Like so many white dudes of a certain age, I am in a mid-life-crisis band. After nearly three years of name-wrangling, we are called B-Minus. Sometimes we play at Tiffany Tavern in Ye Olde Towne, Alexandria.
You can drop by on Tuesdays and hope that we will be signed up to play. But, and this is important so pay attention, we play mostly original songs. This means that, woefully, you will not happily sing along to tunes you have ever heard before. This means that you will hear a lot of lyrics about girls we broke up with in the '80s. This means that most people come to hear us once. Then they say, "You all must have such a good time. It's great to see that you have such a good time together. How nice for you." Then they run.
Once they leave, never to return, we sit back down and listen to the other bands. Open mic nights are basically a fully-overlapping Venn Diagram of bands waiting to play, girlfriends and pals of the bands waiting to play, and patient bartenders mentally calculating the Fun-to-Trouble ratio of beer sales and sonic assault.
Here is our last set list. You might hear some of these smash hits if you drop by:
Two (Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger)
Femme Fatale (Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Howlin’ Wolf
Come Home Tonight
Ghosts
Della Mae
PS - Okay, okay, sooome of these are covers. But they are awesome covers that fit our slow-ish, roots-and-rock-got-married sound. Oh, and "Untouchable Face" by Ani deFranco is so fantastic that I'd give my eye tooth to have written it or even to be able to convincingly perform it; now playing on iTunes.
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One Hundred Thousand Flashbacks
15 years ago
4 comments:
That was a great NY Times article you referenced. I like the line about the "elastic middle". Mainly, I just like her (somewhat reluctant) admittance that we're never too old to give a dream a whirl, nor shoeboxed into choices we make in our twenties. I've had one of those weeks where you wake up wishing for a different life, as one is wont to do when they're completely overloaded in their day-to-day, but I think the article and your pride in the midlife adventure illustrate we are not strictly defined by our careers, or ages, or past choices. We're constantly redefining ourselves which is pretty damn cool, even if only you and a small crowd at open mic night witness it live.
Eventually, I'll disentangle myself from the day-to-day and make it out to support the dream in action. B-minus 2008!!!
Dude. Kind words. Many thanks. Bring your lighter. Or your iPhone that has been jail-broke to include the fake lighter application.
I want a mid-life-crisis band. I'm jealous.
Lonnie, my man, you do NOT want a mid-life crisis band. You want a full-on ukulele band with groupies and hit singles. Trust me.
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