Few are the times that I don't have something to say for myself these days...
Capos are funny things. Considering it's as simple as putting an extra nut on to the guitar so you can play higher notes, it's astonishing how you can come to rely on them, not only as a tool to keep your voice level with the music, but also as a songwriting aid, as sometimes chords sound more melodically suggestive when played higher up the neck. You also come to rely on them to always be in your guitar case, and it's a bit of a let down when you get three quarters of the way to Codsall before you remember that, actually, no, it's in your OTHER guitar case, and you've got to go ahead and do an acoustic gig without your capo. Well done. Sometimes I wonder how seriously I'm taking all of this...
Now there were plenty of people at The Woodman tonight who would happily have lent me a capo but I had a bee in my bonnet and thought no, if I can't even bring a capo to a night like this then I need to face the consequences. So I founf myself playing a load of songs that I hadn't played for a while, some for literally years, that I can do without the capo. I kicked off with Just The Way I'm Feeling by Feeder, and I found it quite startling considering that they're my favourite band that I couldn't remember what order the lyrics appear! I don't think it particularly matters with that song as they all sound near enough the same anyway, and Sam's Mom was singing along to it so that was cool!
Next I played Epiphany by Staind, I haven't played that for almost a year since the gig at the City Tavern in Birmingham. As I was trying to sing it I was struck by how low it actually is, I can barely manage it. As this isn't one of the band's singles, as far as I know, nobody really knew it, but it's the only one I can really manage because if I'm going to do Outside I really need to be in Eflat tuning. All things considered, I played it quite well, though I won't be too quick to put it in any future set lists...
After explaining the situation with my capo to quite a large audience, I launched in to the only one of my songs that I don't really need it for - Get Out Of My Head. For some reason I was a lot less accurate with the plectrum than I normally am, although this may be because that was the first time I'd played it in the week it's been since the last time I played one of Sam's open nights. Nonetheless I was pleased with my performance, I can put quite a bit of drama in to that song which is probably why I like playing it so much!
Last, I went for a performance of Walking On The Sun by Smash Mouth. I like playing that song so I play it to myself sometimes but it's been some months since I last played it at a live show; whether there were enough '90s kids' in the room to know the song I don't know but Sam came up to me afterwards and said it was really good and that he hadn't heard it for ages. I think I'll be keeping that one as an emergency trump card in the future!
It was nice hanging around with Elliot, Kayla and Mike afterwards as well, Sam's open nights always attract a really nice crowd. Looking forward to the next one!
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