This was part of Raleigh’s “First Friday,” where they open up all the art galleries in town and have special events — music, food, drinks, all that good stuff. I “opened” for my brother Scott, a.k.a. The Monologue Bombs, who’s played this venue a few times before. We were surprised, then, to find that we were not playing inside the space, but outside under the stars. It was pretty sweet.
They had a taco truck set up, and we played sort of kitty-corner to it, facing the Boylan Street Bridge. You’ll have to trust me that the view was pretty great, though you can get a sense of it from the video above. I was extra-jazzed because the gallery is pretty much directly across the street from the first apartment I had in Raleigh, some 15 years ago. Boylan Heights is a really pretty neighborhood, with big old houses all on a slight hill. I had time to drive around there earlier.
Anyway, Scott and I checked the mics and spent a few minutes catching up with folks, pretty much all of whom I hadn’t seen since I’d been in town a year before. Soon enough it was time to start. I did it like this:
Your Silver Man’s Retired / The Next Thing You Know / Jay / Good as Gold / The Ballad of Roy G. Biv / The Oldies Station / Soda and Sympathy / West of Western / Johnny Without June / Capital Blvd.
Scott sang the first one with me, as well as “Johnny,” plus he whipped out the accordion for “Capital Blvd.” I intentionally bookended the set with old-school Raleigh jams from The Limitations of the Source Tape — you know, for the homies. “Capital” was actually Scott’s idea, and I was crazy-wary about it. It has some lyrics in it that I’m none too proud of, a decade-plus from writing it. But you know what? It actually came together really beautifully. Scott’s accordion chords swelled nicely with the guitar, and his harmonies held it together. It’s kind of the first country song I ever wrote, and if I think of it in those strictly-structural terms, it’s a pretty sturdy thing, if I do say so myself. Like with some other old songs I’ve done, I can sort of pretend it’s a cover, if that makes sense…
The other thing of note during my set is that about three songs in, the Raleigh chapter of Critical Mass showed up, doubling the size of the crowd in an instant. Made me feel at home.
Scott did his usual thing for his set, swapping guitar and piano and accordion. He did an especially lovely cover of Depeche Mode’s “But Not Tonight.” Towards the end of his set, I came up to play and sing on his “Dickinson Avenue” and “Floaters and Empties.” It’s the first time I ever played guitar with him and felt like I could keep up! It was crazy fun, and afterwards, we went out with some old friends and had a mini-pub-crawl. For no reason at all, we spent much of the evening discussing — and adding several verses to — one of the silliest songs ever recorded. Had a wonderful time. Peace, Raleigh! See you next time!
