Another live show compilation. I still don't play much at all. I played eight shows during span of this compilation, which is about two years. I've gotten a little (not much) better at playing live, though some of my novelty has gone out it seems. I'll talk about the shows themselves.
The earliest on this collection is at Espresso Yourself at Chalmette LA, opening for The Robinsons, my favorite band to open for. Their crowd "gets" me, or they do after ten or fifteen minutes of watching me. The recording is crappy, but the show was good, and you can hear Carrie giggling at me.
I opened for Lately David at Reedmeister's in Memphis TN, the worst audience I ever had. If you listen to the original bootleg of this show, the audience gives me little patters for the first few songs and then there is complete silence for the rest of the show. This includes my friends who were there (except Liza and sometimes Tommy). This might have made me angry in the past, but I just realized I was getting a decent recording of the show, so I just played. Liza sung six songs and did a good job, and Tommy helped me on one song with guitar and singing and played drums on two, while Danny played guitar on one. So there was lots of interesting stuff going on for this show, and the recording sounds pretty good (for me), and it's the bulk of this compilation.
Soon before leaving Hattiesburg MS, I discovered open mic night at Mugshots. I didn't record the first night I was there, but the audience there loved me, more than anyone else had. It was college kids, frat boy types. Who knew? I went back a few days later and recorded the show. You can hear everyone going crazy for me. I was with Carrie at the show and after my performance someone told her that I was going to "make her a lot of money."
I opened for The Robinsons again at Ichabod's in Baton Rouge LA, but I only managed to record a few songs before the camera crapped out for some reason. So not much appears from that show, even though it was one of the best in terms of performance and audience.
When I moved to McAllen TX, they had a South Texas Underground Music Festival and I was invited to play. They liked me a lot, or were interested in me as some curiosity anyway (the majority of the people performing were really loud metal/punk). I played two short shows, one night after the other, but only got one recorded.
The last show appearing here is from The Montevallo Literary Festival in Montevallo AL. My friend Lee Rozelle asked me to do a short story reading and follow with a musical show. This was also a great show in terms of audience (Lee Rozelle's laughter is priceless), but the camera crapped out again. I put a little bit of the one song I have on the collection.
The next and so far latest show I played is the best, but it will have to wait for Vol. 3. Just look forward to good stuff in a couple of years. Oh, and enjoy the thrown-together but pretty version of "Dr. Worm."
Copyright (c) Sep 2005 by Rusty Spell and Love and Letters Music