8/14 - The Pub

This was sort of a milestone gig, as it was the last gig before Jake goes off to be a pilot (congratulations on that!) and to air traffic control school. I tried to make him not go or at least lie to me and tell me that he wouldn't leave, but apparently that whiny shit only works on your dad when you're two. Of course, that doesn't mean that I won't ever try it again.

He says that he'll be back every weekend, so I'm holding him to that. I do not like being Jakeless.

This was also our first (and hopefully last) gig with Pepe Le Pew making a guest appearance. He was either too little to have pewing ability or he just didn't care to waste it on us, either one being a good thing. Pepe wasn't just in the neighborhood, he was actually on the patio with us wandering around the edge and then meandering under some oblivious woman's chair. Luckily, this was all on the opposite end of the patio from where we were, but I'm thinkin' it wouldn't have mattered had he let loose. The thing that I couldn't understand was that pretty much everyone was leaning in to watch him rather than making a mad dash for the door.

Although Pepe was some fierce competition, I think we held our own with entertaining the masses, especially for the guy who cared more about hearing the blues than watching the skunk.

Some girls asked Mudcat to take their picture as we were packing the van and they were leaving, so he strategically moved back just enough to get the marque with Project Mojo on it in the background of their picture.

8/8 - Reinhart Graduation Party

Bob and Linda, you are the most gracious hosts! Thanks for all your kindness and for a fun day. And if you ever want to go into the catering business, I'm thinkin' you would be quite successful with all that dee-lish food.

Oh yeah, and congratulations, Andre.

We were semi-Jakeless this time around. Apparently, it's way more fun to be IN the party than AT the party. But, he played a mean air guitar and did some kick ass lip-synch.

Okay, how is this possible ~ one of the girls who was playing volley ball was texting during the game. She was really playing, not just standing there watching the ball zip by her head. I could not take my eyes off her. She finished her text, put her phone in her pocket and as she received a new text message, she would take her phone out of her pocket, read the message, and reply never missing a beat in the game. Now that's multi-tasking. I have enough trouble doing one or the other separately...

8/7 - Firehouse Grille & Pub

Check out the booming metropolis of Malvern. And this was at 7-ish on a Saturday evening, although you wouldn't know that from looking at their town clock. Apparently, the entire town is on bar time and it's always closing time as the clock was fixed on 2:15.

We thought that it would be a patio gig, which would have made sense since that's where everyone was (except, of course for us), but being that we were booked as a "Dinner Music Show" we were inside for the dinner crowd, which turned out to be some sleepy guy at the end of the bar and the owner and his wife with their 2 friends. There were a couple of other tables, but they came, they ate, they left (hopefully, they listened as well).

Their food is yummy and very reasonably priced and they appear to be THE place to go, so I'm not sure why there weren't more peeps out to eat. Well dammit, now I want Peeps. Did you know that you can skewer them like regular marshmallows and roast them over a fire and they'll get all weirdly deformed? But I digress. You're shocked, I'm sure.

So, we're just finishing up the last song and a few more people start to roll in and then a few more as we started packing up. By the time we we're done packing up the equipment and loading the van (which we've got down to a record 12 min), the place was approaching full capacity. I guess they're night owls in Malvern and/or conditioned to having the band start at 10:00, rather than finish at 10:00.

I think my favorite part of the journey was seeing the sign outside the fire/police station that just had "call 911 for emergencies" on it, which begs the question were they really giving the townspeople instructions or was it their way of saying "stop calling us for your damn emergencies".

8/6 - Whole Foods

This has definitely become one of my favorite places to play. In a grocery store....who'd a thunked it?

Unfortunately I missed the first half, because I was trapped at home waiting for the
maintenance man (and I use that term loosely) to finish installing a new hot water tank. He got to the house at 8:00am and left at 4:50pm. I was beginning to think that I might have been better off to just install the damn thing my own self.

And because I got there in the middle of things, I didn't scope out what food items were being offered for their 5x7. Oh well, there's always next time. It really is a great deal ~ 5 wines and 5 appetizers for 5 bucks from 5-7 every Friday.

