K&W at Java Joe's, open mic -- 20May2008

Just as we were walking up to the shop from the parking lot, we heard our names announced as "up next!" Whoops! So we scrambled our gear up there and got plugged in, and did our three tunes: "With a Little Help From My Friends", "Homeward Bound", and, despite not knowing it very well, "Mexico".

I made the expected mistakes on the tricky intro, and screwed up some on the other songs, just from losing focus, but the sound was the best we've ever had on one of these Open Mics using Scott's equipment, so I actually felt pretty good about my performance. I was able to hear, and with no time to get nervous, I relaxed into it and "let 'er fly" from time to time during the songs.

We stuck around to watch some of the other guys play, of course. Most are pretty good; some, not so much. After a while, an older (than me!) guy got up and was playing some classic blues stuff on a Dobro, not too well, with unintelligible vocals (partially due to the bad mix). Three women with haircuts and miniskirts that would have looked better on their daughters got up and started dancing with each other up in front of the stage. They were probably in their late 30's, but the wine was telling them that they were 18.

Everybody was pretty amused and/or scandalized, especially the guy's wife who was standing in the back next to me. She didn't know whether to be mad or to laugh, though she figured that her husband would be "loving it". I was jealous, myself -- where were the drunk groupie dancing lesbians when *I* was up there? I guess we just got there too early. Maybe next time...