Back to Old Torrance Coffee & Tea after a four-month hiatus.
Very large, overflow crowd. Lots of young people too. Event was held outside on the street patio. Unfortunately I only got to do one little set before I got cut short:
- Outlaw Blues
- Memphis, Tennessee
I played these two songs very much rock-and-roll, but as a medley. They both work with the Johnny Rivers arrangement of Memphis. Jeane, the MC, for some reason always tends to introduce me as "W.T." So I got an icebreaker laugh when I set the record straight with what is becoming a standard line, saying
"The band is called Swamptooth. But I'm the only guy who ever shows
up."
Missed a chord once, omitted at least one verse, and fluffed a line, but these faults were seemingly not noticeable and the crowd was into it. I was initially planning to follow up the southern medley with a few
Gram Parsons songs just because I was out of practice with a lot of my
usual stuff. But then after people remembered some of my earlier shows
and requested songs by name, I changed my mind and thought I would do
those.
A couple of firsts racked up after I was done playing:
- First time I have heard my set described as "hard core." Or maybe it was "Hard Corps," I don't know, but from the context, probably the former. This kind of feedback typically takes me by surprise and puzzles me, which is half the fun.
- First time I have had a request list longer than my actual set. But then, also probably my shortest set.
The headliner, Mike Munoz, missed my little double feature and wanted me to go on again, which Jeane also requested. But it was getting late, going well past the usual 9:00 cut off, and I had to work early, so I bailed out. Wayne Davis cornered me as I was leaving and again wanted to form a band, and after that I wound up chatting to the guy who had requested the Donovan song I did at an earlier show. Then I heard Munoz doing "I Was Young When I Left Home," which is a song
I've been planning to do, and thought no one else was aware of. Finally, on my way out, I ran into a young damsel in distress who badly needed an ego boost, having just done her stage debut, a capella. Always gutsy, often not pretty. So I had a hard time extricating myself and got home late after all. But I'll probably do those requested songs next week.
