Joe’s Pub – We’ve Finally Gotten Started

I spoke with Clifton yesterday about the Joe’s Pub show that we did on Sunday night and his quote was, “We’ve finally gotten started.” It may take some time before we’re playing a majority of rooms that are as wonderful and as perfect for us as Joe’s but now that we’ve tasted that it’s a much more recognizable and possible goal.

What makes a room like Joe’s so good? The most important factor is the focus of attention always seems to be present. I’ve only played there a few times but each time, the fact that is a “Listening Room” makes a huge difference. Music lovers go there to listen to music and be entertained. It’s not a talky room. Everything about the experience for the audience (waitstaff, sound, lights etc…) allows them to pay attention to the stage well. And they do. Another factor is that they have professional grade facilities for the performers that make things easier and more comfortable. There is a dressing room with its own bathroom (simple, obvious things like this go a long way with me), there is a rehearsal room where you can hang out and actually go over stuff before the show. Each person on the staff came up to me to coordinate about the show. Jeff, our sound technician was so gracious and competent. Rachel, the lighting person, was fun and easy to relate to and did a great job. Evan, our stage manager was funny and warm. Jersey, the manager, was clearly in charge and running the whole operation but took the time to answer my questions.

When I was a kid I used to love to go to Yankee Stadium or any big arena. There is always that moment where you walk out from inside the hallways under the bleachers out into the stadium proper. Out of a narrow hallway you can see the sky and the thousands of people that are there, the lights, the field itself gets revealed in panorama and brightness. When we took the stage at Joe’s it was a little more modest but when we heard the cheering it was extra special because you were cheering for us! My goal was to fill the place and we did! There was not an empty seat in the place and when we were through with our show we knew that we had made an impact on you.

This is so core to who I am. It seems that my function here on the planet is to radiate all the blessings and talents that I’ve been given. I have felt up until the last four or five years that most of this radiation was taking place in a vacuum: meaning there hasn’t been any response that I could feel. Working hard and through falling on my face over and over, it seems that I’ve stumbled on a way to do this that actually elicits a response that makes me feel that the great amounts of energy that I’m expending is being well received and returned – a supercharged feedback loop that makes everyone smile and takes us all closer to ourselves. To have that mechanism so firmly established and working so well as it did at Joe’s Pub (and this is really the first time this has worked so well on the levels of performance, crowd response, promotions, ticket sales, every other actual real-world parameter) makes me want to agree with Clifton – We’ve Finally Gotten Started.