TONY: I’ve been lax in doing these, so here’s a quick one from our last gig at Nick’s…
On July 29th at our regular Sunday night gig at Nick’s we played not one, not two, not three, but FOUR pieces we’d never played before live, two of which were straight up improvfests.
Tony played the baritone guitar for the first time in a long time because his hand felt better than it had in a while; Capri Lanning-Cafaro took a stunning vocal on Tom Waits’ “Temptation” done a la Diana Krall; and Chris O’Donnell, Christopher G Lawton, and Steven Lanning-Cafaro were their usual sterling selves on their respective instruments.
Tony wants to, in particular, thank the guys in the band who actually know what they’re doing in situations where they’re hearing him play a piece for the first time.
He says, “When I’m doing it with their stuff, I either riff a poem off the top of my head or leaf through the iPad for ideas till I find one. They have to respond in the moment to a passable but still very insecure musician as he fumbles though on an instrument tuned differently than the usual. It’s a skill I wish I had.”
Sadly, the place was a ghost town after the first set. There were VERY few people there for Listen as well, which was a bummer because it was regular reader Gwyneth Campbell’s first ever feature anywhere, and I’d have thought that was a thing for people to celebrate.
Hoping it’s a late summer thing. We kick a great show, even to an empty room. But…man, it’s hard not having a crowd to feed off of.
We’ll be back on August 12. You should be there.
The Duende Project 