Mojo Cafe - 08 April 2011

Played Mojo Cafe a couple of Friday's ago, my first full set of material written specifically for a solo show. Set:

Do it right

Poison Tree

(Let me) Count the ways I love you

Trouble

I'll wait for you

Lullaby

I told you brother

Together, Forever

It was a good show and the venue was packed. It only holds about 50 people but having them all crowding in to the point of being standing room only was a great start to the evening. I kept looking up and seeing familiar faces which is always nice. I'd be half way through a tune & look up to see a mate watching with a smile on his or her face. Sweet.

My friend Matt sat in on a couple of tunes, he made a shaker for me the night before so I got him to sit in on the first track 'do it right' and add a bit of percussion. I thought it worked well and I was happy the way this tune worked. It's the first time I've played it live so was glad that it kicked things of nicely. 'Poison tree' was good, I've played it better but over all it seemed to go down well. I've grown to really like the tune & it's hard to remember why I avoided playing it for so long. The low point of the set was def 'trouble', I couldn't hold the off beat in time so completely abandoned it for the second half of the tune. Funnily enough a friend told me afterwards that he particularly enjoyed the accapella track. Go figure.

I got Matt back up to play guitar on 'I'll wait for you', which he did with much aplomb. During rehearsal he practiced just staying calm and enjoying himself, not getting too caught up or stressed about performing. He was great and I got the impression the song went down nicely, it was pretty cool to be bale to give him the experience of his first performance, I think he'll remember it.
Another issue was not being able to hold the ukelele steady while I played it. I actually stopped playing during 'count the ways' to try to get it to sit better, which is never a good look, but managed to muddle my way through the track. It's a great little break in the set to bust out the uke so I'll need to figure that one out. I'm sure it'll come with more experience.
Overall I give the show an 8/10. It was a fun enjoyable evening and really confirmed in my mind that I can perform a full well rounded gig as a solo performer.