Gettin' Older... Everybody's Gonna Wanna Doze

Stephanie & I first saw Deep Space Six in the spring of 1996. They were playing @ some bar in Novi that was called The Library Pub or some such thing. If I remember correctly, they had a lot of books around. Not good books, necessarily, not the kind of books one would actually want to read, I'm sure they were garage sale rejects & romance novels from library sales. None-the-less, it's a good thing we went because, as you know, we went on to see them a couple more times over the last 15 years.

Back in college though, when we were seeing them along w/ all sorts of other bands all the time, we could get totally wasted, go to the show & I would be able to recite the entire set-list in order the next morning. Perhaps I was just more concerned w/ that kind of thing then, but that's just something I could never do these days. I'm afraid it's an age thing. Maybe it's a concentration thing, but it scares me a bit. I remember coming home from Phish shows, Blues Traveler shows, even whole festivals & reconstructing the entire show from song to song.

Deep Space Six played a new bar on Cross Street last night (more about the bar in a minute), but my ability to remember the songs, not to mention the order, just isn't here anymore. Here's my take on the setlist:
Set I
Queen Jane
Catfish John
We Can Run
Black Peter
It Hurts Me Too
??????????
Set II
China>
Rider
Uncle John's
Eyes of the World

There was a Mighty Quinn in there somewhere & they must have played other stuff too. It's not that it was unimpressive or anything like that. In fact, over the last 15 years, they've gotten a lot better. They were really tight last night, but some of the songs are just gone from my memory. perhaps they didn't play as many because they had an opening act (Jim's other band, F.U.B.A.R, who was really fun & played 60's pop covers), but there had to be more than 4 in the second set. Maybe someday things will start coming back to me again, but I guess this can help me to live in the moment. I suppose I should pick up a Thich Nhat Han book tomorrow while I'm @ Nicola's so I can start honing my "in-the-moment spirit. Nah. I can't see that happening.

As far as the bar goes. It's nice to have another place for live music, but it was a little odd. It's really compact & there isn't much on tap. It seems like they're going to have to decide if they want to be a live-music bar or a frat bar because trying both @ the same time doesn't seem to be working. It's new though, & I'm sure they'll settle into a more consistent atmosphere. I just hope that when it happens, I'll be able to remember it.