Tag: Shows

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!

10 Nov – Saenger Theatre (Pensacola, FL)
w/ Indigo Girls

First off… that storm that blew through the southeast, spawning tornadoes all over Alabama? We drove home in that. We didn’t know that it was happening. Well, I mean, we drove home in the middle of a monster storm that never seemed to stop, we just didn’t know that it was some massive storm front that we were following all night, and that there were tornadoes touching down all around us.

I don’t think I can really wrap up the whole experience of the tour well. But let me try to talk about the Pensacola show… it’s possible it wasn’t the best show of the tour, or our best performance. But it was probably the best response we got in what was a string of pretty strong responses. When we started (with “Hey, California”) people were still audibly talking through the show, but further into the set there wasn’t any of that. So either they finished what they had to say or we hooked them.

The Saenger Theatre is another movie palace like the Florida Theatre was. A beautiful old room that has recently been saved apparently from destruction. We got in and went through the usual load-in and setup process, by now it was a very quick thing we did without much thought, really. We finished the soundcheck and went down to eat. Amy, Andrea and Stacey were downstairs talking Daemon stuff, which I tried to overhear without much success. We ate and got ready. I met Russell Carter for the first time, who for some reason looked nothing like I imagined.

The show went well. Like I say, it wasn’t our best, but the differences between the shows as far as performance were really just nuances. It was a good show for us. I felt energetic once we started (I was close to falling asleep beforehand, we drove six hours to get to Pensacola) and I think I was good with the crowd and good moving around. We all seemed a bit more energetic overall, pushing the last bit of energy out for the last show. Since I hadn’t had any sort of chance to talk to Amy or Emily before the show I didn’t know for sure if they were going to come out to do the cover (“The Air That I Breathe,” by the way) again, until the cheers went up just before the chorus and I knew they must have just walked onto the stage. I tried to take everything in during the song, looking around at both of them and the crowd and trying to remember what it felt like to be there. The crowd was very responsive, especially to the little bit of Radiohead’s “Creep” that we do in the middle.

The song ended and it was out to hang out by the merch table, signing CDs and talking to people. When the Girls started their set I headed backstage. Andrea told me I should really go ahead and practice the melodica thing for “Closer to Fine,” even though I really didn’t think after the night before they’d want that again. But I stood in the hallway and tried to re-learn the part in the correct key. At one point during the set Emily left the stage and headed down by the dressing rooms and so I asked her if they wanted me to do the solo again and she smiled at me and said of course but added, “Are you going to do it in ‘A’ this time?” I liked the moment not just because, yes, they wanted me to, but also because there’s enough of a relationship there now where she’s able to pick on me.

I know that reads awfully weird but it was a very cool moment.

Anyway, I ran through it a million more times and went up on stage. Just before they began Emily sort of motioned that I could just come out before the part, but then Amy caught my eye and just called me out to sing along, too. I sang and nailed the solo, using up every lucky break I had left, I think. The place went up when I started (and that’s something, because they’re always really loud for that song, every single person in the room is singing, and it happens every show) and I can’t imagine that the first half of the solo could even be heard over the noise. But it was incredible. They both smiled at me after it was done before going into the last verse. I waved and left the stage after the song was done and Amy took the time to thank the band and mention us all by name. I went back to waiting to do “Kid Fears” which was in the encore for this show. They introduced me again and the crowd gave me a good cheer and I sang my bit. I know it sounds so clinical when I try to describe it. I loved doing it. Every single time. Pensacola was a little extra because I knew it would be the last time I’d do it and I watched the crowd and watched the Girls as I did, trying to squeeze every last bit of the experience out of it. They thanked me and the crowd cheered and I waved. They started “Galileo” and I headed back out front to the merch table one last time.

We sold as many CDs in Pensacola as we did on our other big night in Jacksonville. I never would have imagined we would do so well, before we left I had thought if I could sell 10 CDs a show I would be in really good shape. That was really underestimating things, it turns out. I signed a lot of CDs, which became a very zen thing after awhile. I tried to talk as much as possible with people as they were standing there, I hate for it to just be some sort of factory line. I find, though, that some people want to talk and others seem like they think they need to get in and out. It’s a weird thing to be on the other side of, for me. I thought I did well, though, for being someone who is so shy about talking to people. During the set Lee had mentioned the whole “kissing my red hair” thing from the Tampa show so several people came up and asked if they could. One day I will make Lee pay. Then again, I had two really cute girls who wanted a picture taken with me, and since I was already sitting at the time they ended up on my lap, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.

Look, I typed that last line and I’m still laughing at myself. It was just bewildering and so unbelievably flattering. I can’t even put it into words. I am really a pathologically shy person and I have dealt with the whole musician thing for a long time as if it were just sort of a character I play, a “me” that happens to be extroverted. But being surrounded by this sort of thing just pushed it into the bizarre, and while it was happening I just kept thinking how in the world did I end up here with these two girls on my lap?

