Collapsis2021

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In Modern Problems, a truck accidentally sprays Max Fiedler (played by Chevy Chase) with toxic waste. In the movie, Max gets super powers. But in real life, Max would probably get really sick if he were sprayed with harmful fluids. Similarly, in All of Me, Roger Cobb (played by Steve Martin) is an attorney who runs across the street after work to play a jazz set on guitar. But in real life—and I know this from first hand experience—an attorney playing a gig after work is actually quite tired. Yet, in spite of the fatigue, I was excited to play at the Magnolia Street Music Hall once we got close to showtime. 

I rolled into Wake Forest, NC around 5:00 pm. I turned my Mazda down the alley way behind Magnolia Street and saw Scott loading in his drums from his Toyota. “In a suit!” he said. I literally walked from the closing table at Coltrane & Overfield to my car and didn’t think about changing until I had arrived. I loaded in my gear and greeted Ryan and Chris who were on stage checking their respective rigs. The room was small but big enough for our 75 pre-sold ticket holders to comfortably enjoy the show.

We took our time dialing in the sound, playing seven or eight songs during sound check. The trick to playing a small room is keeping the stage volume low enough so that the vocals can cut through but loud enough to inspire a good performance. 25 years ago, performing in a listening room meant playing acoustic and stripped back. But now, with amp emulation technology and improvements in small room live sound, we were able to perform in the space without compromising tone.

We began the show with three songs we don’t usually perform:“Crocodile,” “Trouble in the Barnyard,” and “Wonderland.” The first two were from my early-90s solo albums Building a Hole and The Lessons of Autumn. “Wonderland,” of course, was from Dirty Wake. The remainder of the set was nearly identical to our set from the Grove, minus three cover songs. We retained the Big Star and Pink Floyd covers. I felt like we played better at Magnolia Street than we did at the Grove, as a band does after a few shows and rehearsals. 

Were you there? If you were, and would like to be featured on my next podcast, send me a voice memo of your experience. Please answer three questions: (1) what did you see? (2) what did you hear? and (3) how did you feel?

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On the early afternoon of May 22, 2021, Ivy and I made our way to the venue. Even though Gibsonville is in Guilford County, Grove Winery & Vineyards is nestled at the end of several winding back roads. We arrived around 2:30 pm.

I drove right up to the stage and unloaded my gear, which consisted of four guitars, an amp, a floor board, and a keyboard set up. We didn’t start sound checking until about 4:30 pm, so Ivy and I walked around the grounds for a bit. My two favorite parts of Grove Winery were the vineyard rows and the lake behind the stage with the loud bullfrogs. The rows of grapes reminded me of some kind of rustic farming–idyllic in its own way. The bullfrogs called from the lake every now and then during the daylight hours. As night fell, they croaked constantly.

Ryan did an excellent job with the sound production. It didn’t hurt that he’s the front of house engineer for My Morning Jacket. He and James, his assistant, rung out the PA and dialed in the monitors quite well. Sound check was relatively effortless in that we were able to use the time to get used to the stage rather than mitigate flaws in the staging.

As people arrived, I spent some time reconnecting with friends and fans that I hadn’t seen in ages. What I enjoy most about Collapsis reunions is hearing how our music was a soundtrack for a particular part of a person’s life. About an hour before the Grove show, one couple told me that they listened to Dirty Wake everyday of their daughter’s first year of life. And, when they saw that we were playing within two hours of where they live, they had to make a family road trip out of it so they could share the music with their now 20 year old daughter.

Chris started off the show with some original acoustic songs. Before his set, Chris shared with me his rationale for using a Martin acoustic guitar. This particular guitar had two pickups and allowed for a nice blending in the PA. Chris’s songs would sit well in a playlist of Gram Parsons and Chris Bell songs–a very good performance.

I played some songs on the piano for the next part of the show. I performed “Gravity Affects Me,” “Semigloss Albatross,” “Oceans,” and “End.” The first song was from my 2004 EP of the same name and the third song was from my 1996 album, The Lessons of Autumn. The second and fourth songs were from my most recent album Semigloss Albatross. Performing on the piano is not as fluid for me as performing on the guitar, but the only way to get better at something is to keep trying, live, without a net.

The next part of the show featured just Scott and me–I played acoustic guitar and Scott played light drums with hot rod sticks. We did “Trouble in the Barynard,” “Crocodile,” “Believe in You,” and “Wonderland.” The first two songs were from The Lessons of Autumn and Building a Hole, respectively, while the last two were from the Collapsis album, Dirty Wake.

After a short break, the Collapsis set began. Chris made the set list and it flowed quite well. We tried to put songs in places we hadn’t usually put them. “Stumble,” for example, was almost always a transitional song in our sets. But for this show, we opened with it. “High Caliber Grease” often got relegated to our encores for one reason or another. But we played it mid-set this time.

We tried a handful of new cover songs and peppered them in the set here and there. “Eminence Front” by The Who was never a song I ever anticipated covering, but Ryan pointed out that it’s in the same key as “Dirty Wake” and would transition well out of it. “Feel” by Big Star added a chance to showcase Chris on lead vocals. “Corduroy” by Pearl Jam transitioned well out of our version of “Breathe” by Pink Floyd. Our show closer was “Life’s What You Make It” by Talk Talk. We invited James Chen to play keys with us on this song. Dillon Fence alumnus Chris Goode just happened to be sitting in the front row, so we invited him to play bass on the last song. Chris Holloway moved over to floor tom and added a polyrhythm to Scott’s groove.

As the set ended and people began to leave, I contributed to helping pack up the PA and getting the stage straight. Just before leaving, we took a band photo.