Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Last Night

Good evening. Jammin Java has a really nice, big, professional stage with black curtains behind you and a very good sound system (although the monitors were too hot for my taste and I never think to tell the sound man to adjust). I deviated from the set list I posted the other day a little bit. I substituted Thorns that Guard the Rose for I'm not the One (it just wasn't happening when I was practicing) and added a fifth song, The Moon is Shining Up Above, to close the set. I think it went well, but it's always hard to tell (especially since Laura didn't come along, so she couldn't provide feedback on the sound and audience reaction). Not as much feedback as the last showcase. I think I did a really good job on The Gravedigger's Song. There was also maybe a little rust, since I haven't played much since before Christmas. A few gaffes that I hopefully covered up pretty well. Definitely need to practice some more in the next few weeks for my gig at Buzz on Feb 8th.

Some very good musicians were there performing. The guy before me, I think his name was Dan Cahill, played a cover of Purple Rain which he seemed to pull off pretty well. I didn't really catch much of his set, since I was in the back tuning up and limbering up my fingers. Then there was Mateo Monk, who does this very interesting one man band thing with looping, so he lays down some guitar, then adds a bass part, then either plays some lead guitar over it or puts down his guitar and plays some flute. Then there was a guy named Dan Fisk, who announced to the room that this was his first night as a truly "professional" musician - quit the day job and doing music to make a living. We'll check back and see how well that goes. He was a very good guitar player, interesting dynamics. I didn't really get his songwriting for the most part. Seemed a little incoherent and disjointed, but maybe that's just me. Then there was a woman with a very good voice playing some bluesy piano with a little help from the host (Ron Goad) on percussion and a guy named Sol on electric guitar. There was a very young guy named Owen Danoff, who was quite good. It's usually hard to follow songs the first time you hear them, but my overall impression was that the songs were well thought out and definitely well executed.

The night ended with a jazz, blues, reggae jam with Sol on electric guitar and vocals, Mateo contributing some lead guitar, color, and flute, the woman added some backup vocals, Ron on percussion, and a fellow that I also didn't catch the name of on piano (he also sang a blues song). As always, Ron was a very gracious host.

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