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.
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
posted by Michael Novick at 5:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home