The Prairie Dogs

The Prairie Dogs played at Shakabrah Java last Friday night. In some ways I felt unfocused throughout most of it, perhaps due in some part to working with a new sound person, or the group of three men sitting at a table near the front who were talking louder than the PA system, or the fact that I was recording the whole thing onto an eight-track deck I borrowed from a friend and any type of engineering tends to put the other half of my brain to work, kicking the ass of the delicate musician area already under heavy attack by the left beer lobe.

But I wouldn’t say this was the case throughout the whole gig. The men eventually shut their pie holes after one of them left. Right near the second third of the set we seemed to hit our stride and pulled off some really nice stuff. Dave brought his stand up double bass, which he played a few songs with and I thought it really added something to the whole affair.


We had a nice turnout, getting a number of our friends who hadn’t seen us before to come out and listen. One of the nice things about playing Shakabrah is that people bring their families and don’t stress out about getting a baby sitter. The kids, for the most part, behave very well and can even add a little humor into what at times can be a rather maudlin set list.

Sweetie and I, however, left the kids at home with a sitter. We don’t get out much these days and when we do it’s nice to fill it with adult conversation. We’re working on getting out together where she doesn’t have to sit around listening to me sing for the hundredth time, perhaps dinner and a movie or some such. Something with linear train-of-thought conversation, not punctuated with “mommy, mommy, mommy”, or “AhhhhhhhYaaa!!! a-dahh adahhh!”


I had brought the camera in the hope of getting some pictures of us playing together, but promptly forgot all about it when I arrived. I did have the good fortune to remember it when we were putting our equipment away though, so I snapped a few shots of us wrapping things up. I had to take my own picture though…in case you were wondering why my freakin head is so damn big.

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