That picture above is me with two of my hosts from Wednesday night, Alisha (left) and Chelsea (right).
As of 2pm on Wednesday, I was DREADING my trip to Farmington, Maine to play at the University of Maine. I had played there once before, to kind of a mixed reception (from the four people that were there). I was getting paid the least amount of any college show I have this semester and if you subtract the three-and-a-half hour drive and the travel expenses, mileage on my car, etc., I honestly thought my time would be better served playing at Faneuil Hall. I was wrong.
The same people who hosted me last time hosted me again and they were all incredibly warm about having me back, which was flattering and doesn’t always happen. Plus, one of the students at the school has kept in touch with me since I last played there and had invited friends, which is also nice. I made decent time on the way there and spent my time listening to the new Radiohead album In Rainbows , a live CD by Old School Freight Train, whom opened for Josh Ritter when I saw him two weeks ago, and Maine Public Radio…I don’t mind making the long trips by myself, and after this show it was well worth it.
I showed up and set up and received one of the perks (?) of performing at colleges: free cafeteria food. A note about the service on this particular night: they were very slow and forgot to make part of my meal. I was starving because I haven’t been eating great lately, my stomach is out of whack, and I ordered two sandwiches, fries, and an Odwalla Superfood (which looks like babyfood and tastes like heaven). One of the sandwiches didn’t come and I had to wait so long, which is bad because I don’t like within a half-hour of playing and I didn’t finish eating until 10 minutes before I went on stage. Anyways, what does this have to do with the show? The answer is nothing.
The show itself went fine. I was a mixture of comfortable and nerves. On one hand, I kept my eyes firmly shut the entire time but that is more of a testament to how well I was treated by the audience. All eyes were on me the entire time and people listened. There were about 30 people there throughout the night which is like 6 times more people there since I played there the last time. I was able to talk a lot between songs, tell stories, poll the audience, etc., which I haven’t been able to do since my Connecticut show in September. Now that I think of it, that’s a long time since I’ve had a show like that. I enjoy it though. As a solo performer, you have to entertain the crowd as much as play for them and I think I did a pretty good job the other night. I also opened the show up for other performers because I thought it would be funny for other people to play too. Though only one person agreed to play a song, I think the joke landed. ha. Here’s a picture of JC:
I performed pretty well…Certainly not my best but far from my worst and I think there was a good vibe in the room and people seemed to appreciate it. Sadly, I didn’t pick up my new CDs before coming to the show so I didn’t have any CDs available but I sold t-shirts and sold the most I’ve sold in a night before. I ordered my first run of “I Roll With B-Money” t-shirts a year ago and I’m just about sold out of them. I’ll probably finish selling and giving them away by the time NACA rolls around and then in January I’ll make some fancy pants new designs, hurrah.
All in all, this show was fantastic. I don’t have a setlist because, well, I don’t write setlists but there were no crazy surprises. I played a solid mix of originals/covers. Thank you again so much to my hosts who made it a great night and I hope to be back soon…
The show was so much fun that I made the trip home in a half-hour less time so I rolled into Cambridge around 1:15. The buzz from the show lasted the first hour of my trip but I almost fell asleep about 2 hours into it and had to stop and get some tea at a rest stop. Obviously I made it home because if I had not, I would not be posting this wonderful entry.
Onwards!
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