Mike McClure Band

I learned about a decade ago that if Jo calls and says, hey whatcha doin this weekend someone I really want to see is in town... that I'm in for a treat.

Last night was no exception. I have never seen Mike McClure live. In fact I only really knew one of the songs he sang last night. Never-the-less the show was beyond incredible.

He was playing this small hole-in-the-wall place downtown. We arrived around 9ish. Fortunately for us, there were only 5 other people there at the time. They didn't start charging a cover until we were on our second round of refreshments.

The band took the stage about 10:30. They played an awesome set for the next hour. About halfway thru Mike stopped playing and demanded that the crowd boo him. In his thinking people get applause even if they're bad. But to get boo'ed you have to be a special sort of something. He didn't continue playing until we had sufficiently boo'ed.

It was a very intimate setting. The place was packed and yet there were no more than 75 or so people. An interesting man to watch was a guy we will call "Irish." Not because we think he was Irish, but because he was wearing a sweatshirt with the word Irish emblazened on the front. Anywho, he had a bucket of some nasty 6.0 stuff and turns out he wasn't sharing with anyone. He stood at the stage and danced like a white man. He also kept sneaking up and sharing his thoughts over an open mic.

When Mike McClure began asking for requests (after the first song) the audience was yelling a song name - Irish looked at one man and said "Is that a song he plays?" Jo and I about fell over laughing.

We were especially treated because the band knew most of the people there and it felt like we were at a private party. Not to mention that after the 5 minute pee break that felt like 12 minutes... Mike announced that he was going to play until they kicked him out - and he did.

Mike McClure Band is high on my list of "You Gotta See These Guys" so don't turn down the next opportunity you get.

Long days and pleasant nights...