Swamptooth Live, 25 April 2012

Event was held indoors due to intermittent showers.  Old Torrance Coffee & Tea is pretty tight even with only ten people in there because of the overstuffed furniture.  I got there almost a half hour late, quaffed a green tea matcha smoothie, and was asked to go on pretty soon after that.  Here is what I performed:

1. A Day is Far too Long
2. Are You Lonely?
3. Big Tin Truck
4. Second Time Around
5. Hampstead Incident (In the Nighttime)

The first two were Graham Coxon covers, done with capo on 2nd fret. Next round was an original, Big Tin Truck, done in the usual arrangement but with one verse forgotten ("back in '78"). Richard McDowell told me afterward that my voice was good on that song, that it gave it a "folk feel," by which I think he meant that I didn't sing it country-style to match the music.

My last set opened with another original, Second Time Around, which ended up amplified and so brought a bunch of listeners in from outside to hear.  This was not bad considering I had followed Mike, the house band, with a song I hadn't intended to play.  I did it because I noticed people reacting to the opening riff which I used to sound check once I was amplified, and decided to keep going.  Afterward I claimed it was a "true story," just as I had after Big Tin Truck. 

I closed my set with Hampstead Incident (by Donovan Leitch), which I cut short because I remembered only two verses.  Someone, I forget who, lauded my singing on the last set, I think because of the amplification.  In fact, I had forgotten to capo the last song, with the result that it was definitely below my range and I could not provide enough volume on the low parts.  I had to get really close to the microphone on those notes, which probably made me seem really "into it."

I intended this as a dry run for a show in Seattle this weekend. The first two songs were not optimized for the crowd, being very tortured bohemian, and angsty, but were fairly well received anyway. I'd say the highlight was Second Time Around, but "Truck" and Hampstead Incident were close behind.

After me, a Joan Baez-sounding soprano named Michelle went on, and I almost tripped her when she backed into my foot while singing Monday Morning (or something similar).

As I was packing up my Martin, the owner asked me if that last song was an original, and I answered that no, it was by Donovan, and he said, "well it was good anyway." But I'm not sure if by "that last song" he actually meant the one before it. Also as I was leaving, Wayne Davis (for whom I had selected Big Tin Truck) told me I was quite a talent, but that I needed to be in a group.  I pointed out that I am a group, and that I just can't get anyone else to join it.  Wayne had been insulting performers all night (and also my guitar), so I took this as a compliment. It also reminded me that he had asked me late last year to become a member of his backing band.