We stopped partway through our second song after getting a maraca thrown at us, and after the sons of both band members ended up in tears -- interrupting our rendition of "I've Been Workig on the Railroad." Our commitment to the muse has its limits.
There were some difficulties to the performance: Playing outdoors, as any veteran of the Hollywood Bowl and similar venues will tell you, can be tricky since the acoustics are not as sympathetic as they are indoors, and the temperature and humidity can take string instruments out of tune very quickly. Also, since this was a kid's birthday party we had to remove any songs with the word "murder" or "morphine" from the lyric -- disqualifying most songs in the Appalachian and Celtic traditions and most of what we know how to play.
To add even more pressure, one of the LA Times' most feared music writers, Chris Lee, was in attendance -- a man so stern he once reduced bad-boy rocker Scott Weiland nearly to tears. We got out own taste of Lee's biting wit: "Is this band practice or are you guys really playing?" he asked while we were tuning up. At the time, he was sitting Indian-style on the grass with two small children next to him did not reduced his sting; we are still fearing a devastating review in the paper.
To add even more pressure, one of the LA Times' most feared music writers, Chris Lee, was in attendance -- a man so stern he once reduced bad-boy rocker Scott Weiland nearly to tears. We got out own taste of Lee's biting wit: "Is this band practice or are you guys really playing?" he asked while we were tuning up. At the time, he was sitting Indian-style on the grass with two small children next to him did not reduced his sting; we are still fearing a devastating review in the paper.
But all was not lost. One member of the party told me, "I was walking down from the trains, and heard the music coming up and thought, that sounds like a great party." The fact that this speaker was my wife -- who pitched in on guitar for a couple of songs -- will not, I hope, disqualify our first bit of praise.Slowpoke has been talked about a lot -- we have band photos, a whole philosophy of music, and of course a blog. Our strategy has mostly been one of rhetorically raising expectations higher and higher, which is great if you don't have to actually perform for people. HERE is a video of our performance.
We were saved by a chorus of kazoo and harmonica wielding toddlers, as well as a young ukelele player named Zev. I always wondered if the next member of this little group would be a former colleague of mine from one of the two LA papers I've worked for -- I never dreamed that he would be the five-year old son of one of my former colleagues.
At the end of the show, Zev reassured me that if we ever needed a piano player he would be happy to sit in. Talk about a renaissance man!
At the end of the show, Zev reassured me that if we ever needed a piano player he would be happy to sit in. Talk about a renaissance man!At this point we are going to adapt the strategy of the Beatles and after them the Stone Roses -- we will not play live in America unless we can sell out a very large baseball stadium. The fact that several famous stadiums have been abandoned lately may make this a bit easier. Or maybe not. We may change out minds, but for now this is out story and we are sticking with it.
And there is only one direction to go from here.
Photos: The duo, mandolin man Skinner, Zev on uke and guitarist takes a moment with birthday boy.