I’ll never be able to explain. The entire experience of the tour is just one long experience like that. It’s hard to comprehend that it happened. The long, delirious drive back doesn’t help matters and, since I slept through most of Monday, as I write this I still feel as if the show just happened tonight, but at the same time it feels like it didn’t happen at all.

I’ll tell you one more thing for free… it’s not as if we were out palling around with Amy and Emily during the tour. Lee seemed to actually know them a little, and they’d chat from time to time, but overall we only saw them just before they soundchecked, and then when we’d go downstairs to eat. Sometimes we’d see them after the show for a bit, too. But they had other people around them as well and so I never tried to insinuate myself into that. I tried to grant them a certain amount of space, maybe that was a mistake in some ways but I also know they have more than their fair share of people who want to be “close” to them. So to me it seemed like the most respectful thing to do. But even so they were constantly kind to us. I had never even met Emily before and she was so friendly. They both seemed to genuinely love what we were doing and really wanted us to have our decent chance to win people over. Cynically a person can think that Amy has legitimate business reasons for getting us exposure, but it never felt that way at all and I would argue the point with anyone who tried to suggest it. I could go on and on and already have, really, but they just were amazingly kind and helpful the entire time and I could never begin to thank them enough for the entire experience. I feel the same way tonight as I did when I was 20 and sitting on a stoop in downtown Atlanta coming off my first acid trip (my apologies to my parents if they’re reading this), the world looked completely different to me and I still feel as if the experience colors my way of thinking.

I am notoriously unable to ‘surrender to the moment,’ I think it’s safe to say, but for the past eight days I was living in an alien world and everything that happened felt magical, and frankly I don’t care how unbelievably silly that sounds.

Well, okay, I care just enough to point out that I don’t.

9 Nov – Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (Tampa, FL)
w/ Indigo Girls

I’m trying not to short-change anyone by forcing you to read MY description of events since I would play everything down just because I feel uncomfortable describing it. So, once again, here’s Robyn:

**********
it was a great night. the crowd was very responsive and respectful. i was a little worried at first because this was the largest auditorium yet and sometimes these fans can be very selective. but i shouldn’t have worried.

i won’t go on like i have in the last posts. just hit the highlights. it would be repetitive anyway. he sings, he wins, he signs lots of cds, and people beg for a return date. that’s how it’s happened every night.

but here…this is so you can be a proud friend, as if you aren’t already:

– someone wrote on his mailing list that they were the best opening band ever. (sound familiar?)

– a random girl wanted to kiss his red hair. (it was a beatle-esque moment, and everyone made fun of him for it for a few hours)

– a woman came up to ask him to autograph his cd, only to make it out to her 8-month old daughter. (how cute is that? he wrote “I will be really old by the time you’re reading this”)

– a girl came up to paul to have him sign his cd and her friend outed her. she blurted out that she had driven from orlando just to see paul’s show again. (i’m sorry, but did you catch that? AGAIN!)

– he did one of rose’s songs with her and my body was covered in goose bumps by the end. they ended on an “ooh” part and someone said they sounded like ghosts, but not in a howling banshee scary way. it was absolutely breathtaking. eerie, but amazing. emily approached him afterward to tell him just how amazing it was.

– his cover was equally amazing. it was the best sound, yet. rose, amy and emily came up to sing on it again, and this time everyone nailed their parts. the creep section was particularly wonderful and the crowd lost it at the end. amy and emily hugged him on stage afterward. it’s nice that the crowd gets to see the admiration they have for him.

and something else happened. i can’t tell you, because it wasn’t my moment. i give you back to paul to tell you all about it.
*********

Well, first things first… Lately my time backstage has been pretty swamped, last night Rose and I went over her song while the Girls were playing and then Emily had asked if I wanted to do the penny whistle solo on “Closer to Fine” with the melodica. So I went through that about a million times with Rose playing the song for me. I was nervous as hell about both bits. So we went out and Rose’s song went really well. Then they did “Closer to Fine” with us still out there and we got to the solo… well, I should explain that the part on the melodica that I play on “Sherman” is the only thing I have ever played, I can’t play keyboards and certainly can’t transpose on the fly. It turns out Rose and I rehearsed it without a capo, so I hit the first note and knew I was in big trouble. I tried to recover it as best I could but it was a mess. The only upshot being that everyone thought it was funny.

Tampa gave me far and away the most surreal moment of this whole experience.

After we play our set I go out to the lobby and sign CDs and talk to people. Usually the crowd clears out a couple of minutes before the Girls go on and I head backstage again. At this venue the only wa back to the stage was to head back down the side aisle and then cross in front of the stage to the side door. So Robyn, Andrea (sorry, Andrea and Stacey from Daemon came down for the last two shows) and I headed down to go backstage. When we got down to the bottom and were about to start crossing in front people started applauding. I looked around to see if the show was already starting.

It wasn’t.

They were just applauding because we were crossing in front. I have never felt stranger in my entire life. I think I waved, maybe. I don’t know. People were just shouting things and applauding.

The girl who wanted to kiss my hair was really cute, by the way. What am I, made of stone?