I played a fairly last minute show at Viento y Agua last night. I had mixed feelings about playing a show I couldn’t promote. But 1) it seemingly doesn’t matter how much I promote and 2) I need to rack up onstage experience and 3) I love Viento. The result was one of those beautiful accidents of saying yes.

Although I’ve been playing a lot of guitar lately, it’s all been writing or recording and not so much rehearsing for gigs. I generally try to be over-rehearsed for shows and I’ve found that allows me to be looser onstage. I don’t have to stick to the set list if I know I’ve practiced 30 songs that week. Last night, I was scribbling the set list onstage before I turned around to face the audience. Not the best preparation. I think I played pretty well though. I felt myself dragging through Girls With Glasses but I made up for it by rocking the hell out of Stay Together. Or so I like to think.

Since Viento has redesigned their interior, I’ve played 3 shows there and I’ve felt much more comfortable than I did before. I think the space just feels more open and the stage doesn’t feel cornered so much. Whatever it is, there’s still the quiet of the coffee house but it’s not so pin-droppy now.

I played first, not knowing who was to follow. Second was One High Five playing as an acoustic duo. They won’t know the references but they were like watching a team-up of The Obscure and Feable Weiner — part garage rock, part pop-punk. They were great onstage, tons of energy and quips and chit-chat. That really helps in that coffee house. Bands that are too quiet can start to drag. They played “Seeing Other People” by Belle and Sebastian — a song I used to listen to on a train, dressed in a suit, headed to my job in the City of London 16 years ago. So that was kind of a head-fuck. And yes, that’s all true.

After them was Foxxhound, about whom I almost immediately said…

Foxxhound: really beautiful chamber pop duo from Tustin(!). New musical crush.

— Todd A (@heytodda) February 16, 2013

They’re a duo of cello and a great reverbed-out old Gretsch guitar and male/female vocals. Kinda jazzy, kinda indie, kinda chamber pop. They were amazing. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed them. I bought both of their records on Bandcamp this morning. Go find them on Facebook too.

I also met Kayla from Music In Press which I was previously unaware of. And the photo of me above comes courtesy of Robert Blumschein who liked me enough to join my Singles Club while I was playing. That’s awesome.