Tag: Shows

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6 Jul: Atlanta

6 Jul – 10 High (Atlanta, GA)
w/the Accusations, the Veins

Saturday night was good. I think. They tell me.

Jeff used to be the bass player for Radiant City. His band is called the Accusations and they opened the show. I’ve seen them before, but in the interim they’ve changed lead singers. The current singer is a friend of Jeff’s who played keyboards on a couple of songs for Radiant City. I wasn’t aware he could sing, and it was good to see. It was nostalgic being at the same show with them, and odd feeling, but good. They played a great show and, just like the last time I saw them, seemed to be having a lot of fun.

There’s this thing about the Telecaster I own that I’ll try to explain succinctly. The headstock, where the strings tie around the pegs, has a particular system that I despise. I have had other people tell me they think it’s a really simple system, but for some reason, I have a really bad time with the high E string on it. When I string it, and start to tighten it, half the time the string will pull itself out of the peg hole, rather than remain from the tension. Usually this becomes apparent very quickly, and I have to re-string it again. But this time it appeared to be fine. As we were setting up at the show I tuned the Stratocaster with the capo on and set it off to the side, and then grabbed the Tele, tuned, and got ready to start the show.

Which was when the string popped out of the peg.

Why am I telling you this in such detail? Actually I don’t know. Forget I said any of that. It threw me off for a bit, I had to retune the Strat, but it was really no big deal in the long run. Jeff actually grabbed the guitar and restrung it during the set for me. The set was a bit sloppy, the sound was a little odd on stage, but overall it was good. It felt good, and I just realized that I don’t overanalyze full band shows like I do acoustic shows. Maybe this has been self-evident for some time to everyone else.

I can’t remember that many details, maybe some people can remind me of things I have forgotten. I remember Lee wore a sundress thing, which I found fascinating, and I remember making some comment about never having been so turned on before.

That stage-Paul is starting to get out of hand.

You know what bugs me about me, though? Well, let me back up… the crowd was really sort of light during the first band’s set, only about 40 people or so. They were trickling in, though, the whole time. So, when we were onstage getting ready to go, I wasn’t really paying attention, and it wasn’t until we had started into the first song that I really looked out and realized that it was packed. I don’t know where they came from. I know part of the crowd was there for the final band (the Veins, which features some of what used to be the Tender Idols, if I’m not mistaken). But even so, who were all these people? Were they just out to see a show, or did they know who I was? That’s the sort of thing that drives me crazy, because I want to know!

I did a poor job of merchandising, though, and normally I’m good about that. I need to keep a better head about that from here on out, because my livelihood is really going to depend on that.

Oh, sorry, so, what really bugs me about me is… that place was packed, and yet I managed to land eyes on the one skin headed guy who looked like he thought this was the biggest piece of shit he’d ever seen. I’ve been able to do this ever since I was in college, and Bob Dylan’s son (the other one, not the one in the Wallflowers) walked out of a show my band was playing, shaking his head. I don’t know what sort of radar I have that gets set off, but I’d like to have it disconnected.

Don’t be mistaken; I know I’m different than I used to be, at least at band shows, because after I saw him I started to play ANGRIER, rather than less sure. I played to say, “fuck you, moron, we kick ass, so why did you come here anyway?”

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19 Jun: Atlanta

19 Jun – San Francisco Coffee (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Dave Dault

Ah, by the way…

The show Wednesday night was strange. There was no PA, which I knew in advance, but what I didn’t know is that my voice doesn’t carry well. It seemed to come out and then flop to the ground right in front of me gasping for air. Dave was animated and would play standing up (we were trading off on songs), moving toward and back from the people sitting at their tables. I tried for one song and realized there was just no way I was going to manage that, so after that I just pulled a chair forward until I was sitting pretty much in the crowd, and sang. Then when I was done I would move the chair back so Dave could play.

