Shows – Page 6 – Paul Melancon

20 February, 2003

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.

6 February, 2003

5 Feb: Atlanta

5 Feb – Eddie’s Attic (Atlanta, GA)
w/ John Austin, Susan Enan, Martyn Joseph

The night was run by Paste Music. We aren’t actually represented by them but they did feature a song from my CD on the CD sampler that went out with the second issue of their magazine (which is actually quite good). They are doing monthly nights at Eddie’s now, booking out of town acts and local acts. This show featured John Austin, Susan Enan, and Martyn Joseph (and myself and the band).

We played a bit of a sloppy show. Well, I did, and everyone else seemed to feel they had as well, but I didn’t really notice. It was good to have been asked to do the show, and the crowd was, for the most part, made up of people who had not seen us before. But when we went on we lost about half the crowd. We were last and following Martyn and Susan who had just done sets of very impressive and subtle folk (John had a great set, too, but I’m trying to make a point). So I think we were a bit jarring, even though I tried to build a softer set. Well, not as if we’re very hard to begin with, but we’re definitely an electric band. So, while people came up and were complimentary after the show, no one signed up and the CDs I sold were to someone I know. So we gained no one new. We did debut a new song, the first one worked up by the band. It was a little rough but I think it’ll be a good one.

I did talk with Todd a little before the show about booking, though, and about the need to get AAA fans out to see bands they don’t know. I’m looking at a tentative opening slot for Michelle Malone in March. Which is exactly what I think you have to have to gain AAA fans… you have to open for the people they WILL go see. If I could score another opening slot similar to the Indigo Girls shows it would do wonders for us overall. I just need a way to find the people who like the sort of thing we do, a way to sneak in under their radar and win them over before they know what’s happening.

26 January, 2003

25 Jan: Atlanta

25 January – Smith’s Olde Bar (Atlanta, GA)
w/ the Drexlers; Acres

A strange little show.

I didn’t know either band previously. I got the show because the Drexlers were finishing up their CD at Rob Gal’s and were figuring out their CD release party. They wanted someone to open the show acoustic and Rob suggested me. When I got there for load-in it turned out I did know some of the band; Greg from Gentle Readers was playing bass (he’d just joined a week before) and Wayne Glass, who I met a few years ago when he played with Viva la Diva, was playing drums.

I was originally supposed to do a full solo set, starting at 9pm. But the club wanted the show to start at 10pm. The Drexlers had wanted to have a listening party after their set so I told them to just let me know when to go on and how long to play, that it wasn’t a big deal to me. It was their CD release party after all and I don’t think anyone should give up anything they want on that night. It’s like a wedding ceremony for a band. So I ended up just playing five songs, including one on the uke and one on tenor guitar. The crowd was a good size, but the lighting being what it is there I couldn’t see any of them. But the response was good. Also, I had a couple of people I didn’t know come up to say they’d shown up for my set. That’s something, I’m happy to say, that’s becoming more common.

Geoff, who played stand-up bass on my CD, produced their CD and he was there, along with Mike Rizzi (from five-eight) who also played on the CD and who I’d never met in person. We talked for a while backstage about the usual things that closet pop fans talk about.