Micah Schnabel at Frankies--review

I am a very big fan of Two Cow Garage. For those of you who don't know them (you can hear clips on their website), they are a great rock band from Columbus. I also have a very personal connection to these guys and their music ...but I'll have to go into that at some other time.

Their singer, Micah Schnabel, has a very cool solo album out called When the Stage Lights Go Dim. He's also on a mini-tour to plug it, and when I found out he was playing in Toledo, I immediately made my plans.

So, how was it? Overall, it was a great, great evening. The twenty one things you need to know:

1. I always love it when I have friends that I can expose to/brainwash to become fans of cool bands I like.
   
2. Frankies is a cool bar. Want proof? They have $1.50 PBRs, Black Labels, or Blatzs.
   
3. One of the bouncers complained that if he wanted better luck with women, he should quit trying to use lines about (censored sexual terminology) and Greek food. I have no idea what this means, but I still think it's funny as hell.
   
4. Micah is as gracious, awesome, and bubbly as always. When me and my friends came in, I asked him when he went on. He said "Not sure what time, but I go on last." And then, while pointing to his name in big letters at the top of a show poster, "Hey, I'm Micah Schnabel" Then he noticed that they spelled his name "Michah."
   
5. The bar apparently earlier hosted an (excuse me for this) "all ages hardcore matinée show." Micah told me that he was the only non-teenie there and felt like a parent sitting in the back. I told him that me and my friends, as we're all teachers, we're used to the little bastard trying to make us feel old all the time, so we know how he felt.
   
6. In the "good news" department, Micah told me that Two Cow will be making a new album in March...so already I know 2010 will bean awesome music year.
   
7. The bar was surprisingly packed for a weekday acoustic show. Most of the guys in the audience looked like they were cultivating their facial hair specifically for such events.
   
8. All you need to know about the first act was that the guitar player was wearing a vest. Enough said.
   
9. The tv sets in the bar were playing a dvd of some artist that I didn't recognize...but the singer (a middle-aged, not really in shape white guy) was wearing nothing but a micro-bikini.
   
10. The second act was a singer/songwriter type who obviously thought he was Bob Dylan. He also was wearing plaid...which seems to be another stereotypically "acoustic musician" fashion choice.
    
11. This guy also neglected to say his name anywhere at all in his set. Apparently, he needs lessons in marketing.
    
12. The last guy was a pretty lively punk-influenced singer named Larry Love (a name which immediately made me think sex worker). He repeatedly claimed that he was very sick and getting very drunk...I guess to compensate. The two highlights of his set were a cover of "If Only You Were Lonely" and an original which was called something like "I'm Watching Porn." I thought him to be pretty engaging.
    
13. For some reason, between all the other acts, the PA was playing very loud grungy rock. The genre choice was curious, as it was an acoustic evening, and I also wasn't quite sure why they had the sound up louder than the actual performers. But before Micah's set, they moved to old blues and soul...which was much better
    
14. Micah just utterly dominated the stage. There was utterly nothing laid back about his performance, and during several numbers, he was stomping his feet so loudly that it was in danger of drowning out his vocals and breaking the stage.
    
15. The set itself was balanced about halfway between Micah's solo material and Two Cow material. "Your Humble Narrator" sounded particularly great.
    
16. There were also two covers: "Atlantic City" and an awesome, utterly perfect acoustic take on "Can't Hardly Wait."
    
17. More artists should sell, in addition to the normal tee shirts, concert work shirts. Micah's looked awesome.
    
18. Micah, in between thanking me for the 38th time for coming out, promised that Two Cow Garage would be back sometime in February to road-test the new album. Weeee!
    
19. A great night and great music was only made better when my bar tab only came to $9.
    
20. Ran into an online friend but only chatted briefly. I guess people would more easily recognize me in public if I didn't use my Mii for my Twitter and Facebook icon.
    
21. The only bad thing about the night? For whatever reason, we were utterly incapable of finding anywhere on the ride home that could satisfy my french fry lust. Oh well.