Last Big Show in Austin! Friday 5/18! With the Band!
Top: The Doras - Connie, Mariana, Heather
Bottom: Emily Shirley, Katie Lessley
144 - Backroads
(pic of Raul at Backroads a couple months ago, before they put up the new wall)
Today is Raul’s birthday, so last night was his birthday open mic. They’ve put up a new slat type wall that helps divide the stage area from the billiards area without closing stuff off too much, I like that.
Raul’s guitar pickup was wonky so I let him play mine. Always fun to hear what she can do in someone else’s hands (if that someone is a person I trust!). Raul did a couple great new ones. Ana B came by and did a few with my guitar as well and then we sewed some more whales until we had to go catch our busses. Josh gave me crap for them not being anatomically correct, but conceded they were still very nice and probably made up in cute what they lacked in scientific correctness. :-)
Songs: I Know, Shoreline of Alaska, Rain Song, Jonah’s Whale
131 - Backroads
This is one of my open mic friends, Buddy. He’s really tall! He had me come up and sing an Eagle’s song with him for his set and I couldn’t reaaaaally reach the mic, and I’m not sure that I actually harmonized, it was more like unison up an octave, but that’s ok, it was still fun!
He works at a food truck downtown and they were already prepping like crazy for SXSW. I can’t imagine actually working downtown during the madness, but I guess the $ is worth it.
There was some new jukebox thing where you could download an app and control the music (though the sound was off for open mic of course!). It was sponsored by Miller, and seeing that got a few of the guys into a discussion about how I could totally do a show and have Miller sponsor it. I said I just wanted to play under in a bar one day that happened to have one of those neon signs that says, “It’s Miller Time” right above the stage, but not actually mention anything about it. :-)
Songs: All or Nothing, Shoreline of Alaska, I Know, Jonah’s Whale
120 - Backroads and Whip In
Wednesday was an awesome day. Gilberto came to visit me! I took the bus to meet him at the airport, and when we walked out of baggage claim, the bus was right there again, so we just took the bus home. He came with me to Rubicon where we had a nice catching up with Dan and realized that it had been pretty close to exactly a year since the first time we came down to visit and check out the studio!
We went straight from Rubicon to Backroads. Kind of. The bus was late. Which meant we missed our second bus and had to wait for it to come by again. There was a girl at the bus stop with a black smudge on her forehead. I was debating telling her that it was there, but the placement seemed intentional so I kept quiet.
It turned out that Ana B was on the bus that we finally got, so G got to meet her and we got to chat a bit on the way up to Backroads. A bunch of people got on at the stop by a church, and they all had black smudges on their forehead and it finally clicked in that it was Ash Wednesday! So glad I didn’t say anything to the girl. :-)
It was fun to introduce G to the open mic peeps at Backroads. Fun to sing him the new song I wrote for him live. We both got the 5 minute massages from Ariel. Raul convinced Ana to sing a few songs and her friend Mandy showed up and borrowed my guitar to play for their set.
Right after they played, we walked down the block to Whip In where Emily, Jana, Katie and Elizabeth were playing.
Harmonies and guitar and piano and cajon, hooray! It was a great show. Unfortunately the kitchen had just closed, but luckily we found some tabouli, dolmathes and falafels in the mini-grocery section, so we still were able to have a yummy snack, just not the country we were expecting the food to be from. ;-)
Another fun thing about the show was Emily was wearing the guitar string necklace I made her and it looked cool! Always neat to see what my jewelry creations look like “in real life”.
It was great to be able to show G so much of what my life here in Austin has been like, from riding the bus, walking to Rubicon, talking with Dan, open mics and shows. Kind of amazing that it all happened to be on the same day!
Songs: Anchor, I Know, Keep Telling Me, Wings
119 - Backroads
Back at Backroads! And to think that I was once rather scared to go! I love it there now. Raul is funny and supportive. The sound system is good. You get at least four songs, sometimes five (though it’s getting more popular these days, so I wonder how long that will last…) Not everyone there is paying attention but the ones who are, are friendly. You get a free drink for playing. I like the veggie burgers.
Ana Bee & one of her friend’s came to hang out with which was fun. I brought her a little Valentine/Thank You/Late Birthday card that I made with stickers as a thank you for the day before. I used to be a Valentine card making factory back in high school & college, so it was fun to get to do at least a couple cards this year. (Other one is for Gilberto! I emailed him a picture of it and will give it to him in person next week! yay!)
