Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Swamptooth Live, 28 March, 2012

Old Torrance Coffee and Tea

  1. Hurricane Days 
  2. On The Road 
  3. City in my Brain 
  4. Arms of Love 
  5. Dark End of the Street 
  6. Above You
I came in late, at about 7:30, and they asked me to go on immediately, which I did.  

The place was completely packed, and I had almost no ability to even take my gear out inside, let alone tune.  So I scuttled my initial plans to deploy harmonica.  Somehow I left my guitar pick at home, and had to use the emergency one that I always carry in my wallet.  Unfortunately, it is a light gauge pick, which greatly inhibits my picking style.  With that in mind, I tried to emphasize songs with lots of strumming.

I used a capo on first fret for the first two songs, as a boost to my voice.  They plugged me in, which worked pretty well.  When I came back on for a second set, the place had just emptied out after a drum circle.  So that somehow spurred me to try "City."  Probably because I knew not many were listening.  It was way too low for my voice.  I accompanied myself with the usual C harmonica.  

The audience came back.  "Arms" and "Street" were pretty standard, with no capo.  "Street" was the best of the night for me.  I should have stopped, but they asked me to keep going.  So I hemmed and hawed, and then finally capoed somewhere about second fret and launched into Above You.  But the capo threw me off and I blew a whole bunch of chords, especially in the bridge, which fell apart almost completely.  Embarassment.  After that, I called it a night.

This was my first foray after recovering from pneumonia, so the purpose was more just to get out there than to turn in really great performances.  Still, I would have been happy to have recorded my version of "Street."  

Richard McDowell asked me to come and play at Gilmore's this Saturday.  I am thinking about it.