Saturday, April 2, 2011
Java Monkey
Decatur, GA
Being back at the Java Monkey was great and the weather couldn’t have been any better. It was cool but not cold and more people showed up than I expected. The PA at Java Monkey has been crapping out so I hauled out my trust ol’ PA system so that was great. The night started off with my good buddy Jonathan McBee and he did a great job. He really worked hard and brought out a nice crew of people which made for a great experience. There’s no better setting for a show than an outdoor stage, great weather and the place full of people who were attentive and totally digging it. I started out the set with and old song that I hadn’t played in a while (The Night Gram Parsons Died) and I feel like it may have been too slow of a start. That particular song is pretty pitchy for me to begin with and because we had no monitors, it was a little shaky. Not shaky in a way that the audience could tell but I could feel that hesitance as I was trying to get my head voice. Finally by the beginning of the 3rd song it was clean sailing. I did have a bit of a technical difficulty with one of my pedals overriding during “Brother and Sister” but other than that it was a great night.
The only thing about this show is that I didn’t feel a real connection with the audience. Sometimes I can be playing to 5 people and feel that they are all connected to the songs. When that connection is made I can really feel it and it fuels my performance but on this night, I didn’t feel that connection like I have before. I don’t know exactly why that is. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t make it a bad show by any means. The audience was attentive and they seemed to be digging it. I had a great time and I feel that I played well but that connection just didn’t seem to happen. Maybe it’s because the last show in Carrboro, NC was such an amazing show and connection was so intense that it was hard to live up to. As awesome it is to have an absolutely amazing show, it’s kind of hard to not want every show to live up to it. I think what I did learn from this is that I need to remember to treat each show as it’s own entity and to not try and compare it to any other shows. A show is a show all it’s own and it deserves to have it’s own life and opportunity. Again, I’m not sure if that’s what it was with this show but the more I type, the more I’m thinking that this is what it was.
It was a lot of fun playing some older songs. “Back To When” was fun to play again, so was The Replacement’s “Here Comes A Regular” but “Ghost Town” didn’t seem to have that magic that it usually has for me. I think it might be time to phase it out slightly just to kind of give me time to miss it and reconnect with it. The night drew to a close with “Fart Proudly” and everyone just loved it. I love it that I have a fun, lighthearted song that everyone seems to enjoy and really get a kick out of. It was a great night of music and a night where I feel like I learned something new. That’s what I love about being a musician. I’m always learning and hopefully improving.
