March 16th, 2019.

Today we dropped in at an old, old haunt. On the one hand, dropping into the Coffee Amici open mic ALWAYS means we don’t have someone paying for our music on a Friday night, and that’s never quite a good sign. When we were initially booking this run, there were three house concerts packed into the space of one week and we figured we’d be feeling just fine about having a Friday off – but with the first one canceled (I don’t know that I’ve mentioned that – Saturday night we were SUPPOSED to be playing a house concert, but it was canceled due to a death in the family) and the second one netting… not much… well, I think we’re all feeling a little guilty about taking the time off.

Still, it says something about where we are in our Lives that though we feel guilty, it’s not going to make us think “oh shit, we can’t eat tonight”. That’s not really saying much, but it’s these tiny little things that undermine the niggling worry that I’ve not gotten anywhere with my career.

Coffee Amici is close to the same as it ever was despite the fact that the town has grown busy around it. Busy enough that parking is actually a grueling exercise. Circling and wandering, we eventually park further away than we’d like on this extremely blustery, viciously cold night. 24 hours ago it was seventy-something and jackets and flannels had been discarded as we loaded in in Columbus, but tonight ALL our layers are not enough, and we are ever so grateful to pile into this warm, coffee-scented shop that we first discovered around a decade ago.

Many of the small businesses we’ve frequented over the years didn’t make it through the Recession, but Coffee Amici has hung in there, and though Saturday night music has been a casualty to the increasing Live music scene in town (driving around we see maybe a dozen bars and venues advertising weekend music) the Friday night all-ages open mic still has a full room. Not a lot of performers, but a surprising number of people pile in to silently watch the show. Good audience. They make a big deal out of us and we open and close the night – I effectively act as host – and everything is made worthwhile with the discovery of a really cool performer named Daniel Lincoln Cooper who growls his way through a set with a voice reminiscent of John Darnielle with material more appropriate to a metal band. He plays his guitar like a powerdrill, influenced by the loss of a finger to a chainsaw accident – he plays strumming with his thumb, gluing heavily-reinforced fake nails to the thumb of his right hand. Listening to him later on youtube – yeah – this discovery was worth the drive!

Note : Heather drinking espresso at 8.30pm leads to 12.30am Queen covers. For better or for worse.