The Crepe Place. 02/21/10.
Like I said before, someone at The Crepe Place is kicking some major music booking ass. How excited was I that Dave Smallen was dropping by our little town by the sea? Pretty excited, because I have travelled up to San Francisco and the East Bay a time or two to see him, and it was SO nice to just have to go a few freeway exits to see him perform.
I really wanted to help fill the place up, and a bunch of friends did come, because they are awesome and also because they knew the Bouncing Souls, so the incentive was doubled. Kirsten even drove down from Union City, which was most certainly a barge. I'm glad she did because no one can quote Arrested Development with me quite like my old roomie.
Dave was first and as soon as he got up to do his set I grabbed Danielle and Brittany and we went up front. It was pretty early and not very packed and we were definitely the only ones in the audience who were familiar with his songs. I decided almost right away that I was just gonna rock out with it, because you can only worry about people judging you for so long. He was singing the upbeat songs, too, so I was not just gonna stand there with my arms across my chest, nodding my head with the beat. He played this song, which is lovely. Kristain came up and joined us and we were all really enjoying it. I sort of sang along with "With the Sky All Blue" and as he was singing Dave noticed me singing along and kind of laughed. Hey, your songs are good and they make me happy, so I'm gonna sing along. Then as his last song he did "I Think It's Getting Better," which is one of my favorite driving songs of 2009, and before he sang it he was like, "There's a little part where I'm gonna need your guys' help. It goes 'sha la la la...'" and he looked over at us and was like, "I think maybe you guys know it already," and Kristain goes, "Yup. Seen you once or twice before, no big deal" in her funny Kristain way. We sang along and it seemed like by the second round of sha la la's some of the people at the bar and in the audience were singing along too. That song just makes me smile!
As the next guys went on I hung back with my friends and talked to Dave for a minute. It was cool to chat because I really have so much respect for him and that whole group of Oakland musicians who basically introduced me to how great live shows can be (so long ago...). I also told him that "America" was really meaningful to me and how grateful I was for it. He said he wrote it in 2006, and I think my response was "that sounds right." What I meant was that 2006 was the year that I started to get really angry about the way this country was headed, and it was also the year that I really started paying attention to what it meant to be American - the good things and the bad. Some of that probably has to do with the fact that I went abroad in 2006 and spent the last four months of the year learning about what Europeans thought of Americans. But anyway, I was incredibly grateful to get to talk to him a little bit about his music and just to let him know that it really means something to people. I mentioned that I thought it was great that he's done as much as he has so far and he said that with the record industry on its way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean everything is pretty unstable for musicians right now. "But I'll always do it," he said, and I could totally relate because it's how I feel about writing: it's not what I do, it's who I am, and if there were no more publishing companies on the entire planet I would still be writing. That's how I relate to it, anyway.
The third band came on and they were pretty entertaining. Kristain wanted to dance so we went up and enjoyed the music. They went a little bit country towards the end, but we appreciated the Smurfs references (they had a song called "Hair of Gold, Skin of Blue").
The last band had the frontman from the Smurfs band playing the drums. There were two vocalists (a girl and a guy) and the girl had a really nice voice. My favorite things that happened while they were singing were: Lindsley singing along to their songs, and when they did a really nifty cover of "Livin' On A Prayer," a song that I love with little to no apology.
We finished up the night at Saturn Café, which is always a good decision when it's almost midnight on a Sunday. Most excellent night, I'd say.
Dave Smallen
Kepi Ghoulie
