Sidewalk Cafe (4/3/08)

New York, NY

It had been 10 months since my last set at Sidewalk, which seems absurd given my affinity for the space. The truth is I've been performing less and less these days, as the demands on my time increase at work and the little rooms I so enjoy frequenting dwindle (The C-Note and DTUT being two cases in point).

Sidewalk, of course, has always been my favorite, even before I saw Suzanne Vega take the stage there in August of 2006. Microphone difficulties postponed and shortened the set by about 10 minutes, but I was still thrilled to be back and in front of such a great audience, which included many friends, relatives and colleagues, as well as my girlfriend and her parents, who were seeing me perform for the first time.

While the sound man worked to solve the mic troubles, I sang along with Paul McCartney on Maxwell's Silver Hammer and thought about what to play. I knew I wanted to reintroduce some older material, and I'd rehearsed some in the days before the the gig, but the crowd was a bit more lively than I'd expected and I wasn't sure about forsaking the standards for novelties. Before I could make up my mind, the sound was up and running and we were ready to go.

I opened with Musical Chairs just to get the ball rolling and it came off reasonably well. White Horse and Snapdragon, the latter of which was the strongest version since Kenny's Castaways in November of 1992, when I performed it with Pride's Crossing, were well received and raised my spirits enough to have a go at Self-Portrait in Your Colors. For the first time, I have been struggling with it and the meaning behind it, and I wasn't sure I would be able to handle it in front of an audience. Fortunately, I was wrong and it served me as well as it ever has.

For various reasons, Adrian is the only song from Non-Fiction Junkie I've performed live, and I've now played it at four consecutive shows. It may be time to break out Charades or The Joke's On You or to rework Truffaut into something more amenable to guitar. Regardless, Adrian, bolstered by some new guitar distortion, fed my confidence enough to revive La Linea after five years for my Aunt Renee, who has requested it repeatedly to no avail. Written in the summer of 2001, the first verse on a park bench in Teddy Roosevelt National Park, the second in a motel room in Bowman, North Dakota, La Linea seems very much a song from another era and while it's nice to visit with such old friends, I am careful not to dwell on them. If another five years pass before we meet again, it wouldn't surprise me.

I launched into Pretty Girls almost immediately and repented with This Guy, which I'd flubbed just at the end at Sidewalk last June. Alas, I managed to mar it seconds from the finish yet again, so it will likely be left off the forthcoming live CD. I'll be sure to rectify that next time around.

I solicited requests from the audience and settled on Fake Plastic Trees, suggested by (who else?) Sean McAndrew. As much as I love performing this Radiohead classic, I think it works best as a rare surprise and I'll have to think long and hard before presenting it again. I got the two-song warning as the last chord rang out and when Amber suggested All Of This Will Stay, I readily obliged her. All Of This Will Stay began life as an amateurish poem, written on the campus of Lehigh University 15 years ago. It is an ode to the memory of love and one of the few old songs that don't feel stale to me. Amber and the rest of the crowd seemed pleased with it as well.

I settled on Charlene to close the set and I was feeling full and satisfied as I sang some of my favorite lyrics, many of which were greeted with chuckles. While I left Something Simple, Damsel, Post Call and Jackson Browne's My Stunning Mystery Companion in my back pocket, I was reasonably content with the set and I basked in a post-show daze while I mingled with a truly terrific audience.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support me. You can't imagine what it means to me to play my songs for so many people I care about, some of whom I have known only a short while. I will never take that gift for granted.

See you soon enough!

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Setlist: Musical Chairs / White Horse / Snapdragon / Self-Portrait In Your Colors / Adrian / La Linea (first since Sidewalk Cafe: 10/21/2003) / Pretty Girls / This Guy / Fake Plastic Trees / All Of This Will Stay / Charlene

Gizzi's Coffee (10/6/07)

New York, NY

When I stopped by the Saturday before this gig, Gizzi's was closed due to unplanned contruction in the adjacent building. The night's performances had all been cancelled. I remember urging myself not to take it as a bad omen. I needn't have worried.

I paced West 8th Street for an hour or so while the act before me got set up and stopped into a thrift shop to buy some bandanas. I let the salesgirl talk me into a pink one (which I like) and a navy blue one (for the Yankees). The West Village is a wonderful neighborhood and I don't get down there enough.

Once the tables and futons had been reorganized (and the adjacent contruction concerns dispatched), Gizzi's revealed itself as a charming neighborhood java house. It was a bit hot in the room (I made good use of the new bandanas) and more than a little crowded, but the sound was better than expected and the atmosphere pleasant. Mike McHugh, who was responsible for booking me, offered a pleasant greeting - we hadn't seen each other since the days of The C-Note.

A nice crowd had already filled the room by the time the second act took the stage, and we all sat through a multimedia presentation, which included video, spoken word and Jazz standards. By the time I started my set, it was 9:30. I opened with Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees, whose high notes mostly gave me fits, and Snapdragon, during which I uncharacteristically flubbed some of the chords. All Of This Will Stay sounded fresh after more than two years on the shelf and reminded me of how even the older, more conventional tunes have their charms.

After the obligatory run through Musical Chairs, I decided to reintroduce a couple of covers, Ryan Adams' My Winding Wheel and Britney Spears' ...Baby, One More Time. The former was, in my opinion, the finest performance of the evening and the latter had me begging the sweaty, sleepy crowd for help with the backing vocals (they eventually relented but the results were disappointing, to say the least).

I followed Pretty Girls with Self-Portrait In Your Colors before deciding to stick with tradition and indulge October with Christmas Song. I'd rehearsed it a few times during the week so it wasn't as rusty as it could have been, and it satisfied my parents' requests for one of the old ones. They'd specifically asked for Wedding Song (unplayed since September of '03) and White Horse but had to settle for something I was in the mood to play.

I closed with standard versions of Post Call, Charlene, Adrian and So Long, Angeline, four of my personal favorites. It was close to closing time when I wrapped things up, but everyone milled about for half an hour or so and I handed out loads of CDs. Maybe I will return.

The event was marked by my mother, who christened her nose against a mailbox after tripping on the curb while trying to eat Tasti D-Lite and cross the street at the same time. My father, younger brother, Uncle Hank and Aunt Sylvia spent the early hours of Sunday in the Lenox Hill Emergency Room. When we wheeled my mother outside around three, she had a broken nose, a bruised ego, and a pressure wrap for a superficial hematoma. We will all count her lucky.

Thanks to everyone who came out, including: Mom, Dad and Jon; David, Melissa and the kids, Zachary, Emily and Katie; Renee, Sophia, Hank and Sylvia; Joseph, Tal, Victor, Devon, Linda, Maria, Lauren and Andrea from work; and Inna and Rivka from my Sinai days. I'll see you again real soon.

Setlist: Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead cover) / Snapdragon / All Of This Will Stay (first since The C-Note: 4/25/05) / Musical Chairs / My Winding Wheel (Ryan Adams cover) / ...Baby, One More Time (Britney Spears cover) / Pretty Girls / Self-Portrait In Your Colors / Christmas Song (first since Sidewalk Cafe: 10/19/05) / Post Call / Charlene / Adrian / So Long, Angeline

Sidewalk Cafe (6/3/07)

New York, NY


I was hoping for a nice turnout despite competition from the penultimate Sopranos episode and thundershowers, not to mention the Yanks at Fenway. Nevertheless, the room was full of familiar faces by the time I arrived, within minutes of my scheduled 8 p.m. set. I said a few quick hellos, tuned up and dove into Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., which was inspired by Louis Menand's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Metaphysical Club. The White Flag, seldom played and, in my opinion, underappreciated, followed but unfortunately never found its groove. Musical Chairs and Pretty Girls got things moving at last, and the crowd seemed to respond to my energy, the result, I suspect, of my decision to stand rather than sit.


This Guy, sadly marred by a late guitar flub, and Upper East Side, 10 a.m. restored my good karma and gave me the confidence to debut The Road To Love. The audience gave it the night's loudest ovation but the recording proves I still have a few kinks to iron out. Not to worry, I've no plans to abandon it just yet.


It was mostly smooth sailing from there, the exception being Painted Myself, which had potential but for my forgetting the chords. (There's) Nothing To It was particularly strong, in my hublest opinion.

Action's debut went off without a hitch and while I struggled with some of Thom Yorke's high notes, Fake Plastic Trees fell into place as the evening's closer.

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain, including my parents, Renee, Sophia and Gabrielle, Dr. Zawin, Maritza, Lauren and Mike. Special props to Bill and Evelyn for commuting all the way from Boston!

Catch you on the flip side!

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Setlist: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. / The White Flag (first since Sidewalk Cafe: 10/19/05) / Musical Chairs / Pretty Girls / This Guy / Upper East Side, 10 a.m. (first since Sidewalk Cafe: 3/16/05) / The Road To Love (debut) / (There's) Nothing To It (first since Sidewalk Cafe: 10/19/05) / Adrian / So Long, Angeline / Painted Myself / Action / Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead cover)