Mojo Cafe - May 23 2012

And so another Mojo cafe gig comes and goes.. This was actually a really fun evening, it started a little worryingly with only a handful of people there. So few in fact that we delayed the show starting to allow more people to arrive. The opening act was someone I'd met a month or so earlier at a friends bbq, he played his own tunes on both ukelele & guitar. Nice thoughtful songs with some intricate playing, particularly on his uke. A good guy to boot, we exchanged details after the show, I'm sure we'll play together again. Next up was Carly & Mark doing some of Mark's own songs & one cover - Adele's 'Someone like you', beautifully sung by Carly. The evening really kicked off once these guys started. The lights got dimmed and they really captured the crowd (which was by now nearly a full house). Again, I'll get them back, there's real potential with these two so it'll be interesting to see them progress. I finished the evening off with a short seven song set:

Relationship Blues

Do it Right

Poison Tree

Portrait

Lullaby

Merry Go Round

Stones In My Passway

It went ok I started badly, 'Relationship Blues' is a new song which I haven't finished yet & I as hoping to wing it & improvise on the spot. I've done it before & had good results, having to make it up as I go has actually made me come up with some good stuff, but not tonight. I leaned in to start singing & completely forgot the few lyrics I actually had written. So I started mumbling instead. Then I couldn't figure out the structure of the song so started playing the same thing over & over again - not cool. Anyway, I mercifully ended the song, by which time all the attention I had after Carly & Mark's set had been lost. I started 'Do it right' & things got worse, I just didn't play it well & I could feel the set slowly slipping from my control. It was threatening to slide into a forgettable evening. By the time I started 'Poison Tree' the crowd was talking over me & I was starting to panic. I decided instead of trying to play over them I'll play quieter and see what happens. Funnily enough, when I settled down, so did the crowd. This was where I pulled the set back around, about half way through this song the crowd went quiet. A small victory! From there, Portrait went well, Lullaby not so much & I finsihed well with another new tune, Merry Go round & Robert Johnson's 'Stones'. 

Overall a good learning experience and good moments but certainly not my best show. I'll give it a 6/10.