the spare

Last week we headed to San Diego to play at the Hot Monkey Love Café. This cute little place is owned and operated by a sweet couple named Alma and Rick. They were wonderful hosts! The opening performance was by The Hot Monkey Love Band – Rick (the owner), Jerome, and Chris – all really nice guys having a good time jammin’ on a Friday night. Chris, the bass player, offered to sit in on our set (since we have only guitar and drums). I was more than happy to have him do so since I saw him play before us -- this guy is an amazing bassist. We had 15 minutes to prep – he and I went over the songs outside the café and he took notes on our 8 song set. Then we got up there and went to town – Chris glided through all the songs perfectly. I’d never played with someone who was able to learn a whole set of songs on the fly then perform then in 15 minutes. I was blown away…and so was the audience. It turned out to be a great and very successful experiment in improvisation and I hope to visit the HMLC again for another live, unrehearsed, on the fly performance!