Review: Jeremy Messersmith Live in My Living Room
After hosting two successful Eliza Rickman house concerts in my living room, it was time to branch out to a new musician. Fortunately, my friends Ed from Chasing Infinity and Emma from The Occasional Detour had ideas in that area. They wanted to bring Twin Cities resident Jeremy Messersmith into town, but neither one had an appropriate space for hosting. Would I be interested in hosting? Yes, yes I would.
Ed & I were soon in communications with Jeremy's manager Paul. Originally they opted to play in Wooster that night, but that fell through and we were booked for November 14. Now, Eliza's shows were all "free, please buy merch" shows, but Jeremy operates a little differently. First off, this was the Supper Club tour. He asked every attendee to bring some food for a potluck. Secondly, he charged $15, payable in advance through his website. I have to admit that I was dubious about that last one. I'm not omniscient, but I think I do a better than average job of staying on top of the bands that come to town and I'd never heard of Jeremy. I was concerned that we weren't going to get much turnout at $15/head, which is quite a bit of money compared to most Grog and Tavern shows.
As it turns out, Paul/Jeremy were right and I was wrong. They sold 25 advance tickets. A lot of those people never turned up, but with Jeremy & Paul plus Ed and I and our +1s we had 25 attendees on a Wednesday night. The vast majority of these people were strangers to me, but I did know a few of them:
Ed of Chasing Infinity and Mrs. Chasing Infinity
Emma of The Occasional Detour
Adam from The Spektrum
Katy, esteemed GM of WRUW (who showed up way late, but we forgive her)
A few of the others were personal friends or listeners of Ed, but that vast majority were Jeremy Messersmith fans who learned about the show from him. The woman who had tried to host the Wooster show was present, and we also got two people up from Akron. One guy brought his elementary school age daughter. And they all brought food.
There was broccoli salad, Mexican lasagana, goat cheese stuffed peppadews, brownies, fish stew, chicken strips, chicken wings, salad options, a selection of olives and no doubt a bunch of other things I've forgotten. I myself contributed stuff mushrooms. Adam kicked in cherry hard cider. Anyone who left hungry certainly had nobody to blame but themselves. Tulip had a grand old time wandering around trying (mostly without success) to convince people that she was so cute that she needed to be given human food, or at least be petted extensively (she had more success there). She may possibly have been given a chicken strip. Then she went upstairs with a fancy chewie treat when the show started.
I had procured folding chairs from gieves but most people were content to sit on the floor. Jeremy sat down near the piano and the rest of us made a big circle around him. He then proceeded to charm us mightily. He performed songs from all of his albums and from his "already recorded and soon to be released" album. Requests were taken. All of this was done solely on acoustic guitar and vocals. The crowd was very into it. In particular, one young women sat up right front and sang along with pretty much every song and took many pictures. Sadly, none of her pictures (or anyone elses) seem to have turned up for public consumption yet. The set flew by, and could have gone on much longer without anyone complaining.
Before the show Jeremy had thanked me for "letting all these people trash your house." I'd say I wasn't worried about it, so during a break between songs Jeremy thanked me again and said "this guy says we can't possibly trash his house, which sounds like a challenge to me." After some laughter, I responded with "it's cool, most of the stuff in here belongs to my ex anyway," which brought down the house. So now I can say I got Jeremy Messersmith to double over with laughter during a show. He also graciously volunteered to "take a bat to anything I wanted destroyed," which is an offer I equally graciously declined.
Afterwords people hung out, bought merch and chatted with Jeremy. I myself bought his complete collection (3 full lengths and an EP). Naturally, the two songs I liked the most are on the as of yet unavailable new album, so I'll have to pick that up later. Equally naturally, I forgot to get an autograph. Oh well. Somebody (Ed?) got a legal ID for the radio station so that's good.
And then everybody packed up and moved along. Well, they didn't pack up perfectly. Despite a plea on my part, many people left their leftovers behind. I didn't have to cook for three days (good) but I still ended up throwing away quite a bit of food (bad). That is my only complaint; otherwise everything was cleaned up and restored to normal by the time I went to bed.
