Tag: Indigo Girls

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21 Feb: Iowa City

21 Feb – Univ of Iowa Memorial Union (Iowa City, IA)
w/ Indigo Girls

When I saw the room for the first time it wasn’t at all what I expected. It was more of a really large banquet hall with a very high ceiling, but it held 1600 people and the show was sold out. My ‘dressing room’ was actually a smaller banquet room off to the side. They had called when I was in Cleveland asking if I had any requests for the room, and I just asked for water. They pressed me on it, as if they just really wanted to PROVIDE something, so I told them if they could get me a Mountain Dew that’d be nice. In the dressing room there was a cooler with water and about 20 cans of Mountain Dew.

I’m just one guy. Not even I have that big a problem with the stuff.

Anyway.

I talked with the Girls on the drive over about doing “Don’t Dream It’s Over” with me. It was a last minute thing and I know they were wiped out from this whole tour but they agreed to give it a go anyway. After we ate we went over it at the table. Then I had about an hour to kill by myself wandering about the building. As the time got closer I kept taking a look into the room and it was only about half full and they were all sitting on the floor (the room was standing only).

With five minutes before I went on I took another look and it was packed and they were pressed up against the raised stage. Amy walked out with me to introduce me and the place went up and it was LOUD. Really loud. And they went on and on. Nervous? Yep.

So here’s how it went… They cheered loudly after every song. I started with “Fall Down” and after the first chorus got my first mid-song cheer from a crowd. They cheered punchlines. I made a concise political statement before playing “O, Columbia” and they went up. The Girls came out for “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and they went completely nuts. They sang along on the “hey now”s. They cheered the line in “Hitchcock Blonde” (“tells herself she’s no one’s Hitchcock Blonde”) at the end. They were loud and great. I told them so.

After the set I went out as usual to sign CDs and meet people. I was getting a better response than the last show already at that point. People telling me they never like opening acts and they really enjoyed me. I noticed when I went out that I had already sold CDs before I came out.

I went back in and watched the full Indigo Girls set, joined in on “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears” again. Just like Cleveland the place went nuts when I hit the third line of the Michael Stipe part. They were so loud I couldn’t believe it.

Back out at the merch table I sold and signed CDs. I sold as many CDs as the best shows in Florida with the band. As the crowd thinned I sat and talked with a group of people for about 15 minutes or so, they invited me to go eat after we were done, but I had to say no since we were leaving for Chicago immediately after. But I would have really liked to have stayed. It’s one frustrating thing about being in town before the show and leaving town right after. When I’m there no one knows who I am and by the time I’ve potentially won them over I have to leave.

On the bus once again everyone went to bed pretty quickly. It was a four-hour drive to Chicago and I was getting a little carsick. I lay in the coffin but didn’t really sleep. We got into Chicago around 4am or so. I got about 3 hours of sleep before going to the airport. I ran into Amy waiting for the flight and we talked a little. I really dislike flying, not because of fear but just because it’s such a tedious uncomfortable experience. I actually lucked out and got a three seat row all to myself, but unfortunately I had two sales guys sitting behind me who LITERALLY never shut up for the entire flight. I tried to watch a movie on the laptop with headphones to drown them out but the seats in front are so close there’s no way to comfortably look at the laptop screen.

I really hate flying.

I ran into Amy, Emily and Sulli at baggage claim, hugged and said goodbye.

Back home, where no one knows anything happened.

Back home, where I’m unemployed and can’t pay my bills this week.

I can’t describe my mood or whether it’s good or bad.

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19 Feb: Cleveland

19 Feb – the Agora (Cleveland, OH)
w/ Indigo Girls

I’m on the tour bus now.

Everyone went to bed pretty much after we started off. I watched a little bit of a movie on the satellite dish(!) and then crashed in my little coffin space near the back. It’s not bad being on the bus but I think I prefer the van, though that may just be because it was my band in it, and here I feel a little out of place. It’s not much easier to sleep on the bus, at least not for me. I don’t seem to be able to not KNOW I’m in a moving vehicle so I don’t sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time.

We just passed into Iowa. Amy’s working on Daemon stuff and everyone is slowly waking up.

We got into Cleveland early yesterday, but the crew was already there so it worked out. We went and picked up Lyle at the airport and went back to load in. The details are sort of dry, it’s the same routine for each, more or less. The Agora is a good room in a bad area of town, I think they’re trying to restore it. There’s a smaller club-sized venue inside called the Agora Ballroom which had this great neon sign behind the stage that made me think Led Zeppelin was going to start playing at any moment.

That’s when it hit me. We were in Cleveland to play a concert.

I still don’t really know how Cleveland became such a rock mecca, it seems so arbitrary, but it was easy to see that it is. We played a pretty strong set, I thought, and were pretty animated, too. It felt good. I wish there were more of them now instead of just the one. The crowd responded well and Amy and Emily came out and sang on the cover song again. I went out after the set to stand around the merch table. Sales seemed a little slow but not bad and I signed a few CDs. I did sign one CD for a girl who was probably about 10. She was all shy and calm when I signed, but when she walked away she started jumping up and down and showing her parents and then went skipping back into the show. This trip may be worth it just for that.

Before our set when we saw Amy for the first time she asked if I wanted to sing on “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears” and I said yes without really thinking. I expected “Kid Fears” but hadn’t really done that verse in “Closer to Fine” before so I had to sit and try to remember what the words were. So I came out during their set (the last two songs before the encore) and did that song and remembered the words. Then we did “Kid Fears.” When I started the Michael Stipe part they cheered but on the third line when the part kicks in they… well, they roared. It was amazing. It didn’t leave me with any room to mistake what the roar was for either, which would be my natural inclination.