I asked the boys (who are a wealth of information) what happened during the first half of the gig and this was their report:

Iggy Pop was there and he got a hair cut.

Now you see why the boys don't write the gig blog.

The 3 women who were singing along while choosing cheese, stopped for a bit to listen to us and then one at a time came up to put money in our tip bucket. But the way that they formed their little line and reverently approached, I'm pretty sure they were practicing for communion.

A bit later, I noticed a woman standing on the opposite side of the display between us and I'm sure she was looking down and reading one of the packages, but from my viewpoint, it looked as if she had fallen asleep standing up.

We had lots-o-little-ones this time around. I get such a kick out of watching the kids watching us. They're all mesmerized with Mudcat's and Jake's guitar playing. I often wonder how many of those kids will end up learning the guitar because of the memory that Mud and Jake create for them.

7/31 - Old Whedon Grille

Ahh...the Stepford Wives gig. Aside from that glorious 2 minute break, it was a continuous 3-1/2 hour, Jakeless gig.

Our new friend Mike was a nice boy. He made us feel good about being there and good about ourselves in general and stayed for quite some time longer than he had originally planned (you're welcome, Don).

7/24 - The Pub

This has always been one of our favorite gigs and we were really looking forward to playing on the patio during patio season. In Pub gigs of yore, their patio was enclosed and equipped with heaters. Although it was open this time around, it still felt like the heaters were going. Super duper hot night. Really hot. I'm talkin' hot. We did remember to bring the fan (not our #1 fan, but a fan none the less) and that helped a bit. Just a bit.

Mudcat staked out his spot on the squishy mat for dart throwers. No dart throwers were present this evening. Well...they might have been present, but at least they refrained from the throwing of the darts in his general direction.

Thanks to Dorothy and the California Girls for coming out to show your support! The best we could do was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for Dorothy and "Hotel California" for the girls.

There was a table of six right up front (or in the back, depending on your perspective) and one of the boys sang/yelled along with "You're So Vain" to the boy across the table from him. Vain Boy and the 3rd guy kept leaving the table and going out to the sidewalk where I assumed they were smoking and they went there a lot and stayed for a while. Then the girls from the table went up to the edge of the patio to watch Vain Boy and his friend. Turns out the boys were playing cornhole, not smoking, which makes sense as cornhole seems to be much more of a spectator sport than smoking.

Jake and I tried our hands at cornhole after the van was packed (okay, during....we were playing while Mudcat was packing the van). And yes, I still suck at the game.

7/22 - Ziggy's Sports Bar

This joint was much bigger than I expected. Kinda reminded me of a smaller version of BW3.

Wow, did we get the rain that night. When Mudcat sang "Ridin' the Storm Out", he wasn't kidding. The bad thing is that it kept people from venturing out, but the good thing is that it kept people from venturing out. We didn't get any more people coming in, but we didn't loose anyone either. Thankfully, the rain stopped by the time we were to the loading of the van stage of the evening.

And we can add wriggly, crawly things to the list of insects of which Jake is most fond. I really think he should consider being an entomologist. It's not too late to switch career paths.

Another thing that Jake added was a new fan. Some guy came up to him just as we finished up and sang his praises. He actually didn't even look at Mud or me, so I guess we know who's the real rock star in the group.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful and low key gig.

7/18 - Trading Post

So, it's a bazillion degrees and we get to play outside. How nice for us. We learned one thing from Jake (just the one thing) and that's to bring along our fan. And we were smart enough to bring the canopy as well, so it could have been much worse.

Their back yard area is kick ass. It's completely secluded even though it's right next to the street. Empty picnic tables abound. Well, the tables became empty when our Trading Post crew realized that the picnic table on the deck is much closer to the beer and the grill, but God bless them, it took 3 rounds for them to figure it out.

Beyond the back yard is a little bridge that takes you to a mini Woodstock area. And speaking of bridges, we did have a special guest ~ Jeff Bridges. He's a real nice guy. Down to earth (when he's not flying his plane) and disguised as a biker, he fit right in with the regulars.