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Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Acoustic Rendezvous Recipe for a fantastic night: add one Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and his drummer to five Chicago-based singer-songwriters (make sure that at least one of them plays multiple instruments), introduce and stir. With the bike getting stolen and various other issues, it'd been a frustrating week, but Monday made everything better. The amazing Amanda Sena, who books the Acoustic Rendezvous series at Silvie's Lounge, opened up the night with her band; she was followed by Adam Stahlberg, who's only played the guitar for a couple of years and the piano for less. After my set, Kara Kulpa, Shelley Miller, and Jeremiah Birnbaum shared the stage, the effect being an acoustic band of singer-songwriters backed by a drummer (complete with a hard-shelled suitcase in place of a bass drum). And since a couple of my swing dancing friends were there, we took the opportunity to dance. It was wonderful seeing Kara and Shelley again--we'd played together as part of the Indiegrrl tour last fall. And I was finally able to try Shelley's famous vegan chocolate chip cookies. I know, they don't initially sound appealing to non-vegans (I'm not one either), but in actuality they're delicious: dark chocolate is vegan, and they're full of brown sugar. The cookies were so good they found their way into my improvised song for the night. (The last time we'd played together, Shelley's cats--and their propensity make breathing impossible, stupid allergies--found their way into the improv song as well.) You had to feel bad for Adam--no one could remember his name. I'd heard stories about Jeremiah through Shelley and Kara, so when I met him in person, I already knew who he was, and likewise he'd heard about me as well. And everyone knew Amanda because she did the booking. But through multiple shout-outs from the stage, people would mention the other musicians by name and say, "The guy who played second--sorry, I can't remember your name, but everyone give him a hand too!" And he was the only person that played a set without Kara, who has a marvelous ability to improvise on mandolin and violin, whether she's actually heard a song before or not. (In fact, she jumped onstage as I was starting my second song, which is brand-new.) It's the life of a musician: well-paid (a mere $8 in tips per performer) but happy. ^ Top | 2:28 PM | | | 
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