7/23 - The Pub

This was a mixed emotions gig, since it was our last one at the Pub for this year. Happy to be there, but sad because we won't be back for a while. Thanks for everything, Matt. We look forward to being back next year.

As always, the bread pudding was just scrumptious. I do believe that we'll be going back at some point this year just for that.

We missed seeing Rita. Of course, it was the one time she had a Saturday off. Make sure to ask for her if you go to the Pub for dinner and/or bread pudding. She's a doll.

Rosemary, Betty and Chloe came out to see us. What a treat having my smallest of girlfriends there!

Judi and Irv, what can I say? Thanks for being there.

Peter and company stayed for the duration. It was nice to see them again.

The neighbor lady (I'm sorry, but I don't know your name) walked between the raindrops to come over and support us. She's never missed a gig, but always leaves before I get a chance to go talk with her. The first time she was there, she told Mudcat that she was sitting out on her porch and liked what she heard, so she had to come over and see us.

There was a little boy watching us bring the equipment bags in and after we had everything in, this was our conversation ~

Little Boy: That's a lot of suitcases.
Lola: You're right, it is.
Little Boy: What's in them?
Lola: Everything we need to play some music for you.
Little Boy: Why aren't you playing now?
Lola: Because we have to take everything out of the suitcases first.
Little Boy: When will you start?
Lola: As soon as we have everything set up.
Little Boy: How long will that be?
Lola: Until we're done.
Little Boy: Oh

Enter Little Boy's little brother. He just stood there dramatically plugging his ears with his fingers (and yes, we were still in the setting up stage).

It was a fun start to a fun gig.

Thanks again!

7/22 - Whole Foods, Beachwood

Rain, rain go away....my umbrella decided that this would be a good time to break, so I made a dash for the door and even though Mudcat was kind enough to get as close to making it a drive through as possible for me, I still got soaked. He had a golf umbrella to try to keep himself and the equipment dry and he got soaked. Jake had an umbrella as well and oh guess what, he got soaked. Thankfully, the storm had pretty much run its course by the time we were done and we didn't have to repeat the soaking process.

Jake asked me to remind him to get flour for his mom when we were done. I thought he said flowers, not flour so my response was, "what did you do?". Hope the zucchini bread turned out good!

They must have had an incredibly dee-ish appetizer at the sampling station near us, because that area was crowded during most of the 5x7. Hey, do you think it could have been because they were listening to us? That's a pastability.

7/15 - BW3, Strongsville

This was the Sex in the City gig. More like Sex in the Suburbs, but we'll get to that later. Gotta start from the start.

So, we're on the patio just starting to set up. These 2 guys decide that it would make way more sense to cut through the patio doing a serpentine thing all around the equipment bags to get inside. That kind of stuff annoys me to no end, so I had to bitch about it to someone...lucky Jake. He was bringing more equipment on to the patio and missed it. No sooner did I get done telling him about it when these same 2 guys come back out and repeat the process, but this time some of the equipment is set up. I asked them where they lived so I could come over to their house and walk through their shit. For some reason, I never got an address. Go figure.

During that whole set up process, I managed to pinch my finger (not to be confused with pull my finger) in the mic stand, which resulted in a lovely blood blister. But, don't worry about me...I'll be alright. It's just a flesh wound.

Thanks to Linda, Judy, and Chris for stopping out! It's always nice to see some familiar faces. They got there just in time to see the moon rise. And it's always fun to sing "Moon Dance" during a full moon.

Maybe that full moon had something to do with all the over active libidos...back to the Sex in the Suburbs.

As I was singing "Fire", these 2 guys (but not the same 2 guys from before) are walking to their car and one of them breaks into some really sexy dance moves while the other one sashays along with him. Pretty sure there was a little more than just dancing going on there.

