So last Monday night we played at one of my fave places, 1982 Bar. There were only 2 bands, Crash Pad and Boston's Swaggerin' Growlers. We only had a week's notice as we agreed to step in for the original opener, my friend Deb's band Half Crocked (formerly Half Cocked), who had to drop off the bill.

Monday is possibly the worst of all nights to gig, and summer in GNV is extremely slow to boot, so there were very very few people there. Set went OK and for a change 1982 didn't make us get off after 30. So we could do one of our "optionals," our take on "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (re-named "Irish Eyes"), and in honor of the Growlers I did the first verse (usually played with a clean guitar, and just my vocal) with a mandolin instead. I didn't bother to plug it in, just held it up to the mic and tried to sing off-mic to balance the two, then handed it to my son (mando tech) for the switch to guitar for the last 2 verses. Also remembered to bring a fresh battery for the wireless, so in addition to the standard tomfoolery (behind-head, knee drops, etc.) I did the "walk outside the club during the closer solo" thing, only this time I made sure my photogs had notice.

As usual we (Crashers; I hope the house gave something to the SGs) made nothing. I bought a t-shirt and the Swags' latest CD so they'd at least have gas money to the next show. On the upside, in addition to getting to see the Swags again (we played the same club with them in 2009) and pix for the hall of shame, when I went on the fb event page a couple days later and thanked those few "faithful and brave" who'd come to the show, it gave me the idea for a song, which virtually wrote itself in about 20 minutes. "HERE'S TO THE FAITHFUL & BRAVE (back of a napkin Fourth of July)" should be in our set when we play the second annual "Labor Daze" fest on Labor Day Eve downtown on the Bo Diddley Plaza in a couple months, if not before.

Without further ado, here's the usual stupidity, and your comments on my poseritude are welcomed. As you can see I played the Epi WildKat. Although difficult to see in most pics, the bottom of the G.I. Joe t-shirt says "I GO COMMANDO!" I picked it up for $4 at Big Lots.











Beware, plenty more to come.