Parcivillian -- Part 1 (a local color post)

Recently, my wife and I went to an open mic night at a local-ish tavern-ish place. This is not a thing that is part of our normal routine. It is so far outside of our normal routine, in fact, that it isn't something we'd ever done before. But it had been a rough week, and I was looking for something fun we could do for dinner that night, something cheap we could do for dinner that night, and a free open mic night seemed like a good option. I mean, the worst that could happen would be that all the participants would suck, but even that can be entertaining (like the ukulele who sang an original song that heavily featured pickles and olives), and, you know, there was always the possibility of some real gems.

We were late.

We had some business to take care of before we could head to the place, business that took longer than we'd anticipated. So, rather than get there early enough to eat before the open mic event started, we got there in time for the event to start, but we were both pretty ravenous by that point, so we got a table rather than going into the venue. Fortunately, it wasn't far from the big open doors to the building the event was in, so we could hear what was going on. And, well, they started late, too.

Eventually, we finished eating, and went down to the open mic thing. Except that I had to take our left over food out to the car, so she went on in without me. (Where, amusingly, she immediately began to get hit on by an older gentleman who kept flirting with her even after I got back, almost as if I wasn't even standing there. (Yes, my wife is a "hottie."))

At this point, I need to explain something:
My wife and I have very different approaches to music. Very frequently, songs will grab me the first time I hear them. For instance, "With Or Without Me" was instantaneous. I didn't even hear the whole song or hear it well. It came on the radio that was playing in the background, and it caught my ear, and I did that whole shushing thing to everyone around me so that I could hear the song. It was, at the time, the best song I'd ever heard. I knew it right away.

My wife never has that reaction to music. She's someone who has to grow into loving a song. Usually, it takes her four or five times of hearing something before she even begins to like it. And she's the musical one! It can be disappointing for me when I bring her some new song I've just heard that I think is great and she gives it a shrug and a "It's okay." Which is what I expect, but, still.

So... I had to take food out to the car. When I got back, the band that was playing was in the middle of their final song and, as soon as I walked up to my wife, she grabbed my arm and said, "I really like this song." That got my attention. Of course, my first thought was that she must have heard it somewhere before, because, you know, she wouldn't like it if it was the first time she'd heard it. But we didn't know what song it was.

After the band was finished, I sort of snuck up on one of them, the bass player, and asked him about it. Guess what. It was an original song! So, yeah, it grabbed my wife the first time she heard it (and I liked what I heard of it, too, even if I didn't hear the whole thing), and I was even more impressed.

Which brings me to the punch line, so to speak:
I tracked the bass player down again and asked him if they'd, Parcivillian, would like to get featured on my blog. It was an enthusiastic "yes!" This is not that feature. This is just the story leading to the feature. In the mean time, though, please hop over to their facebook page. Right there at the top is a video of the song my wife likes so much. It's called "One Kiss."

Next week, I'll be back with more about this new band.