Most of the time a live performance is like a big pot of chili that could use more cumin.
That's what happened at Pigout last week. Rushed to set up, no sound check, spotty stage mix on the monitors. A few forgotten lyrics. Joe touching me in the no-no spot...
Oh, it came off all right. People liked it. Give it a solid B.
But that's the way things go sometimes. You roll with the circumstances. You do the best you can. You move on.
But sometimes it all comes together like a fresh Cyrus O'Leary's coconut cream pie.
That's when the magic happens.
Such was the case Friday night at the small and unlikely setting of Pacific Ave. Pizza.
Normally we play a stripped down version of the band. (And I don't mean Jeff showing up without pants.)
But everybody came for a video shoot of the Larry Craig parody song that Joe and I put out and is currently burning up YouTube (almost 90,000 hits and counting).
Tera and Tracia came for the shoot, looking hotter than acid rain.
Daniel Cox and Jeff were there plus Joe and me.
An unexpectedly large crowd showed up including Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. (What a good sport. He stayed for the entire show which included all the cop stuff and the Mormon line in Young and Wild. Ozzie's Mormon, you know.)
And so all the band then proceeded to kick ass. Harmonies, deliveries, Joe was ripping off smoking licks I haven't even heard. Danny played an amazing solo on Space Age.
This was one for the ages. I can't thank the girls enough for staying and singing their hearts out.
It's times like that when all the hassles and equipment lugging and lousy club owners and poor pay don't matter.
A time like that reminds you why you picked up that guitar and started making music.
What a great band. What great talent.
What great friends who would give up their time to let me sing my songs.
Thank you.