Oh my God we’re watching guys playing Trogdor on Guitar Hero 2. And singing along. I’m not sure if I want to die or not. But it’s pretty damned funny.
Burninate the countryside, bitch.
Last night Heather and I just barely rolled in in time to the open mic at the Fiddler’s Dream Coffeehouse in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s one of the only completely acoustic venues we’ve ever played, and possibly the only completely acoustic open mic I’ve ever played. It’s very, very intimidating to play without amplification of any sort and there’s some songs we simply can’t play. We’re going to have to adjust our Saturday-night setlist accordingly in order to get by. Tonight we only had time for two songs and we played Illinois is Overflowing and Crazy As A Good Thing. After we played we got a LOT of warmth from the people running things and a lot of the audience members. Unfortunately we’re here on the same weekend as a local folk festival (which we didn’t know about) and we’ll just have to see how that effects turnout.
We tend to be particularly unlucky with such events… folk festivals in Phoenix, AZ – spring break in Albuquerque, NM, invariably some sporting event or another in New England… I’m hoping we don’t interrupt anything “important” in California like a televised celebrity wedding or Anna Nicole Smith’s funeral or anything…
Tonight we played at Java Mama’s to a tiny but enthusiastic crowd. A number of people that I was hoping would show totally failed to, but we had Phil along which was a lot of fun. Phil was frequently our third drummer back in Maryland, and it’s been awesome to stay with him out here… and having the added percussion is a weird mix of growly-rock-joy and wistful home-sickness. i was suprised to learn that he hasn’t been playing out much recently, so I’m really happy we got a chance to get him out to stretch his arms a bit.
Good sound system, good stage – but I miss the Blue Dragon, and I miss the College Perk, and I just have really, really high standards for coffeehouses nowadays.
Back to Guitar Hero II. I used it to learn how to actually play Message in a Bottle, but other than that I’ve got to sit back and appreciate mad skillz being represented.
Justin, brush up on your riffs, cause I think Phil could kick your ass.
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Exiting Albuquerque, the scenery is beyond fantastic. This is the view from a gas station on the edge of town – snow caps in the distance and clouds struggling over the mountains.