Lincoln.”
We sold so many CDs in Florida that Daemon was out of stock and I took back my excess from the tour once I got back so that they could fill an order from the distributor. A good sign but bad, too, in its way. Anyway, I kept about 15 or so thinking that if I was going to sell any CDs in town it’d be the Eddie’s show since the crowd would mainly be people who didn’t know us. Sure enough, I sold them all and am now officially OUT of the new CD. They are manufacturing more and I hope I have them before the shows later this month, but I have no idea if I will.
The 10 High show was Thanksgiving night. When I was asked to play it they told me it was one of the busiest nights of the year for them. While that seemed a bit unlikely (late November and December have always been really poor months as far as turnout goes, at least here in Atlanta) I took the show anyway because Nicole had been so accommodating for the CD release party back in September. I figured we might get ten or so people. The crowd was light but much better than I thought it’d be. Kenny played part of the show solo and then was joined by a band, including Lyle on bass. We played after that for an hour and a half (which meant virtually everything we know as a band) and the crowd was up front singing along. I don’t know when they all sat down and learned all the words, but it was a strange sensation. A good one, but strange.
I waited much too long to write this so I’m a bit skimpy on the details, I know. But all in all I didn’t actually experience the let down I thought I would as far as playing shows in town after the bizarre experience of the tour. If anything it made playing in town even more fun, I suppose because I don’t find myself worrying at all about the shows.
I played an open mic at Eddie’s in between these two shows. This is something I did a lot after Slumberland came out. I felt a little like I wasn’t supposed to be doing it back then, because even then I could get shows at Eddie’s already, even if they were weekday shows. But I knew that known acts tended to do his open mic anyway because the club itself has such a reputation. But more to the point, I did about 12 of them and never even placed in the three finalists anyway, so it could hardly be argued that me playing it wasn’t fair. At any rate, on the 25th, I actually won the evening. Up until this point I usually would do one slow and one uptempo song, but this time I decided to “StarSearch” it and just go for the high cheese and played what I figured were my two most emotional and sad songs. I had friends who were there to see it all and watch my face run through the five stages of “Finally winning an open mic after two years.” The “Shootout” happens on December 14th, which is when all the finalists of the past six months come and perform and a final winner is chosen and they get $1000. I do not, by any stretch of the imagination expect to win, but if you’re bored that night stop by and watch the fun and humiliation!