Now, the tables on the patio are quite close together, so what happens at one table is not easy to block out of your sight from any other table. Keeping that in mind, a table with a family who were having a nice wholesome time is opposite a table with a couple who were also having a wholesome time (one of them had their whole tongue in some part of the other's mouth) during "One Way Out". Jake said that he never realized that was a make out song and I never realized just how long that song takes.

And then there was THE COUPLE ~ they leave on the guy's motorcycle during the first set, so big deal. But, during the second set they come back on the bike (well, duh), she gets off of it and starts doing these stretches that are way more provocative than cat like. Apparently, she needs to stretch before a good workout...I mean before sex.

They both get into the van that he parked the bike next to and thankfully the van was not facing us. Let me tell you that moon roof was doing double duty ~ it let the full moon in and it let the full moon out....wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more. Oh, but I have to say more.

Not only was the van rocking, but from where we were set up on the patio, we could pretty much see everything through the side windows and like a bad car wreck it was really difficult to look away. I was tempted to take the tip bucket over to them and tell them it was our donation for a room, but I was afraid that if I got that up close and personal I would have to wash my eyes out with acid. We were also tempted to turn our stage lights onto full strobe and spin them around to face the van, but we didn't.

And as if that whole thing wasn't bad enough, the guy gets out of the van and then zips up. I will never eat at Hot Dog Heaven again.

7/9 - Dragon Ranch

Dede and Lori came out for supper and to be our groupies. Thanks, girlies! They stayed for the bulk of the gig until the call of ice cream won out over the joy of being a groupie.

That was the highlight of this gig.

7/8 - Cebar's Euclid Tavern

This place has such a great stage with a shared wall to the kitchen, which has a handy dandy pass through opening complete with a food shelf. The side wall is home to a smaller shelf for drinks. Chuck's dream gig (or Danny's....no more drum case abuse).

And as Project Mojo luck would have it, the weather was finally decent and that meant that pretty much everyone was outside on the patio where we weren't.

The few agoraphobes in attendance were most appreciative in their individual ways. We even learned a few new "dance" moves.

Our new friend, Kevin was quite pleased that he stopped in for an adult beverage while out for a walk around the neighborhood. He really liked our selection of tunes and took our card with the promise of coming out to see us again.

7/4 - Meadows Fireworks

This was our 6th year at Vic and Amy's as the warm up act for the fireworks. As always, they were most gracious hosts, the food was wonderful and a good time was had by all!


We missed seeing Mary Lou (Vic's grandma) and singing her favorites to her. Hopefully, she'll be back for the party next year.

The ultralight (flying lawn mower, as I like to call it) made it's annual appearance, so that was fun to see.

And it's usually the kids who are the dancers, but this time one of the neighbor ladies let her inner child loose and danced a bit.

Of course, the fireworks were grand. Looking forward to doing it all again next year.

7/1 - Whole Foods, University Hts.

I'm still getting used to playing to the olive bar, but at least there are people to go with the fruit. Or are olives vegetables? Okay, now I have to know. One moment please, checking....
According to the world wide web, olives are the fruit of the olive tree. Now what was my point?

We were also right next to the sampler table for the 5x7 that had biscuits topped with vanilla ice cream and fruit (now, these I know were fruit ~ strawberries and blueberries).
Gotta love it when a food item can be patriotic. And thankfully, there were some leftovers that we got to sample before we packed up. And if you'd like to know how to make them for your own self, just ask Jake...he got the recipe.

Of course, a Whole Foods gig is not complete without kids; a cutie little boy who was a miniature Mudcat right down to the baseball cap and the tapping foot, the little girl who was in awe of Jake (pretty sure she thought he was a giant), and the tiniest of kids who clearly was experiencing live music for the first time, but she didn't seem to mind....after all, we're not as annoying as what you would think.

6/25 - John Palmer's Bistro 44

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was definitely the quietest of times.

SHHHHHH!!!

6/24 - BW3, Medina

Started out to be a patio gig, but with the weather being Seattle-ish, they moved us inside. Don't know what it is about BW3 and the rain (see BW3 Strongsville blog).

