TODD A //

Last Night at Anchor Bar

My friend Paul Hines runs an open mic at the Anchor Bar in Costa Mesa on Monday nights. I’ve been going when I can since he started it. In the early weeks, it was largely a musical open mic with a couple of comedians mixed in. In the past month or so, the comedians have been showing up in droves. Last night there were 15 comedians and 5 musicians.

It’s a weird mix to jump from comedians who are, you know, trying to make us laugh (generally) to singer-songwriters who are singing songs about heartbreak (generally). I tried to split the difference and played Maureen but my voice cracked in it and I missed all kinds of notes. So I hated that.

It’s interesting to observe comics at an open mic. I don’t know what an all comedy open mic is like so I don’t know if the Anchor Bar is “normal” but there are definitely more misses than hits. Comedy is different from music. You can’t sit at home and practice comedy. It really gets defined only in front of other people. So misses should outnumber the hits in the early stages.

But one thing that really came across to me last night was that the only comic I enjoyed, a girl named Emily, made her 5 minute set enjoyable by not stopping. Everyone else’s set was punctuated by ellipses. Just long… awkward pauses. Not hers. One bit she had would have fallen flat but she didn’t even stop long enough to let that happen. She just picked it up and went into another bit. That energy was undeniable. I was so impressed, I felt obliged to tell her she was great before I snuck out of there. In my awkward…compliment of her set, I didn’t even grab her last name. Just gave her my website address and bolted.

I saw Briana Harley again. I met her last year at the SoCal Live Music Awards thing and was impressed with her then. She was really great last night. She has a tremendous voice and the original she played was clever and melodic and unique. Check her out.

Anyway, I hope the hosts, Paul and Evan, find a better way to arrange the comedy and music. I think it could work out into a cool show every Monday but going abruptly from comic to musician is an awkward shift in gears.

Complicating my water

I hate that my Brita filter has an electronic device in it. I don’t care if it’s a cute reminder; I don’t want a battery right next to my supposedly clean water. So here’s what I did with it …

Last Saturday at E Street Cafe

Last Saturday, I played David Dewese‘s CD Release show at E Street Cafe in Encinitas. David and I played an open mic there a while ago and David’s played a show there since so we knew a bit of what to expect. There’s no house PA. So we brought our amps.

It was, I believe, the loudest acoustic show I’ve ever played. We played guitars through David’s amp and put the vocals through mine. David at one point had the master volume on the vocals at 10. I’ve never turned my amp up that loudly.

David brought a ton of friends. I brought the largest crowd I probably ever have. There was tons of crowd noise, just chatter. It may have been that the acoustics of the room made it sound louder onstage but it was pretty overwhelming.

I opened with a couple of chugging songs and then decided to switch it up and play a softer song (Frankly Mr Turner) to try that old trick of playing soft to get the audience to quiet down and listen. But that just made them louder.

I know part of it had to do with the amps. On the floor of the stage, they were just about pointed right at the face of anyone at a table nearby. So those people were talking louder just to hear themselves over the stage volume. It was incredible. I just felt deafened onstage between the loud amps at my feet and the noise in front of me. I haven’t felt that way since probably playing with the Carters at the Springwater. I had a noise hangover after I was done.

Our friends from Nashville, Rich and Mindy Painter, now live out in LA and they played the show as well. They opened and were just overtaken by the crowd noise. They said they hadn’t played a show in a while but when I could hear them, it was the same as seeing them years ago in Nashville — melodic and sweet. David was in top form as well with a bunch of stories in between his tunes that you could actually hear.

It was a great night and DD and I are playing again soon: February 4th at the LAB in Costa Mesa and March 18th at Cabrillo Playhouse in San Clemente.

It’s Called “It’s Called A Secret Attack!”

The record I’ve been talking about for 6 months is finally out! It’s called “It’s Called A Secret Attack!” after an Axe Cop comic. It’s 7 songs but only 5 tracks of total awesomeness for $5! Listen and buy it here:

I’ve also created a page for the record with all the info about it.

My New Record is almost done

I’ve made that rookie mistake of not writing about something for a while because I keep thinking it’ll be finished any day. But here’s what’s been going on since the last update: Allen sent me new mixes that we both liked. I sent those on to Alex McCullough at Yes Master Studios in Nashville where I’ve previously mastered with Jim DeMain. I’ve gotten the masters back so I’ve been listening to my new record for a week or more now.

Eric Koda is finishing up the art. He sent me a teaser a few days ago and a tease of that teaser is what you see above. As soon as Eric wraps up the art, I’ll put the whole package together and make it available to you. In the meantime, I’ve started a TinyLetter email list to let people know when the record is out. You can subscribe by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and entering your email address.