Day 128 - July 17th 2009
Friday.
For many people it means the start of the weekend for me, tonight it means the start of my first back to back shows since I came home. We’re (finally) back at Lickety Split. Lickety Split on South Street is the place that I’ve recently took over the booking for, but I’ve had a relationship with them as a musician for the past two years. At one point we were playing there every Friday from 10-2. It had a lot to do with building the fan base I built in Philly. People would come every week because they knew I was there with Jake and Kanako and later Rob. We’d gone through a lot of changes in the past few years, from once a week to once a month to twice a month to once every other month to ultimately me booking there. It’s one of our favorite places to play. Great people, great food, great drinks, and the crowd is always interesting. There is a feeling today that I’m finally back home. It won’t be the same without Rob.
Bill Rose of The Absolute Zeros (an excellent drummer BTW) would be sitting in. I’ve been emailing him the tunes all week but learning four hours of music is going to be close to impossible so this may be a tough gig. But Bill’s played with us before and I think we can get through it.
As I arrived on South Street the sky busted open and I had to run really fast into Lickety to keep from getting myself and the gear wet. It was about 6 so I had 3 hours before any activity would be happening on my end in the club.
Three hours later here comes my opening acts. It was the Amy Squared show. Ami Verill followed by Amy Regan. Both extremely talented Female performers , great looks, great songs. The rain is keeping people away though, usually this bar is packed on Fridays but now it’s pretty much half full. It’s gonna be a slow night.
Verill was up first. She’s the epitome of the piano/singer/songwriter chick. Her songs are tender, emotional, and earnest. She pours her entire being into her songs and her performance follows suit. The pain in her voice is what makes it appealing. She can really tear you open and make you feel what she’s feeling.
Amy Regan is a little different. Her vibe comes from a confidence that you rarely see from female singer/songwriters. It come from a confident, sexier place. She looks at you like the girl at the bar that flirts you into buying her drinks all night and leaves you with a smile and no phone number. Her music is very competent, this is a person who’s spent some time studying music, she knows very expensive chords and her songs are very well constructed musically as well as lyrically.
They both have bright futures
After Amy was done the challenge would commence. 4 hours, 4 sets, new drummer. Daunting at best, as I spend the evening hoping more people show.
Set 1
Sunshine of your love
Godess
Michelle
Always Givn Me The Blues
Hoochie Coochie Man
Daylight
This was particularly shorter Sunshine of Your Live went really well, Bill had the drum part right and I decided to skip some of the more ballady type songs we usually play it the first set in order to get to the more bluesy stuff that inspires the drinking. It’s was rough at first but by the time we got to the end I was amped up to play longer. I felt like we were really hitting the spot.
Set 2
Electric Love
What's My name
I Wanna Be your Lover
Whiplash
Private School Girl
Bitch
Demolition Man
Beautiful
This set was a bit longer with some funkier, heavier tunes that we play. 11Pm is a good time to be loud at Lickety, people are just exiting wherever they are and looking for a good place to go. This is the point where if there’s no one in the bar people start coming in. Most of these tunes are the more popular ones in my catalogue so this is the part of the night where we usually get going. A few people walked in, decided they liked us and perched themselves at the table for the rest of the night. Demolition Man and Beautiful were especially good. We tore into this set and felt like we were gonna be ok for the night.
This break was short, Rob’s usually there to keep me from wearing him and Jake out, myself for that matter. But with Bill there instead my excitement from the reception we were getting from these new people got the best of me. They liked my music and I wanted to play for them.
Set 3
(Oh) I Wish I loved You
The Way You Make Me Feel
Body
Feels So Good
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Ain’t No Sunshine
Woman
Superhero
How Can This Be Love
Billie Jean
Wasted
Hangover
Leavin
This was particularly smooth but I began to notice the fatigue my voice. It usually happens after hour 3. With all the worrying I did about Bill and how it was going to sound I went back to old singing patterns which take my voice out of commission even faster. Luckily most of the songs in this set are easy on my voice. A few cute girls walked in, but walked out before any of us could approach them.
We decided to stay up and just play the last two sets back to back to get everything in. By the time we got to Billie Jean we were on fire. We’d been chasing the spot all night, and we finally found it. My fatigue moved me to a more unconscious place and allowed me to let go a little in my playing. We like to take chances here, we’ve deconstructed and reconstructed a lot of these songs playing in this bar.
Encore
Walking on the Moon
Ain't no Way
After Leavin I was ready to walk. The guys that came in during the last song wanted one more.
Me: How do you guys feel?
Jake: 1...2...3!
He jump starts Walking on The Moon, which turns into a sweet jam, a really sweet jam. The interplay between Jake and I is always awesome on this song. I’m still waiting to write a song that’s as malleable as this one. After Walking on the Moon they ask for another so we played Ain’t No Way. After that we were done. All that was left was to get paid picked up and hit the bed.
Need rest. Got the Tritone tomorrow.
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