Ariel was there again giving free 5 minute chair massages and specifically came up to me to ask if I was gonna come visit her this week. D7 was kind enough to swap slots with me, between that and some other guy before us needing to split early, I got to perform and have a mini-massage and still make my bus!
Songs: Rain Song, I Know, All or Nothing, Shoreline of Alaska
111 - January 25th - Backroads
First day back at the open mics after a bit of a break due to major allergy attack! Felt a little bit rusty but it was so good to be out playing again. Connected with a guy Brian and we went and jammed out on the patio for a little while, it was cool to hear him playing lead on my stuff, finding some harmonies, and he even knew what my tuning was on Jonah - apparently it’s something the Rolling Stones use a lot?! Who knew? Not me! :) I tried to harmonize a little on a few of his tunes out there on the patio since I sure as heck wasn’t going to be able to play any sort of lead on the spot, but I’m nowhere near as skilled as the gal he had singing with him for his set, she is amazing and they sounded great together!
Raul (the host), talked to me about the possibility of me doing a residency there in a couple months, basically I’d hold down the musical fort one night a week for a month. I’m excited for that idea, seems like a lot of cool stuff could happen with that. Will keep you posted with developments!
It was a little bit of a slower night, maybe the rainy weather kept people in? Anyway, I got to play twice.
Round 1: Rain Song, Anchor, Keep Telling Me, Split in Two, Jonah’s Whale.
Round 2: Shoreline of Alaska, Sister’s Prayer, Wings.
107 - January 12th - Backroads
Tonight my roommate Havilah was playing an early short set with Billy Masters at Romeo’s.
My other roommate was on tour and left her car here, so I was able to get from Romeo’s to Backroads in time for the open mic.
This is a crappy cell phone pic of a super awesome band that played at Backroads called Rixon:
They are awesome, go check them out: http://www.rixonmusic.com/
It was a nice full list, so we got four songs.
Songs: Shoreline of Alaska, Sister’s Prayer, Split in Two, Jonah’s Whale
Countdown to 100: 2 - Backroads
Chronicling the final 10 out of 100 Open Mic and Showcase performances I have done since June 2011. This is #99.
Raul writes awesome songs and can play killer mashups.
All right, I admit the first time I walked into Backroads earlier this summer with Amy Z, I was a little nervous about the place, especially because there were pool tables on a raised area behind the stage. Would I get knocked in the head with a pool cue while singing? Plus we got offered drinks basically just for walking in, because we got there late and the open mic had already shut down. Not being too experienced with people buying me drinks, the offer usually puts me on guard when it’s from someone I don’t know. We later found out it was the owner, probably just wanting us to stay and hang out!
A few weeks later, Ana Bee brought me over for their Tuesday night karaoke. I hadn’t done karaoke in years, and I spent a long time trying to figure out what few songs in the book I thought I’d actually be able to sing entirely, not just the choruses. It was a weird experience to sing without my guitar in front of me, but we had a great time.
When I finally made it to the open mic, I also had a great time. Raul was very welcoming, the sound system was great and I got to do two rounds, one of six songs and one of five. There was hardly anyone there, musicians or audience, but in some ways I felt like it was one of my better performances. I gave it my all and felt like I had shown up and done my job right.
Word has gotten out and the list has built up a bit since my first time there, but so far I’ve still gotten to do at least five songs every time I’ve gone. Last night Jeff and Ana Bee showed up again and did a set together, and then I asked Jeff to join me for my second set because we went around again. Fun fun!
Ana Bee & Honey Bear (according to Ana. Jeff is still warming up to it! :-) )
Songs:
Round 1: Keep Telling Me, Winter Time, Jonah, Sister’s Prayer, Shoreline of Alaska
Round 2: Rain Song, Wings, The Way I Am (Cover), Anchor
Host:
Raul Adrian Ochoa
Location:
Backroads
2200 S Interstate 35
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 448-9711
Wednesdays - Sign up at 7:45, Music at 8-till close. 5 songs (sometimes more if the list is short). Free drink for playing.
Favorite Backroads eats: Actually the only food I have had there were things people shared with me - a jalepeno popper and some salad. The popper was tasty and the salad was huge!
Other things I like about Backroads: Getting to play lots of songs, nice sound system.
