When Two Cow Garage played the High Noon Saloon in August I found out two important things. The first was that bassist Shane Sweeney was going to be a dad (and was pretty excited about it), the second was that lead singer/guitarist Micah Schnabel was putting out a solo record and wanted to do a show at the house after it was released. When the Stage Lights Go Dim came out in October as a self-release and was picked up by Suburban Home Records to be re-issued next month. I’d only had it for a few days when it came time to make my best of the year list and CD, but I didn’t hesitate to add it to the mix. Micah has a voice that’s raw and full of emotion. On top of a band he sounds like he’s been on the road since the day he was born, but over an acoustic guitar it’s the sound of someone spilling their guts. Stage Lights couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than autobiographical. It’s about playing rock and roll in the Heartland, partying too hard, and all the while believing you’re invincible and that love conquers all.
With Shane out on paternity leave, now was as good a time as any to tour the solo record. There were a string of east coast dates before the holidays and a short tour through the Midwest after. Micah has always been the guy who slept in the back of the van while Shane drove. That had to make heading out on his own interesting, but he was doing just fine. In fact, it certainly seemed to be working for him. He was selling a ton of merch every night, even though he couldn’t always locate the right size or color T-shirt. Tonight he tossed them onto the floor as he looked through the box for that elusive small. It wasn’t a surprise that he sold a lot of CDs, he’d just spent an hour convincing them they couldn’t live without it.
Their full band shows are always kick ass rock shows, but somehow the solo show was even more impressive. After opening with “American Static” which may be Stage Light’s strongest track, he mixed the new songs with tunes from their last CD and a few choice covers. The Replacements bubbly “Can’t Hardly Wait” gets slowed down on the record, making Justin Townes Earle’s pedantic version sound hurried. Petty’s “American Girl” and Springsteen’s “No Surrender” were perfect for his growling voice and frantic acoustic. At times he was so involved in the song he would step back from the microphone, letting the basement amplify his voice.
I’d been asking Time Since Western’s Andy Brawner to come play the basement since seeing the band over a year ago. At that time his bass player had quit the band and he didn’t know what their future would be. After the drummer moved away, the band is now just Andy. After his set tonight, I’m convinced he doesn’t need a rhythm section at all, unless they’ve got some jokes to tell. Between every song he bemoaned the fact that he was terrible at the banter thing, going so far as to practice it with his wife and making a list of conversation bullet points. Having no banter turned out to be all the banter he needed. He played most of his debut release A Sun Goes Down, in addition to a handful of new songs, most of which he insisted he was crazy to try to play out they were so new. In fact, the only song I know that he didn’t play was the impressive new track “Dizzy,” which he had recorded at Smart Studios and you can hear on his MySpace page, because he didn’t have the right guitar.
Hopefully he now knows what Micah already knew, the basement is a great place to play. It was an awesome start to a new year.
Time Since Western
Micah Schnabel
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