I like this house concert thing. I need to do it again some time. Anyone have any suggestions?
EDIT - I almost forgot: Jeremy gave me some home made apple butter and canned mushrooms as a gift. Yummy.
Ed & I were soon in communications with Jeremy's manager Paul. Originally they opted to play in Wooster that night, but that fell through and we were booked for November 14. Now, Eliza's shows were all "free, please buy merch" shows, but Jeremy operates a little differently. First off, this was the Supper Club tour. He asked every attendee to bring some food for a potluck. Secondly, he charged $15, payable in advance through his website. I have to admit that I was dubious about that last one. I'm not omniscient, but I think I do a better than average job of staying on top of the bands that come to town and I'd never heard of Jeremy. I was concerned that we weren't going to get much turnout at $15/head, which is quite a bit of money compared to most Grog and Tavern shows.
As it turns out, Paul/Jeremy were right and I was wrong. They sold 25 advance tickets. A lot of those people never turned up, but with Jeremy & Paul plus Ed and I and our +1s we had 25 attendees on a Wednesday night. The vast majority of these people were strangers to me, but I did know a few of them:
Ed of Chasing Infinity and Mrs. Chasing Infinity
Emma of The Occasional Detour
Adam from The Spektrum
Katy, esteemed GM of WRUW (who showed up way late, but we forgive her)
A few of the others were personal friends or listeners of Ed, but that vast majority were Jeremy Messersmith fans who learned about the show from him. The woman who had tried to host the Wooster show was present, and we also got two people up from Akron. One guy brought his elementary school age daughter. And they all brought food.
There was broccoli salad, Mexican lasagana, goat cheese stuffed peppadews, brownies, fish stew, chicken strips, chicken wings, salad options, a selection of olives and no doubt a bunch of other things I've forgotten. I myself contributed stuff mushrooms. Adam kicked in cherry hard cider. Anyone who left hungry certainly had nobody to blame but themselves. Tulip had a grand old time wandering around trying (mostly without success) to convince people that she was so cute that she needed to be given human food, or at least be petted extensively (she had more success there). She may possibly have been given a chicken strip. Then she went upstairs with a fancy chewie treat when the show started.
I had procured folding chairs from gieves but most people were content to sit on the floor. Jeremy sat down near the piano and the rest of us made a big circle around him. He then proceeded to charm us mightily. He performed songs from all of his albums and from his "already recorded and soon to be released" album. Requests were taken. All of this was done solely on acoustic guitar and vocals. The crowd was very into it. In particular, one young women sat up right front and sang along with pretty much every song and took many pictures. Sadly, none of her pictures (or anyone elses) seem to have turned up for public consumption yet. The set flew by, and could have gone on much longer without anyone complaining.
Before the show Jeremy had thanked me for "letting all these people trash your house." I'd say I wasn't worried about it, so during a break between songs Jeremy thanked me again and said "this guy says we can't possibly trash his house, which sounds like a challenge to me." After some laughter, I responded with "it's cool, most of the stuff in here belongs to my ex anyway," which brought down the house. So now I can say I got Jeremy Messersmith to double over with laughter during a show. He also graciously volunteered to "take a bat to anything I wanted destroyed," which is an offer I equally graciously declined.
Afterwords people hung out, bought merch and chatted with Jeremy. I myself bought his complete collection (3 full lengths and an EP). Naturally, the two songs I liked the most are on the as of yet unavailable new album, so I'll have to pick that up later. Equally naturally, I forgot to get an autograph. Oh well. Somebody (Ed?) got a legal ID for the radio station so that's good.
And then everybody packed up and moved along. Well, they didn't pack up perfectly. Despite a plea on my part, many people left their leftovers behind. I didn't have to cook for three days (good) but I still ended up throwing away quite a bit of food (bad). That is my only complaint; otherwise everything was cleaned up and restored to normal by the time I went to bed.
I like this house concert thing. I need to do it again some time. Anyone have any suggestions?
EDIT - I almost forgot: Jeremy gave me some home made apple butter and canned mushrooms as a gift. Yummy.