Last night's gig was at a bar called the Firebird Bar in downtown Detroit, MI. The event was a surprise 30th wedding anniversary. We were hired by the daughter of the couple who were celebrating the anniversary. The client seemed very flexible with our song selection and didn't have any special request so Keelan and I met at the bar at about 6:30.

As we were setting up one of the bouncers came over to ask us if we needed anything. He looked at me and said, “Dude your name is Nick, right? We went to the same high school, dude you were pretty funny.” I had no recollection of this guy, but I was cordial to him and as soon as he walked away Keelan responded,

“Everybody likes Nick.” he said all sarcastically.

“I defy you to find someone who doesn't like me,” I shot back as we continued to set up. There was still nobody at the party, so at this point the bar looked something like this:

The calm before the storm.

As we continued to setup Keelan started up with some small talk. “Hey remember when I told you about the time I got jury duty for a murder case a couple of years ago?”

I did remember. The condensed version was Keelan got selected to be a juror in a murder case. It was in Detroit, and it happened at a bar, and was gang related. The jury ended up convicting the man that was on trial.

“Yeah, I do. What does that have to do with anything?”

Keelan got a smirk on his face as he responded, “Dude, this is the place where it happened! Isn't that cool?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yep when the lady gave me the address, I looked it up, and sure enough it was the same place. I mean, it was called something else back then, but it's still pretty cool, huh?”

“You're something else, you know that?”

“What? It looks totally renovated I'm sure there's new owners and everything.”

“You're something else.”

We finished setting up and did a sound check. My guitar volume would fade in and out of the PA. I narrowed it down to the new pedal board that I recently put together, which was really frustrating. There wasn't anytime to trouble shoot, so I unplugged it, and plugged the guitar directly into the PA.

The bar got fairly crowed when the entire party showed up. We played background music for most of the night. Although people from time to time would walk up to us, and tell us how good we sounded, but at no time were we the center of attention. We did pass our business cards out to quite a few people, so that's always good.

During our break the daughter of the couple gave a speech, which gave us a time to eat some of the food. It was a nice spread of prosciutto, peppered salami, and Gorgonzola cheese.

"The problem with prosciutto is that there is never enough of it." - NickelNdime

I wolfed down a whole plate and went back for seconds, when Keelan said, “Hey, remmeber we our the hired help, ” as he looked at my plate. He continued, “It would be really awkward if someone from the party goes up and notices all the prosciutto gone, and then looks over at us and sees you stuffing your face with the last of it.”

“But...” I said in a my hurt puppy dog voice, “...it's so good.”

“It is, but you know... control yourself.”

“Whatever you say, dream crusher.”

As soon as the daughter was done we got back on stage and finished the night. We ended up playing 3 hours, with one 15 minute break. When we finished the daughter that hired us came over and told us she got so many compliments on the music. She took a couple more of our business cards. We said our goodbyes and as we carried our gear downstairs. As we walked down the stairs Keelan said, “This is where it happened.”

“What happened?”

“The shooting. It happened down the stairwell. Crazy huh?”

“You're something else.” I replied back to him. We loaded up Keelan's car, and drove home.

Here are 5 tips or tricks that I have learned while gigging out for the past 20 years. If you're thinking of playing out for cash, these tips will probably come in handy. Here they are in no particular order:

5) Memorize

So often over looked with good or great cover bands is their ability to memorize songs. I have been noticing a trend of cover bands not learning the songs, going up on stage, and pulling out the sheet music or their tablets or phones. Part of performing is making a connection with the audience. That's pretty hard to do when you are staring at notes on a page. This also goes with lyrics. The audience is less inclined to sing along if the singer is reading the lyrics off a page rather than singing them.

4) Engage!

After I was in Nick and Jeremy and before I was in Nick and Keelan, there was the short-lived Nick and Tim. Nick and Tim did not last long because Tim did not engage with the audience. To be clear, this had nothing to do with Tim's ability to play or sing, he was/is a very accomplished musician. However, when we'd play bars or pubs, Tim would stare at the T.V. while we were playing songs, acting annoyed when people would make requests, and just have an over all bad attitude while we played. Now, by engaged I don't mean you have to be over-the-top and in the audience's face, but asking how they are doing, or if they have requests, can go a very long way.

