Riverfest

I played my first mall on Friday, August 26th, 2005. Back in the 80's this was a sign that you were going places. I'm turning 30 next week and I think there's still a lot I have to do with my life. Still, I can finally check off that "play a mall" thing from my list.

The show was sponsored by 100.7 The River, a Raleigh, NC radio station that really liked the MG4 EP and asked us to play in their summer concert series. We were asked to do an "unplugged" set, so it was more of an MG2 show.

I enjoyed playing with Mark in an acoustic format, again. We play a few different songs as an acoustic duo than we would with the full band. "Flat Tire" and "Sad Songs," two of Mark's songs, get good billing in our acoustic set.

Remy, our drummer, came out to the show even though we didn't play as a full band. He lives in Raleigh and brought his daughter, Grace. She's growing up fast.



Our set was great. I got to sing through Duncan Sheik's microphone, which was great. It was a Neumann. That's German for "really good microphone."

We played some Mark and Mike standards, including "Flat Tire," "Automatic," and "October." We also played a new song of mine called "The Secret of Happiness." I'm really proud of this song.

After we finished, Duncan Sheik took the stage about 20 minutes later. He was with a full band. I've done three shows with him over the course of my career and this was the best I've seen him.

I'd like to say thanks to Jess, who took the pictures you see in this blog. Good luck in school in Toronto. I'm glad we could do "Sad Songs" for you.