Back out front after the show we sold more CDs and a lot of people came up to compliment the set. Before I left the booking guy said something to the effect of, “well, you really seem to have won over Cleveland.”

If only we were more likely to make a trip up here again…

More soon.

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18 Dec: Atlanta

18 Dec – the Tabernacle (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Indigo Girls, Jayhawks, Fastball, Shawn Mullins, Rhett Miller, Josh Joplin Group, Tift Merritt, and Peter Stuart

This was a big holiday show put on by Russell Carter, featuring all of the acts he represents (except for Matthew Sweet). Oh, and me, added as a favor to Amy.

The Tabernacle, where I’ve never been, is a great room. It used to be a huge church downtown but feels much more like an old movie palace, a lot like the Florida Theatre did, with three levels of seats.

I was only playing one song (“Hey, California”) and it was pretty much right in the middle of the show. Everyone else was playing 3 or 4 songs. I sat on the stage, at the back, behind the performing acts for pretty much the entire show. Virtually everyone on the bill is someone I respect, some for whom I would even go so far as to call myself a huge fan. So it was amazing to sit behind them all as they played and watch the crowd.

Before I played, though, the old habits were still there. I knew a few people, most of Josh’s band (which included Rob Gal for the evening) I know fairly well, and I know Amy and Emily, and I’ve met Shawn Mullins a few times before, but overall I felt out of place and a bit dwarfed. I tried to interact but it was difficult, so by the time the show started I just stuck to the stage, listening.

I was scheduled in between Amy’s set and Shawn’s set, not a bad place to be in front of an Atlanta crowd. Amy took the time to introduce me before my song. That’s really something in general I can’t thank her enough for, because she knows that the crowd, in particular her fans, will be much more open minded about sticking around to hear me when she’s more or less given me a stamp of approval in front of them.

I played my song. I thought I’d feel nervous, I had felt a little shaky (literally) at Borders the night before, not having played solo in a while, and really never having played solo in front of a large group of people. But for some reason, at this show, it wasn’t there. It felt totally comfortable. Someone I didn’t know told me later that from the moment I started the song I looked confident. Maybe it was the similarity to the Florida shows, I don’t know. But I nailed the song (I don’t mind saying) and the crowd response was great. Someone gave me a “woo!” in the middle of the song. I think that was a first.

Now, maybe you don’t know who Rhett Miller is. He’s the lead singer of the Old 97’s and also just put out an incredible solo record, which I have been highly recommending for weeks. I know who he is, at any rate, and of the acts playing he was the one I really considered myself to be a big fan of. Rhett was sitting on stage off to the side when I played, along with Josh. When I came off people were congratulating me, Josh saying he loves that song, and Rhett asked me what I was playing in the bridge, that it sounded really great, and I told him I’d have to show him because the song is in this odd tuning.

Then he told me it was a fucking great song.

The end. My night was pretty much over.

Okay, actually, there was more. But I did tell him I’d try to get him a copy of my CD, which I need to remember to do next week. Anyway, after that I felt much better about the evening. It seemed like people were a bit friendlier to me after I played, I suppose because they didn’t really know who I was and it wasn’t until I played that they got to find out why I was there and that I didn’t suck. After that, even though I still felt intimidated, like I was the ‘new guy’ (hell, which I am) I also felt like I belonged. But also, not for the first time in the evening, I wished I would have been allowed to play 2 or 3 songs and have the band with me. With the band I can compete with anyone and it would have been great to have REALLY put my shit out there.

Childish, maybe, but still true.

I got to see the Jayhawks play (and tell Gary that I thought they were amazing). I got to see Rhett play (and say the same). I got to see Fastball play (um, okay, I never really got a chance to talk to them, but I would have said the same).

Damn, I was lucky.

I went out and did the Michael Stipe part on “Kid Fears” during the Indigo Girls’ set. There was an amazing crowd response, though it’s always hard to tell on that one if it’s meant to be for me. The IG fans are so enthralled and they cheer every small nuance of their songs, so it’s difficult to think that I had a lot to do with it. But it felt damn good, even so. Emily and Amy hugged me on stage when the song ended, even got a little kiss on the cheek from Amy. After the show, down in the dressing room, they both talked about how when I sing that I really grab the crowd, and said I had a special gift.

Please understand the urge to delete that is very high for me. It feels so egotistical to include it, but… christ, I don’t get told that by the fucking Indigo Girls every day. So I’m forcing myself to leave it in. They have been nothing but kind to me and I don’t think I will ever tire of thanking them (though they might).

Amy has a plan for the CD starting in January. I type that for myself, in case it comes to anything.

Other random notes: Big finale, with everyone on stage singing “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and I got to do four lines of it with Tift. Shawn also said nice things about my song and has always been friendly to me. Matthew Kahler was there, too, and also liked the song, we talked for just bit during the show. The Jayhawks and Fastball are both vastly underrated (well, not critically, they’ve always done well critically) bands, by the way, neither of whom I had seen live until last night. If you have the chance to see them I suggest to take it. I went to the after show party at Russell’s house, talked to Geoff and Allen from Josh’s band (and also from my CD), saw Jeff Calder (Swimming Pool Q’s).

Oh, forget it. It was good. That’s all I’m trying to say.