3) Have a ton of material

Playing cover songs I have learned you can never learn enough covers. Currently Nick and Keelan can play over 150 songs off the top of our heads. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying that to illustrate a point. If a bar hires you to perform for a couple of hours, what happens if they really like you and want you to play longer? There's always a chance of that, especially if people are drinking and enjoying your playing. Performers also tend to play faster than they realize when they take the stage, due to adrenaline and being overly excited. One of the first gigs I played I had two hours of material that I blew through in 45 minutes. After I got through all my songs I go off stage and ordered a beer. The bar owner came over and asked where the rest of the music was! It's always a good idea to have at least an extra hour of material more than what is requested. So many factors can happen that might require you to have more songs than you anticipated for. The bar might want you to play longer, the audience might not like the songs you were going to play...etc...etc.

2) It's not about you!

When I first started playing out, I didn't know that there was such a thing as “background music.” This used to drive me absolutely bananas. I'd get done playing a song and think, 'man I really nailed that song,' only to have a tepid or limited response from the audience. It used to eat away at me until one night someone came up to me and said, “Man, our family really enjoyed you guys playing tonight!”

I rudely responded, “Well, how come you didn't dance or sing along?”

He answered, “Well we all suffer from social anxiety pretty bad so just coming out is an event for us.”

That's when it dawned on me. Everyone appreciates music their own special way. If you're expecting a thunderous applause after every song, be ready to be disappointed.

First Installment

Here are 5 more songs that I could listen to until my ears bleed that you've probably never heard of before. Here they are in no particular order:

5) History Of Lovers – Calexico and Iron & Wine(2005)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0JOrT7mbI

There are very few songs that have me humming along with the melody while I'm listening to it for the first time. “History of Lovers” is one of those songs. Right from the beginning the slide guitar sets the groove and mood for the whole song. What's even more impressive, is the song has such an uptempo 'happy' feeling to it, the lyrics however take on a dark and somber tone.

But still it's been written, a history of lovers
Given and taken in ink

The lyrics are written though the eyes of a scorned lover. His lover is bouncing from man to man, almost because she likes the attention or drama of it all. The song keeps eluding to someone ending up dead. Again this is such a great contrast of happy melody and dark lyrics.

4) Never Let Go – Tom Waits(2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyKZtiZDH8g

When people tell me they can't stand Tom Waits' voice, I calmly respond, “You're not a very smart person, and I don't care to be friends with you.” With that, I pick up my ball and go home. All joking aside I get why people are turned off by Waits' gravely voice, but for this song it totally works. To me this is one of the best love songs every written. Maybe it's because I'm burned out on puppy love songs, or the songs where two people meet, and do not see any flaws in the other person. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that the topic has been written about so much.

This song is about love that's unwavering, which to me is love in it's truest from. The character in this song starts out on how hard life is, but at the same time he's making promises to his love such as, “believe me you'll never get hurt.” The most important lines of this song are the lines sung before the chorus of, “But I'll never let go of your hand.”

The first is:

I'll lose everything thing

But I won't let go of your hand

The second is:

You can send me to hell

but I never let go your hand

...and the last one is:

I'll fall from your grace

but I'll never let go of your hand

This is such a good illustration or example of unconditional love. The first chorus he sings, “I'll lose everything,” which is very straight forward. The second chorus, “You can send me to hell,” is a bit more intense, but he's saying there's nothing he wouldn't do for her, even go to hell for her. The last chorus, “I'll fall from your grace,” is the most important, and to me makes this idea or concept so amazing. Falling from someone's grace means the person has lost all respect, or love for you. His love loathes him, yet he'll still be there for her...Unconditionally.

