My parents are the all-time leaders in hosting Xave house concerts, AS THEY SHOULD BE, at 3. It's always fun to watch my mom claim she isn't going to do much this time, and then subsequently spend all day getting ready for it.
My mom sings in a couple of local choirs, meaning a big chunk of the audience at Dadmom shows is typically composed of choir compatriots. It's always a treat to play for other musicians (as long as they don't call me on my inevitable screw-ups.) At this particular show we did a sing-a-long to the song California Dreamin', and it was seriously rousing. Northern California is prone to earthquakes, and I began to seriously fear for my safety when the last chorus hit.
My dad is a pretty good musician in his own right, and he secretly (from my mom) prepared a song to play with me and my sister, to my mom's great surprise. She was especially surprised because my sister wasn't there (her cello part was mailed in, literally, but not figuratively (it was pretty good). Oh, it also wasn't literally mailed in. Probably dropboxed or something.) We played Mad World, the Gary Jules version, not the original Tears for Fears version. It isn't exactly the same vibe as Xave Ruth, but I thought it provided a nice balance that Xave shows often lack. Sometimes when you're inundated with an interminable barrage of silliness, you need to feel sad for a few minutes, just as a respite.
This concert also featured my favourite story of making a new fan. At intermission, I got a comment on an Instagram post from someone saying they had heard Second Date through the window and found me online. This actually took quite a bit of detective work, as she didn't know my artist name. I'm not sure what exactly she Googled, because searching "Second Date" doesn't actually get you to my Second Date, but she found it on YouTube, which gave her my stage name, and then it seems she found me on Instagram, saw that my last posted photo was my dad setting up chairs for the show, which presumably confirmed that she had the right person, as her parents live on the same circle as my parents and probably have a condo with the same layout.
Other highlights included: two cute little Italian kids holding up the banner for Steve You Are a Dick and having a bit of a hard time (being little kids, they were required to hold the banner higher, relative to their bodies, than most Steve-banner-holders, which can be quite tiring on one's arms); dad stealing a spotlight from Stanford for the occasion; Sandy providing some sweet additional guitars; two different couples named Joe and Teresa (and both Teresa's spell their name without an 'h'); one of the Joes dying during Steve You Are a Dick, and subsequently telling me at intermission the reason for this (a situation it had reminded him of in which there had been a Steve and he had been a dick); many delicious snacks courtesy of mom;
Frequent Xave photographer Sandy was on hand to capture the evening. See some highlights below, and check out some of Sandy's other photography over here at Reflections of Planet Earth.
