October 25th, 2012.

Ash has been inviting lots of guest musicians down to my lair to record for his Novella project – every once in a while there’s someone I actually know! Here’s Ash and vocalist Seeno comparing notes on the vocal tracks he’s about to lay down. Really great performances were perpetrated! This really is just a very, very cool project that’s got me really excited.

Happy birthday George! My little brother of the past 36 years is kind of awesome and, coincidentally is way more adult than I will EVER be.

Holy crap. I’d forgotten how good an open mic can be. Last night Heather dragged me to Acoustic Thursdays at Peace and a Cup of Joe in Baltimore, MD and we got there – very, very early to get a slot on the list and a seat for our asses – and sat back and watched one Hell of a show.

Beggar’s Ride surprises me by showing up at my Teavolve open mic. What an exquisite way to kick off the night! I’d been feeling kind of morose and quite frankly the last couple of Teavolve’s have been a bit lack-lustre. Rowan was sick this night and I missed him and it’d been a long Monday already – but seeing Kate and Claudia walk in lifted my spirits immediately! And they even debuted a new song!

It reminded me a lot of Tom Bianchi’s scene up in Boston where there’s sort of a cult of personality centred around one very, very talented and charismatic individual and his extremely-talented somewhat pick up slightly make shift jam band. It’s also fun that the leader of said cult sort of reminds me of me (further reinforced by Heather saying “see! He’s the black YOU!” after a not-so-veiled Knight Rider reference and an attempt at the Shaft theme song).

The night before heading out west Heather took me to what was destined to become one of my favourite musical nights in recent memory: Acoustic Thursdays at Peace and a Cup Of Joe in Baltimore, MD. Run by Marc Avon Evans, it’s one HELL of an open mic night!

It’s a one-song night and I generally HATE that, but betwixt Marc Avon Evans, his percussionist Chuck “Mad Ox” and his guitarist – there was a solid core of spectacular and charismatic musicians holding everything together joined by one of the best bass players I’ve seen for a while – Ian “Spaceman” Trusheim – who just tied everything together with funk and juice and groove, never straying from the pocket and really getting me inspired.

We even snapped up Ian and Mad Ox for OUR set adding bass and beat box to Oracle in a previously undreamt-of rendition. Later, watching Mad Ox perform I understood what Kristen was talking about when she’d returned from a recording session with him lamenting his consistent request for “more stank” in her cello lines.

The night was all ABOUT the stank.

It ran long, the transitions were anything but swift and smooth and the sound was problematic – but the room was full of warm, wonderful, accepting and enthusiastic people and it was the best time I’d had at an open mic, or any show for that matter, for a long time!

I know what I’M doing with my first Thursday back in-state in November….

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *