Basketball City, Pier 63 (11/21/04)
New York, NY
When I arrived at Basketball City for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life, I was overwhelmed by the noise. The event took place in a gym roughly the size of an airplane hanger. The "audience" was comprised mainly of distracted high school students, busily walking around a track, some of them dancing. The new Destiny's Child song was blaring from a sea of speakers placed at intervals around the track, echoing angrily around the gigantic room. And I was scheduled to play a solo acoustic set...
My concerns subsided a bit when another acoustic act was well received, but I still scribbled down a list of upbeat cover songs to satisfy the masses.
I took the stage at 20 minutes before one in the morning. I hadn't slept well in days (I'm on night float at the hospital), and I was cranky. My back was killing me, too. It was a recipe for disaster, but fate was kind.
I opened with Whiskeytown's Jacksonville Skyline, a personal favorite I hadn't played in some time. Dave Matthew's Grey Street went over well, and a few people came up to compliment me during the song. I felt comfortable enough to try out some of the newer tunes, and Pretty Girls and Post Call were solid enough. I can feel the latter slipping out of the zone, though, and I suspect I'll be wrestling with it for a while. I can't wait to get a full band behind the new tunes. I played Alison and The Only Living Boy in New York in the hope that a few people might recognize them, but no one seemed to.
At this point, I figured it might be a good opportunity to debut a couple of new songs, and I launched into What a Mess, a song I absolutely love to play but hadn't had the courage to unveil. I was very pleased with the result, enough so to follow it with the debut of This Guy, which I nearly trashed a few weeks ago. I Wanna Be the One was quick and painless and Fake Plastic Trees was a fitting closer, even though I couldn't hear myself enough to nail the falsetto parts.
This was an unusual show, but in the name of a very worthy cause. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
See you soon!
When I arrived at Basketball City for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life, I was overwhelmed by the noise. The event took place in a gym roughly the size of an airplane hanger. The "audience" was comprised mainly of distracted high school students, busily walking around a track, some of them dancing. The new Destiny's Child song was blaring from a sea of speakers placed at intervals around the track, echoing angrily around the gigantic room. And I was scheduled to play a solo acoustic set...
My concerns subsided a bit when another acoustic act was well received, but I still scribbled down a list of upbeat cover songs to satisfy the masses.
I took the stage at 20 minutes before one in the morning. I hadn't slept well in days (I'm on night float at the hospital), and I was cranky. My back was killing me, too. It was a recipe for disaster, but fate was kind.
I opened with Whiskeytown's Jacksonville Skyline, a personal favorite I hadn't played in some time. Dave Matthew's Grey Street went over well, and a few people came up to compliment me during the song. I felt comfortable enough to try out some of the newer tunes, and Pretty Girls and Post Call were solid enough. I can feel the latter slipping out of the zone, though, and I suspect I'll be wrestling with it for a while. I can't wait to get a full band behind the new tunes. I played Alison and The Only Living Boy in New York in the hope that a few people might recognize them, but no one seemed to.
At this point, I figured it might be a good opportunity to debut a couple of new songs, and I launched into What a Mess, a song I absolutely love to play but hadn't had the courage to unveil. I was very pleased with the result, enough so to follow it with the debut of This Guy, which I nearly trashed a few weeks ago. I Wanna Be the One was quick and painless and Fake Plastic Trees was a fitting closer, even though I couldn't hear myself enough to nail the falsetto parts.
This was an unusual show, but in the name of a very worthy cause. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
See you soon!
Setlist: Jacksonville Skyline (Whiskeytown cover)/Grey Street (Dave Matthews cover)/Pretty Girls/Post Call/Alison (Elvis Costello cover)/The Only Living Boy in New York (Simon and Garfunkel cover)/What a Mess (debut)/This Guy (debut)/I Wanna Be the One/Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead cover)
posted by Michael Novick at 1:01 PM
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