Eric's House Of Ego

So, I played last night. Most of the audience (7 of them) were there to see the other act

I made one bad choice of song, but played a pretty solid half hour set.

Trophy Wife
Hey Dad (shoulda stuck with snappy stuff)
FPN (a new parody that I will not name yet, since I still want to ambush some audiences with it)
How Can I Miss You?
Nice Guys

I played pretty well, sang ok, and actually remembered most of the words.

Now I am off to the Ames Progressive open mike, I intend to play a lot in the coming weeks, I really need to.

I will be at Billy Joe's in West Des Moines this evening for the open mike. I won't be there next weekend, but I think I may make this a regular thing for awhile. I need to be performing.

And I will do a short set at The Broiler in Ames Saturday night at 8ish. It will be about a 15 minute set, which means 3-4 songs, or a cut down version of Hey Dad.

Only Coffee House In Town
Pine City Motel Blues
Standards
Hides

I went to the open mike. As expected, school being out and all, there were very few people there. I played a safety set, something I need to stop doing. Mostly I need to get some new songs written.

Standards
Low Self Esteem
Crank Generation
Hey Dad (I've been doing that one a lot lately)
How Can I Miss You?
Ghosts

A couple of the folks in the audience tended to stare at me a little baffled, but that's pretty common. I had a nice time.

I went off to the open mike last night. It was a real informal affair last night, I was sitting in the back of the room warming up, and suddenly I was playing songs for everyone.

Oh Shannon (a request, it seriously hurt a friend of mine)
WYSIWYG (also a request)
Hey Dad (another extended dance mix version)

There was at least one person who really didn't like my stuff, he just sat there and glared at me the entire time, which prompted me to be even more ... well ... me

It was a nice night.

Here's what I played ...

In Crosby Park - with and at the request of Kyle Dean Patten (on tin whistle)
Bang My Bald Spot
How Can I Miss You?

Second time around I did

Only Coffee House (with Kyle on harmonica)
Roman Wall Blues/Hides

Hides was a little shaky, but Roman Wall Blues was quite good (or so I thought) All in all I was pretty relaxed tonight

Kyle was great, another friend, Bryan was very good.

the highlight of the evening was a trio, two guitarists and a young woman on mandolin. They did a pretty varied set material wise, but gave everything a real old time feel ... they were wonderful

So a nice night, but somehow I don't think I will ever get a gig there ...

Went tonight.

The venue is a very nice laid back funky coffee shop. Great vegetarian and vegan food (the hummus sandwich ROCKS) and a Chai that would make chirosinger purr (I sent contact info to Chaz, it's a nice place)

Let me accentuate the negative first, since I am that kinda guy ...

One side of the PA was in back of me to my left. My left ear is my good ear. I had to play with an earplug in that ear, so I sounded weird to myself, and could barely hear the guitar. Apparantly that didnt hurt my performance too much, although it did odd things for my energy level.

Only Coffee House In Town - I did this here before, I had gotten a wireless connection a couple times when I was there, then I didnt. I asked about it and the owner said "we dont have wireless, but someone in the neighborhood does, we're not sure who". The next time I was there for the old time jam I did that song. The two main folks there laughed and laughed. So I opened with it this time.
Color Of Your Eyes
Bang My Bald Spot - I finished the first verse, and woman was up and kind of dancing. She does this. Between verses I said "Hi Jenny". She then realized that she knew me. I hadnt seen her in a couple of years.

So endeth the first set.

There is this woman who showed up at the jam once, she is incredible. I wish I could think of her name. She has this wonderful husky voice.
Mary McAdams runs the old time jam and now this. Another brilliant singer and she chooses some very cool songs as well (she needs to do more of her originals though, but I'm like that)
These two guys who do old time songs, nothing more recent than about the 30s I think. They have this wonderful laid back attitude, and great musicians.
And this very young women, I think she did one original. A great voice and some nifty guitar from a friend of hers.

Hey Dad
Don't Go Home - I asked funny or serious, someone said serious so ...
Hides - my G string kept slipping (go ahead, say it, you wont be happy till you do) but even with it a little flat it was an ok version.

So a nice night, it was the first open mike there and it was a success I would say. I had a good time, the rest of the folks were very good. Now if I can just get a real gig there ...

Ok, it was a music weekend.

We went north to visit some relatives at their bowling alley.

One of the cousins is a musician, writes some songs, and is an excellent singer.

In the bar they have karaoke, and he will play some songs throughout the night. Last night I joined him and did two short sets. Now let me see if I remember what I played. Mostly the usual funny stuff.

Sitting around playing I did

Only Coffee House In Town
How Can I Miss You?

When we got set up to play through the system I played.

Standards
Hey Dad !!!
Color Of Your Eyes

Then later

Low Self Esteem
Bang My Bald Spot
and something else, I can't think of what at the moment

And tonight at Boheme I did mostly newer stuff. Not too well, but the songs are moving along

Only Coffee House In Town (nice with a few guitar bobbles)
Pine City Motel Blues (The middle section is still a mess, the rest went ok, but just ok)
Low Self Esteem (just cause I mentioned the benefit disc)
Nice Guys (messed up the final part, but it was ok)

There were two new guys this weekend. A guitar player and a guy with an old Micro-Moog.

They did some very cool, very tuneful stuff with great use of the synth. But more on them in the next post. Suffice it to say that they were the best thing I have seen there in some time. (and there has been a lot of great music lately)

So I went to their tuesday night thang. No one else showed up to play so I was given a lot of time. I think I played about 30-45 minutes. The audience reaction went from amused and listening to no one even applauded or noticed when I finished. A really weird night.

Low Self Esteem
Color Of Your Eyes
Golden Age Of Silicon
WYSIWYG
Bang My Bald Spot
Hey Dad
Hides

And a couple more I am certain, but cant remember now.

I did get a nice reaction from a very lovely young woman on Hides. She liked the soloing. She also borrowed my guitar for a set of her own, mostly early 90s radio stuff done fairly well. She's a great guitar player and has a lovely voice, but she should be writing.

So ... recording progresses ...

I've spent the last few sessions working on some covers ... and getting to know the equipment ... I'm still getting some buzz that I can't get rid of ... but once it's mixed down and compressed and whatever else I am going to do to it hopefully it won't be too audible ... I just laid down a killer version of Oh Shannon ... gonna go back and do one more take since I buzzed the guitar a few times ... but it's working out well ... I actually have hope for getting this done and ready to go by the time I go to Chicago in June ...

Thursday night I went to the Jam Session/Open Mike at B & B Que in Urbandale. Kinda ok ... loud audience ... but those who listened got one of my better short sets ... In particular one very lovely young lady in the back was laughing at everything ... just another of those constant reminders of just how damn old I am ... still ... she asked about the CD ...as did several others ... if I had the damn thing done I probably coulda sold a half dozen or more ...

The set
Low Self Esteem (of course ... I don't open many shows any other way anymore)
I skipped the 3rd verse ... why ... I dunno ...
Color Of Your Eyes
I was a little out of tune ... mostly my B string ... so ... I did another one of those things that I didnt know I could do ... I laid off that string for most of the song ... where am I getting these magical abilities ???
Golden Age Of Silicon
A little too wordy for this night I think ... went ok though
WYSIWYG
A very good and VERY rhythmic version ...

and I was done ... pity ... I think that the audience wanted more ...

I'm planning on making it a frequent stop (even the owner asked me to come back) ... next week I'll hit them with a totally different set ...