Thursday, February 10, 2005
Vibrator Dependent
It was another fun Wednesday night at Dunn Bros. Coffee Company in Rapid City. It's hard not to enjoy yourself at such a vibrant open mic. When I walked in, Josh was playing with Bill Brown. Talk about your odd couplings! As much as we say Bill makes everything sound country when he's on the bass, in truth he's got a great feel for music, and I've seen him fit right in with jazz. OK, when playing with his band one night they did turn "Got My Mojo Workin'" into some sort of quasi-Hank Williams tune, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to play.
SSA was there as well, solo as his buddy couldn't make it. I wish I'd had his talent and desire when I was a sophmore. The guy can really play and he seems awfully comfortable after only three weeks of doing this. I've been doing open mics for over a year now and every now and then I get a case of nerves.
I was a little later than normal due to Ash Wednesday services, but I did get to see a lot of people. Missed Joe, but got to see Nate Dennis who I hadn't seen in a while. Sure, he finally turns 21 and I run into him at an all ages show. Nate had a request and it posed a bit of an ethical problem. Nate wanted to hear "Vibrator Dependant." Now that's one of the first songs I ever did at open mics that made people notice me, partly because of the subject matter, partly because of the kazoo solo. I have no moral problem with the song, and in fact it takes place within the context of marriage. The subject matter, a man's perspective of his wife losing interest in her husband in favor of using a vibrator is a little rough. I have no problem doing this song in a bar where everyone is going to be an adult. In a coffee shop that's a little different. Even though it was late and there weren't any really young kids there, you never know who's going to walk in. Still, I don't swear and there's really no sexual suggestion in the song.
I discussed it with TSA when he arrived. He wasn't comfortable with doing it, and since I wasn't 100% sure, it was best to just not do it. That brought up "Two Condoms." Now that's a similar song, no swearing or sexual suggestion, yet the subject matter isn't really something that you'd perform around young kids. Maybe it's because I used more "clinical" terms like "condom" and "virtue" instead of "rubber" and "slut." Andy was a little more comfortable with doing "Two Condoms."
In the end we ended up doing neither. A long list of performers cut us to just two song and bumped Willy Grigg completely. We ended up doing the Gloria Gaynor disco classic "I Will Survive" and an instrumental version of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes." The bad thing about that song is that everyone expects us to sing. Andy likes it as an instrumental, and I have to agree. Plus I don't know the words, not that I couldn't learn them.
I've added some new open mic musician shots to my flickr site. You can click the "My Photos" link to the left and see some of the people I refer to in this blog. If you then choose the "Open Mic" icon on the left side of that page, you'll see a group of photos that's just open mic performer I've run into in the last year or so. Enjoy.
BOJ
SSA was there as well, solo as his buddy couldn't make it. I wish I'd had his talent and desire when I was a sophmore. The guy can really play and he seems awfully comfortable after only three weeks of doing this. I've been doing open mics for over a year now and every now and then I get a case of nerves.
I was a little later than normal due to Ash Wednesday services, but I did get to see a lot of people. Missed Joe, but got to see Nate Dennis who I hadn't seen in a while. Sure, he finally turns 21 and I run into him at an all ages show. Nate had a request and it posed a bit of an ethical problem. Nate wanted to hear "Vibrator Dependant." Now that's one of the first songs I ever did at open mics that made people notice me, partly because of the subject matter, partly because of the kazoo solo. I have no moral problem with the song, and in fact it takes place within the context of marriage. The subject matter, a man's perspective of his wife losing interest in her husband in favor of using a vibrator is a little rough. I have no problem doing this song in a bar where everyone is going to be an adult. In a coffee shop that's a little different. Even though it was late and there weren't any really young kids there, you never know who's going to walk in. Still, I don't swear and there's really no sexual suggestion in the song.
I discussed it with TSA when he arrived. He wasn't comfortable with doing it, and since I wasn't 100% sure, it was best to just not do it. That brought up "Two Condoms." Now that's a similar song, no swearing or sexual suggestion, yet the subject matter isn't really something that you'd perform around young kids. Maybe it's because I used more "clinical" terms like "condom" and "virtue" instead of "rubber" and "slut." Andy was a little more comfortable with doing "Two Condoms."
In the end we ended up doing neither. A long list of performers cut us to just two song and bumped Willy Grigg completely. We ended up doing the Gloria Gaynor disco classic "I Will Survive" and an instrumental version of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes." The bad thing about that song is that everyone expects us to sing. Andy likes it as an instrumental, and I have to agree. Plus I don't know the words, not that I couldn't learn them.
I've added some new open mic musician shots to my flickr site. You can click the "My Photos" link to the left and see some of the people I refer to in this blog. If you then choose the "Open Mic" icon on the left side of that page, you'll see a group of photos that's just open mic performer I've run into in the last year or so. Enjoy.
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 9:36 AM 
