Well, I had a very busy, but also rewarding and enjoyable weekend. It started on Saturday with my solo performance at Rendez Vous. Actually, it started several hours before the show started. Since last week had been very busy for me at work and I hadn’t had the time to practice as much as I would have liked, I spent several hours Saturday morning and evening practicing and preparing for the show that night. There was a nice crowd, although it thinned out quite a bit for the second set. I’m not sure if that was because of the rain, or for other reasons. Several friends came by to support me, and I received many nice compliments. There are definitely areas to work on in my songs, but overall I’m pleased with the performance. The management at Rendez Vous has asked me to come back again next month, and we are working on a schedule.

Sunday at Molly Malone’s with Jamie and Kit was every bit as fun as I had expected it to be. After the moderately stressful gig the night before, this was a great way to just sit back, relax, and have fun playing. The crowd wasn’t large, but they seemed appreciative of, if not particularly enthralled by, our 2 sets. Jamie (guitar) and Kit (harp, vocals) play mostly blues, and when I sat in with them I generally stuck to the bass side of the Stick, only occasionally throwing in a melody chord or a short solo. In the middle of the fourth or fifth song of our 1st set, during the part where Jamie’s solo was supposed to come in, I wasn’t hearing a solo from that side of the stage. I looked over, and saw this mild look of panic on his face. “I snapped a string!” I tried to cover with a solo that was supposed to resemble something bluesy, and then we did the outro and brought the song to an end. We ended that set a song early so Jamie could go buy strings. Moral of the story: bring spare strings (for Jamie); learn to play the blues (for me); sit back and laugh at the incompetence (for Kit).

I received some nice compliments for the two songs I played solo, and also fielded a few questions about The Stick.

The highlight of the night: the delicious dinner. The food at Molly Malone’s is absolutely amazing, and it was a delight playing for our meal. I think the three of us worked up more of a sweat digging into our food than playing the music.