After bringing our equipment in through a 5 mile long maze, we were not rewarded with cheese at the end of the maze, just a table full of people where we needed to set up. And they were just being served their wings and another round of beer, so we knew it was going to be a wait.

Trying to stay out of the way, we piled our gear around and in front of this game that is similar to "the claw", but this one had the prizes hanging from strings and in place of the claw was some sort of scissors device to cut the string to free the prize. Sounds easy enough, right? Not according to the note on the front of the machine that informed the game player that the string doesn't always cut, so keep trying. Wow, if people are that desperate to give away their money, I am quite sure that I can come up with some sort of scam (I mean game) to take their money (I mean test their skill).

While we're waiting for these people to eat and drink, the manager comes over to us and asks us to move our things because some kids want to play the game. Move it where exactly? We moved it in front of the servers' station, which made for some fancy footwork on their part.

After a bit, we were finally able to set up, but in the same space that a table with 4 bar stools was occupying and let me tell you, that is not a lot of space. I had to sing sideways....kinda felt like one of the Supremes, but with out the fancy dress and bouffant.

We had a surprise guest ~ Big Rig Bernie and his fearless fliers. Thanks for coming out, it was great to see you!

6/18 - The Mustard Seed

A make-over occurred since the last time we played here and the place looks great. Not that it looked bad before....

And for crying out loud, be careful out there ~ it was injury central with broken arms, wrists, legs. One man had a cast on his elbow and an air boot on his foot. I don't know what's happening over there, but I'm glad we made it out in once piece.

There were lots of appreciative people and that always makes for a nice gig. Thanks everyone!

6/17 - Whole Foods, Beachwood

Always a fun time to play at the 5x7.

This time, we were scootched over so that Jake was the only one of us who had a room with a view. Mudcat and I could see down the ice cream aisle, which wasn't getting much traffic.

There were some familiar faces this time around. And how did I know this if I didn't have view, you ask? Jake told me.

And their carrot cake is yummy, that is if you like carrot cake. Was so happy to have a sample!

6/11 - The Pub

It was great to be back on the patio (well, we're always on the patio...I meant with the walls down and the heaters off). And we were along the inside wall rather than across the back this time.

There was a bridal shower going on that took up the back area. I don't know about you, but I've never seen men at a wedding shower, except for the groom, but about half of this party were men and they actually played the shower games along with the women. I'm thinkin' that all the trays of shots we saw Rita taking to their table might have had something to do with their participation.

Thanks to Dorothy and her Beau for stopping by and staying a bit. It's always great to see you!

Judi and her crew of Irv, John, Donna, and Sheril came out to eat, drink, and be merry as well.

And our neighborhood friend walked over and stayed for the duration. She and another couple actually chanted "encore" and I'm pretty sure they meant for us to sing more, not for their server to bring them a frozen dinner.

6/10 - BW3, Strongsville

Started out as a patio gig, but we ended up inside because of the threat-o-rain that turned into real droplets.

It was nice of them to reroute us to an inside spot, however it would have been even nicer had there not been a hockey game in the main dining room/bar area. Apparently, people were more interested in the hockey game than in us and it wasn't an option to have the game and our gig share the spotlight. Because of that, we ended up in the furthest, most remote corner of the building.....far, far away from the viewing public with the exception of 4 tables who wanted family time and were quite happy to be in the overflow section.

Phil, Jackie, and Ken stopped by for the second set, which was a good thing because by then the families were gone and that left just us.

Chris, Alisa, and Biz also stopped by for a bit to keep track of the placement of my feet.

6/4 - Panini's, Concord

What a great patio! And it was huge...well, the patio was, not so much our space. But that's okay, it was big enough. Don't worry about us....

The best thing was that we only had to carry the equipment about 3 feet. Got to park right outside of the gate that lead to our spot.