**3) The Underdog – Spoon(2007)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0KCoPMTdU

This is such a good song to exercise or workout to. This song is all about the people that get to comfortable at the top, they will always get blindsided by the underdog. The singer of the song is singing to someone in power, and that person in power will not listen to the singer's warnings.

You got no fear of the underdog

That's why you will not survive

Another thing about this song is how well the video is done. I'm not a big fan of music videos, but every so often one will do an outstanding job.

**2) Valentine – Old 97's – 1997
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZ1f0WMd9o

This is not a love song. I repeat, this is not a love song. It's about having your heart broken. It's about being alone on Valentines day. The best line of the song is:

Of all the many ways a man will lose his home

Well, there ain't none better than the girl who's movin' on

That is such a perfect line to describe heartbreak. A home is a state of mind, not something physical. If the love of your life moves out, then it's not a home anymore is it? It's just a house. Just another example that a song doesn't have to be complex to be great. Simple guitar work, simple vocals, and simple lyrics yet the song is still a home run.

On a side note, I used to cover this song at open mics on Valentines day before I met my wife. Couldn't understand why the crowds response was tepid at best.

**1) Wisteria -Richard Shindell(2000)

**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4uub6LWH0g

I always thought this song was cool, yet it wasn't until later in life did it really make sense to me. The guitar work on it is very interesting and pretty, but I couldn't relate to the lyrics in my younger days. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that these lyrics really hit home.

Let's not drive away just yet

Give me a moment more

To walk through those rooms again

To walk through that door

The song is about someone driving by the first house him and his wife purchased. He brings to life the feeling of nostalgia of what it was like the day they moved in. The last verse is brutal when he notices all the changes the new owners have done to the house. Like I said, I didn't really relate to this song until a couple of years ago I drove by the first place my wife and I lived at, and I just started humming this song.

In the early days of Nick and Keelan(Yes this one goes back), We hosted open mic in a seedy bar. A long shower was always required after playing there. The saving grace was that it was a weekly gig, and it payed decent. It seemed every time we played there, something outrageous would happen. Here are a couple of the most memorable instances.

The Bar Owner

His name was Frank, and if his bar was seedy, it was because Frank himself was seedy as hell. As Keelan summed Frank up perfectly with a riddle he asked me one evening, “Hey Nick, which of the seven deadly sins does Frank suffer from?”

“Gluttony?”

“Wrong. He suffers from all of them.”

That was Frank. One example of Frank's shadiness was he owned the whole building the bar was in. Upstairs he had renovated into office spaces that he would rent out to independent contractors. He would tell us that he rented these spaces to accountants, lawyers, and small business owners. That's fine, I thought. Nothing wrong with that.

Then I started noticing the women.

They were always dressed very provocative, and would always walk in the building with a man. Then 30 to 40 mins, they'd walk out. So a couple weeks of this go by, and I asked Frank about them one night as Keelan and I were setting up.

“So, uh Frank... What's with the girls you got renting upstairs?”

“Oh, the massage therapists? They're great! They always pay on time, and sometimes they even throw in a little extra.”

“Come on Frank, you don't really believe they are massage therapists do you?”

“Hey,” Frank snapped as the smile left his face. He looked around, then whispered, “I could give two shits what they do up there, as long as they pay on time.”

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with prostitution, I think it should be legalized, but that's neither here nor there. It was the fact that these working gals could in no way ever be mistaken for massage therapists. They looked like the type of working girls that would accept payment in sweet, sweet crack cocaine.

Frank was also very, very cheap. He would always try and renegotiate our price after we got done hosting. The conversation would always go something like this:

“You boys did great tonight! Just great! Here's the 100 that we agreed on.”

“Thank's Frank, but we agreed on 250.”

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“Are you sure? Cause I thought we agreed on 100...”

“Nope we said 250. If it's a problem we don't have to host open mic anymore.”

“Ahhh that's right, it was 250. Do you guys want a 100 in cash and the rest I can comp you in food and drink?”

The food was awful, the drinks were watered down, and he'd offer this after the kitchen was already closed.

“No, we'll take the 250 in cash.”

Rinse and Repeat every week.