curse of D - OVER!

i played Dan's Silverleaf in Denton last night
with Paul Slavens
he joined me for the whole set
even though we'd only had time to run through 4 songs beforehand
Dan's has a badass vibe
dimly lit
art strewn about
a nice stage with black velvet curtains in the back
this place is as cool as any club anywhere in the world
it wouldn't matter if it were in South Dakota
i'd want to play here
Paul sat at his piano
i flanked him stage right
we opened with "Western Hills"
there was a nice crowd gathered
a lot of familiar, smiling faces
the sound was impeccable
"She'd Walk a Mile" was one of my favorites
with Slaven's deliberately paced, swinging piano
after "1978" he went into the verse all "DA-DA-DA-DA!!! DA-DA-DAAA!"
it kinda reminded me of the Boss for some reason
so i sang over it "let's go back to 1978, oh yeah
that's the year the Boss was still great, oh yeah
before born in the USA
when the Boss went totally gay..."
it was some good spontaneous fun
i guess you really had to be there

we closed our set with 3 of the ones we'd actually practice
"Endless Dream Days"
"Never Say Never"
and "Saint Georges"
i thought Georges was particularly nice
afterwards i got to talk to a lot of my Denton friends
i was even approached by an ex-UNT teacher of mine
whom i hadn't seen in about 15 years
it was really nice of him to come out and say hi

Paul's set was riotous
people wrote down absurd song titles
presented them at the front of the stage to him
scrawled on a napkin
Paul and his band would then instantly come up with the song
and perform it
i've never seen anything like it
totally original and brilliant
i hung out and listened to them play
until 1am
then i headed back to Dallas
i drove really slowly
i was paranoid that a ticket on the way home could ruin
my successful night
but i made it back A-ok
the curse of Denton - officially lifted!!!