It was an interesting evening, what with the woman who just had to plow through our set up to get outside (hellooo...patio...you're already outside) so that she could talk to her little dog. And I double checked with Jake to make sure I heard her correctly. I did. She was talking to her dog.
But it's okay, because she told us that she wouldn't break anything. This was right before we were getting ready to start and then we closed the gate behind her before we got underway. She came back, but used the door just like everyone else.

Then there was the chick who interrupted Mudcat's introduction (guess she didn't care who we were or what we were about) to request that we sing happy birthday to her friend and when we started our version of the song, she turned around and gave us the look of death, but haha ~ joke's on her, we didn't die.

And then we had the "maraca incident". Birthday requester and her non-birthday friend came out of the incident unmaimed, but I'm pretty sure that Jake was secretly hoping for a cat fight.

Let's not forget about Mark, who came to the realization during his debut of "Down by the River" (using his phone to display the lyrics in lieu of the karaoke machine we did not have) that telling people you sing with celebrities is where he should have left it.

6/3 - Whole Foods, University Hts

Rarely do we have an actual stage to play on, but we did at this Whole Foods gig. A stage in a grocery store ~ what a concept.


Our new friend, Eileen saw us through from start to finish. Thanks!


We had some dancers; a brother/sister duo. Their mom sure has her hands full.


At one point, Jake thought that we were in Lakewood rather than University Hts, but I set him straight.

5/13 - Whole Foods, Beachwood

There are just way too many cute kids who's mom and dad frequent Whole Foods.

This time around we had twin boys, probably around 2-ish years old. Dressed alike in their khaki pants and oxford white shirts was where the similarities began and ended with these little guys.

One of the twins looked like a miniature version of dad and the other one looked exactly like his mom. The boys were having pasta...mini-me-dad had everything under the sun mixed in his, all bright and colorful, while mom's clone had plain noodles. His shoes were nowhere to be seen, his little shirt tail was hanging out and he wanted nothing to do with dad trying to get him to chair dance (or cart dance in this case), while the dad look-alike, who was still fully clothed and shoed insisted on getting out of the cart so that he could dance and jump.....and run.

And it seems that each time we play here, we see a celebrity. This time around it was Janice Joplin. Obviously, we count people who resemble celebrities as being true celebrities. It doesn't take much for us.

5/7 - Dragon Ranch

The Kentucky Derby was on every TV in a place named after the Northfield race horse, Dragon Again, so what do you think people were paying attention to? I'll give you a hint: it wasn't us.

Toward the end we had some favorable comments, so I guess we filtered through on some level.

4/23 - The Pub

PROJECT MOJO'S 600th GIG!!!! (and no, I did not add an extra zero)

And that's 600 gigs in the course of 6-ish years. Is that just crazy?

Thank you, Betty for spending time with us before hand and for treating us to our celebratory meal. You are the way best! And thank you for inviting your group(s) out to see us.

Looks like we have a new groupie (as long as her parents drive her to our gigs). She is quite fond of science fairs and is now an accomplished shaker of the egg.

And we still have some CD's left over that didn't make it into the hands of those congratulating us during our break (see Mudcat's FB post for that little contest), so join us for our 700th gig and you just might be a winner! Don't worry, we'll remind you.

4/22 - Whole Foods

I was doing the Sister Christian thing and singing at my church's Good Friday service, so missed this gig.

But, according to my sources there were a lot of babies there.

Once again, this is why the boys don't write these posts.

4/8 - Cabana's

Yet another familiar place to me where I vaguely recall pounding down some adult beverages....

We had a celebrity in our midst, but didn't find out until the last song. It was Beetlejuice. Well, if you didn't look at the guy and just listened to his voice. Dead on. He sang Folsom Prison Blues with Mudcat.

And Beetlejuice was amazed that anyone would take a baby on vacation. Not sure if he felt that the baby hadn't lived long enough to need a vacation or if it really wasn't a vacation for the parents...probably that one.

And the guy who paid us told us that we were much better than the other band they had in there....they were terrible. Thanks, I think.