Live Performances

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On Friday, February 9th, 2024, at 8:00 pm, I’ll be returning to the Flat Iron. I’ll be performing a co-bill with Alan Peterson. Tickets are available here.

Coming off of a great set at the Eno House in Hillsborough, I look forward to playing a slightly longer piano set. Please join us if you can.

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On Thursday, January 25, 2024, at the Eno House Artist’s Den, I played my first show of the year. I opened for Nikki Meets the Hibachi and played for about 45 minutes.

I hadn’t ever performed at Eno House, so I had no idea of what to expect. I arrived straight from work. I caught a little rain on the way but had no stuffy traffic. Waze took me directly to the the venue without issue. I parked right in front. When I got there, John and Elaine from Nikki were finishing up their soundcheck. The club owner invited me to play the house Steinway piano, which I welcomed.

I checked a few songs and felt comfortable with how things sounded. Playing an unfamiliar piano comes with its own challenges. A real, live piano is a living, breathing thing. It has its own personality, its own temperament. My Yamaha travel piano has weighted keys but no personality and the temperament of a koala bear. The piano at Eno House was like a strong but delicate tree. Each key was weighted just a little differently from another.

After soundcheck, I enjoyed catching up with folks I hadn’t seen in ages. The last time I opened for Nikki was thirty years ago at the Skylight Exchange in Chapel Hill, NC. People arrived in twos and threes and mingled, talking of times past.

A piano/vocal set is something that would be difficult for me to play on the fly. I planned out my setlist a month in advance and had it in stone the week before. I’m new to piano as a performing instrument. It’s not like guitar for me, which I sometimes zone out on while playing. The set had a nice design, too. I put four familiar songs among the unfamiliar ones. I played two new songs, “Evangeline” and “Crashed on Neptune,” as well as “Satellites.”

I’ve missed playing out live. I haven’t been performing as much as I like to and I look forward to more shows this year. Recording is fun and all. Playing online venues has its place. But playing original songs live to a room full of people who are actually listening is sacred. Coincidentally, Eno House used to be a church.

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I gotta admit: having played in a semi-popular 90s band has ended up being a pretty good gig. Decades later, you can play in a town where you did relatively well and bring a decent crowd. People sing along. People take pictures. People stick around after the show to tell you how you haven’t changed in 30 years. And, the best part, you get to play your own songs.

On Saturday, July 15, 2023, Collapsis reunited for a show at Motorco Music Hall. The Mad Starlings and Alex Lawhon opened the show and the night was well attended. Originally, I had planned a much longer night of music, but after we got together to rehearse, the consensus was to pair down the set a bit. As the show ran, we played for 75 minutes, which is still fairly hefty.

The set that emerged in rehearsal took the basic order from our album, Dirty Wake, but substituted a few songs here and there. Rather than open with our single, “Automatic,” we saved that for second to last. In its place, we put an unreleased rocker, “Crocodile.” On four of the songs, Mike Ivanitch from the Mad Starlings played percussion. He rounded out “Wonderland” and “Dirty Wake” quite nicely. We closed with a cover of R.E.M.’s “These Days,” which most of us have been playing at the Maxell 90 R.E.M. tribute shows.

Most of the things about playing in a club band are still the same. For me, it never gets old seeing that your band is headlining a venue. It’s a bonus when someone takes the time to write your name in chalk on a massive chalkboard. I always like to read the backstage dressing room walls, too. Most of it is either dirty talk or band promotion, but it’s also like a crossroads. Every line tells a story. Every story has at least a pinch of truth.

The most interesting part of the night happened towards the end of the set. I heard someone in the crowd shouting for “Clay Pigeons,” a song we did for the film of the same name. We don’t play it often, if at all, because on “Clay Pigeons” I play piano and Ryan plays acoustic guitar. It’s a completely different posture for the band and we weren’t set up for it. So, as a spur of the moment thing, I played a vamp of “Clay Pigeons” before kicking into the heavy part of “Chartreuse.” Usually, a tease is enough to assuage a random request. But then, after the show, the woman who requested “Clay Pigeons” told me that it was her favorite song of all time and was disappointed that we didn’t play it. So, I grabbed an acoustic guitar, Carlos grabbed a snare, and we played a version of it on the club risers.

Collapsis will return.

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In the chorus of R.E.M.’s “These Days,” is Michael Stipe singing “Oh, it’s sunny out” or “All of sudden”? I don’t know. After a thousand listens, I hear it both ways. When I sang it with the Maxell 90 on Friday, April 21 at the Visulite Theatre, I sang it both ways, in my mind at least. The song goes by so fast and with such a blistering intensity that it’s hard to care in the moment if the lyric is right.

This third iteration of the Maxell 90 R.E.M. tribute wasn’t supposed to work. A NC Triangle scene isn’t supposed to draw well in Charlotte. Two of the marquee singers had to cancel at the last minute. Only half of the singers actually got a chance to check their songs before the show. But this show defied every omen and was, quite arguably, the best one yet.

I sat back stage for most of the night but snuck out a handful of times to see a few of the performances. Most of the time, we all just sat around and told stories. I got to answer a few questions about the Satellites video. I also had a chance to ask other performers about their artistry, which, in room like that one, is easily a masterclass in the performing arts.

Until next time . . .

Mike Garrigan, Jay Garrigan, and Alex Lawhon backstage at the Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC, April 21, 2023.

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On Friday, March 3, 2023, at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, NC, the Maxell 90 returns to perform as the house band for a second round of tributes to R.E.M.’s Chronic Town. If you missed the first show performed at Motorco last December, don’t miss out on this super-fun homage to one of the greatest bands of all time.

Last time, I got to perform a bunch of songs, my favorites of which were “Drive” from Automatic for the People and “Fall on Me” from Lifes Rich Pageant. This time I’ll be performing a number of the same songs plus “Country Feedback” with Ryan Pickett on slide guitar.

Last time, everyone ended up on stage by the end of the show. Pictured left is Chris Holloway, Alex Lawhon, and I performing “Superman.” Since Scott Carle performs drums for the Maxell 90, and all four members of Collapsis may very well be on stage together at some point, we could, in a round-a-bout way, call this a type of Collapsis reunion. We, like everyone else, will be performing R.E.M. songs though.

Show info is available here.