9.25. 12 We are here in New York City all week playing the Feinstein room. This is a very classy, very famous cabaret room. We have been worried the whole tour about this gig. It is a small stage… a small place… a very small PA. We considered a lot of options… play with just the three acoustic guitars (our band would then sit idle in New Jersey all week getting into all kinds of legal trouble) or strip down and come up with all new arrangements and do an “Unplugged” version of our show (tough one… we know these arrangements like the backs of our hands and coming up with new ones is asking for trouble at our age) or we ignore the concerns and just rock out and make all the people in the audience spit out their drinks and fall over backwards in their chairs (very entertaining to watch when people are this well dressed).
We decided to do a little of everything. We took out a couple of loud songs, stripped down the drums and covered them up with plexiglass (this makes our drummer Tommy look like he is playing in an aquarium) and play quietly. And it was GREAT! It was a lot of fun to play quieter and more carefully. All the best parts of an acoustic show with a hint of rocking. (that will be the promo line for my cologne…. “A hint of rockin'”)
We were told at the last minute that reviewers were going to be in the audience. That freaked us out a little bit but… what the hell. You can’t worry about stuff like that. I decided to out-idiot myself, and had as much fun as I could while not being asked to leave the room for causing a distraction.
The coolest part of the night? For the first time in my musical career I could say with complete sincerity ….
“Thank you! We’re here all week!”
“Try the veal.” (I’m not sure Feinstein’s SERVES veal, but it’s a time tested last thing to say at a gig.)