I was sloppy, I resorted to “Xanadu” within about four songs (always a bad sign at a writers’ night) and played almost exclusively songs I was unprepared to play for the rest of the night. My voice began to get strained from trying to carry somewhat. It was more or less a mess. But, they were also appreciative, and responsive, and someone I didn’t know requested “Forget the Forget” which couldn’t have shocked me more if the person who requested it had turned out to have a third eye.

So, it was okay. It didn’t exactly make me feel like a rock star or anything, but it didn’t leave me questioning why in the hell I was doing this for a living, either. Somewhere in the middle of those is an okay place.

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12 May: Atlanta

12 May – Eddie’s Attic (Atlanta, GA)
with Alastor, weaklazyliar

The entire show seemed to go off without a hitch, really. Alastor opened with an acoustic set. Actually, it was just Elizabeth and Scott (who used to be in Alastor), but I haven’t seen them play together since last September, so that was actually really good to see again.

Then we went on. I felt really relaxed last night, and I couldn’t even begin to explain why. We rehearsed just before the show, but we’ve done that plenty of times. Maybe it’s the room, because Eddie’s is an odd room to do an electric show in, a small stage, less intimidating, but we’ve done a show there before and I can’t recall feeling that at ease. But whatever the reason, my heart or my shoes, I just felt really good. One thing I have noticed… I have always felt that a good deal of the success I am having with recording and with band shows is having surrounded myself with people who are extremely talented. I know it’s what you’re supposed to do, but when you have my mentality it’s hard to shake the feeling that the credit lies largely with them, since I’m the same guy who shortly beforehand was just playing solo at Borders and feeling very despondent. But lately I have felt a bit more like I am a part of it as well, some sort of sense that my abilities are growing, too.

Of course, one bad acoustic show will crush that right back out of me. 🙂

weaklazyliar played last. I was sitting in back talking with people, and talking about how tight they are. I think I am getting repetitive about them, so I’ll try to just sum up: they really went out on a limb for this record, and I know it was a beast to get it done. But it really is amazing, and the fact that they’re keeping the arrangements for live shows is just great. I know it probably can be daunting at times, playing songs that are sparse and quiet like that in a club, but I think it works, and if I had stumbled on them out of nowhere I would have just been blown away. I sang backup on a couple of songs with them. I keep telling them I’d do it on everything if they’d let me but so far they haven’t taken me up on it.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves, I hope I’m right about that. It was a fun show to watch. After the main set they played some older songs, a couple of them with other people doing the vocals. Elizabeth came up and sang “Rocketpop” and I sang “Secondhand.” Then we all did “American Girl” and drank a lemon drop shot (which, by the way, was really disgusting. I don’t know what’s in it). Then there was an encore song and Elizabeth and I tried to do parts on it even though we weren’t really prepared, I think we did okay, she played some guitar and I tried to find a backing vocal part on the fly.

It occurs to me that the last time the three of us all played together was last September and I remember feeling really great afterwards, and that was even me just playing acoustic. Clearly we should do it more often. For my sake, if nothing else. These are two bands who I want to see succeed, who I think are amazing for so many different reasons.

On a side note, I saw what is pretty much the final design for my CD last night. We went through one design already, which had a lot of things about it that I liked, but some things that didn’t work for me. Then, with the Daemon Records thing happening suddenly, all the plans went into the air, but now that they’ve sort of landed we’re back with more or less the same design specs, so we went back to tweak the last design. They brought it to me last night (they being Lauren and Rama at goodsforyou.com) and I just love the damn thing. It’s right on the nose of the feel I have wanted for the CD since I first started planning it back when recording on Slumberland was wrapping up.

It feels like things are happening. It’s fleeting at times, and still I remain overly cautious, I suppose. But when my negative tendencies are tired or weak, I can almost sense momentum of some kind. But I’m trying not to jinx it.

I forgot to mention one thing… after our set, Michelle Malone came up to say hi. She missed the actual set, I think, but said she had heard a lot of great things about me, and was working with her manager to set up some opening spots, so I guess that may actually come to pass. I am assuming Linda has talked me up to her, which would make one more thing I owe her for.