Mike & Mark @ The Evening Muse - 1/12/08
January 22, 2008 Filed in: Touring
Mark (left) and Mike (right) play a sold-out acoustic show at Charlotte's legendary Evening Muse.
Having been confined to the depths of my (former)
garage over the last few months, it was refreshing to
get out an play a show for a change. On Saturday,
January 12, 2008, Mark Kano and I performed an
acoustic set at the Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC.
Mark recently celebrated his birthday. He had a nice party at the loft above Natty Green's in downtown Greensboro. After a game of pool, we decided it would be worth doing some rehearsing for the show. We had both written some new songs. Older songs that hadn't been performed much over the past five years seemed to be a welcome addition to the set, too. The Friday before the show, we met at our practice space, Track 13, and worked out a decent song list.
We've played the Muse so many times that it's become a comfortable, known quantity. The atmosphere is friendly. There's not much of a screen between the crowd and the performer, which I like. The sound is always good. The people who work there are really friendly. We also know that drawing 100 people isn't a hard thing for us to do in Charlotte on a Saturday, despite rarely playing out much now-a-days. Anyway, when Muse shows come up, they are always played with fondness.
Mark made the set list on the way down from Greensboro. I was surprised at the amount of unfamiliar material on the list. The order was different, too. We played two new songs, "I'm Still Waiting" and "Everything Is New." We played two Collapsis classics, "Pure Triangles" and "Chartreuse" (the latter of which was unscripted). And, we played a few Athenaeum songs that rarely get an acoustic treatment. "What I Didn't Know" is a real rarity at an acoustic set; we played it second. "Plurabelle" had never been played acoustically until this past show. That was a joy.
We were both very relaxed at this show. People seemed to laugh a lot at what we said in between songs, although, I wasn't trying to be funny. I guess when people enjoy themselves, they laugh. I was happy. There's very little else more enjoyable than playing a set of your own songs to a room full of people who want to hear them.
We'll be back next month with an Athenaeum reunion show at Amos' Southend on February 23rd. This show will be full band mostly Athenaeum songs.
Mark recently celebrated his birthday. He had a nice party at the loft above Natty Green's in downtown Greensboro. After a game of pool, we decided it would be worth doing some rehearsing for the show. We had both written some new songs. Older songs that hadn't been performed much over the past five years seemed to be a welcome addition to the set, too. The Friday before the show, we met at our practice space, Track 13, and worked out a decent song list.
We've played the Muse so many times that it's become a comfortable, known quantity. The atmosphere is friendly. There's not much of a screen between the crowd and the performer, which I like. The sound is always good. The people who work there are really friendly. We also know that drawing 100 people isn't a hard thing for us to do in Charlotte on a Saturday, despite rarely playing out much now-a-days. Anyway, when Muse shows come up, they are always played with fondness.
Mark made the set list on the way down from Greensboro. I was surprised at the amount of unfamiliar material on the list. The order was different, too. We played two new songs, "I'm Still Waiting" and "Everything Is New." We played two Collapsis classics, "Pure Triangles" and "Chartreuse" (the latter of which was unscripted). And, we played a few Athenaeum songs that rarely get an acoustic treatment. "What I Didn't Know" is a real rarity at an acoustic set; we played it second. "Plurabelle" had never been played acoustically until this past show. That was a joy.
We were both very relaxed at this show. People seemed to laugh a lot at what we said in between songs, although, I wasn't trying to be funny. I guess when people enjoy themselves, they laugh. I was happy. There's very little else more enjoyable than playing a set of your own songs to a room full of people who want to hear them.
We'll be back next month with an Athenaeum reunion show at Amos' Southend on February 23rd. This show will be full band mostly Athenaeum songs.