2008-04-15 - Another rock duo show with Adam

Though I didn't mention it there, my last post only told half the story of my 2008 Michael D. Wilson Symposium Arts Night performance. In addition to those jazz improv versions of Donkey Kong and Dig Dug music, I also played a short set in the UMF Art Gallery as part of a guitar/vocals duo.


My cohort for this show was Adam, who I played with at a gig back in January and at various jam nights last year. We played four songs, a couple reprised from the January gig and a couple of new ones. He did most of the singing, and my job was more secondary guitar noodling. The idea was to do original songs -- it was an "arts" night, after all -- so three of the four were written by Adam.

I wanted to sing something, too, but rather than do one of my originals, I chose a song that a friend wrote years ago. In part, I picked it because I know it well. I can remember it without thinking (or practicing!) too hard, and I was trying to save my brain for the more difficult jazz arcade game music, which was later that evening. I also like the tune for nostalgic reasons, as it harkens back to those long past days -- er, you know, the 90's -- when I was but a wee singer-songwriter, still idealistically (and/or naively) believing in the transcendent power of lyrics and chords.

The song is called "Terrified," and it's originally by a guy named Steve Gerlach. (Aside #1: I played another of his songs, the infamous "Joey the Donut Jerk," at a 1996 show I previously blogged about. Aside#2: He's now a corporate tax lawyer, of all things.)

Here's a clip of me and Adam playing "Terrified" at Arts Night:



In honor of my and Steve's shared roots in 80's alternative rock, I threw the melody from The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" into my opening guitar lick, then ripped off the intro to The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" and threw it in the verses. (And, strangely enough, I just realized that I also played both of those songs with Adam at our gig in January...)


So why not play one of my own songs? Well, I'm in strange spot these days, as far as original music goes. I've written plenty of those "lyrics and chords" songs over the years, but none at all (not completely at least) since around 2000. I've squeezed out few jazz instrumentals and done plenty of jazz arranging in recent years, but I really don't write much any more. Those old songs are dusty relics of someone I used to be, and I just have other things to do now.