Kris, Ed and myself had a good spot at Liederplatz on a late Saturday afternoon for a two hour set at 4 pm. We started out with a nice crowd of familiar faces, Terry and Dave on sound and some sunny weather. We are gelling as a trio and were pretty comfortable to begin with. Ireland, July, Nadine, Giant got us going. I did a short set of my classic kids stuff with The Vegetable Song and The Cat Came Back and brought up a dad and daughter to play Thunder Tubes on Giants.
I still get distracted on a big stage like this, mostly when it comes to getting the lyrics right. Nadine tossed me a few curves and I have to scramble to catch up, juggle verses and make it look like nothing happened. Unfortunately, I know what happened. I’m thinking of arrangements, the other two players on stage, the audience, but mostly thinking about how cool this all sounds to me. I am an excitable boy…..
It started to sprinkle and then came a full out downpour and folks headed for cover or to head home. We then played to an empty seating area except for three people under umbrellas. The best part was two or three young girls who continued to dance in the pouring rain. Everyone under cover appreciated that sight, as did the three of us on stage.
Eventually, the festival shut down the stage til the rain passed. It was a blessing in disguise it that I’m still not used to standing and performing for more than a hour. I do love the fact that I can perform upright, something I couldn’t do a year ago. In fact, after the show, one lady came up and said that she was a nurse during my stay in the hospital last fall, and commented that it was great to see me playing like this. I agree.
As the sun came out again, we finished up our set with Lessons from Pete and Rosie is a Friend of Mine, both becoming really solid performance pieces, especially with Ed’s leads, Kris’s solid work on bass and me nailing the vocals, finally. It felt great to do such a strong set at Musikfest and though the crowd was dispersed with the rain, we gained confidence as an acoustic trio. I was beat, though, at the end.