Friday, Jill and I cruised over to Jammin’ Java, where we met up with fellow Edheads. It seemed to me like there were more Edheads at Friday’s show (at least ones I know), and a livelier crowd. The same lines Robbie got a huge laugh with Friday got nothing on Saturday.
Mike Clem opened Friday’s show, for what he described as his first solo show in 20 years, since he was asked to play music at a wedding, where “I only knew one song” (why am I picturing “Rawhide”), and “the marriage broke up soon”. There was no “blow factor”, just a handful of new songs and one classic. My early fave is “ISO”, about looking for love in the want ads. The audience singalong during “Rosencrantz” was fun as well.
Robbie had a couple of surprises in store. 3 new songs (“Love Finds Its Own Way”, “And The Rain Crashed Down”, and “Somewhere In The Evening”) were premiered (only “And The Rain Crashed Down” is a definite title, others don’t have titles). “And The Rain Crashed Down” is a rocker that is planned to go on the new CD. A nice cover of “You May Be Right” was fun, and “Independence, Indiana” featured an electric guitar for the first time I’d seen (apparently planned on recording it that way).
Next, we hit Mo’s island themed party, where various people risked public humiliation by playing video games where you dance. We got to see Mel and Scott’s honeymoon pics, and have Mo-garitas.
Saturday we slept in some, then drove to Old Town Alexandria to the Storehouse there to pick up the new bookcase. We took the GW parkway there to avoid the already backed up Beltway, and once we had the bookcase, took all back roads home – it took an hour and a half to get home. We got the bookcase inside just as Mom got there. We went to eat at the Amphora restaurant in Herndon, which will be the site of the rehersal dinner. Looks like we’ll get the prime rib and salmon for entrees, and the chocolate raspberry cake for dessert (great icing).
Saturday night we went back to Jammin’ Java. Robbie was solo, but mixed it up some. He prefaced “Baltimore” by saying it’s not on his solo CD because of the POV, and when someone snickered after the first line, he lost it, and had to start over twice. The unquestioned highlight of the night for me was the debut of “Over The Hills And Far Away” on electric guitar – very rock and roll and a lot of fun.
Jill wanted to read, so she hung out in back near the coffee shop while I watched the show. Afterwards, we waited for Shelly (who was selling merch) so she could follow us home and crash in the guestroom. We stayed up talking for a while – I had to go to sleep around 2, while Jill and Shelly stayed up another hour.
Sunday we didn’t get up until around noon. I stretched while Jill made breakfast (eggs benedict) and then went rollerblading. Next, I put the bookcase together. It was 4PM by the time I was done, so I showered and read the paper. I made steak and chicken fajitas for dinner, then we watched “Simpsons”, Jill surfed while I watched “Sopranos”, then she watched “Deadwood” and Lewis Black’s new stand up special with me. It was raining so hard during the latter one, we actually lost satellite feed for a while – that hasn’t happened in a long time.