Roller-coaster ride

So this is how it is on the other side of the microphone.

On Sunday night at the Sportsmen’s Tavern in Buffalo, the Demo Daddies gave their debut public performance. That’s the band I sing with, and it was the first rock ‘n’ roll show of my life (excepting singing Carl Perkins’ “Boppin’ the Blues” with a blues band in a college bar in the late ‘70s).

As somebody who has written about musicians more times than I can recall, it’s good to get the other perspective. For instance, I’m starting to understand performer’s paranoia.

The show Sunday night was a rush of adrenaline. The band was great, and the audience was friendly ... enthusiastic even. It was fun to have a chance to sing my songs for a group of people that had mostly never heard them.

I’ve had a chance to listen to the show (reminder to self: never listen to shows that have been recorded through the microphones on video cameras). I went to sleep Tuesday night thinking I stink. Good band; lousy singer. Who would even come to hear it.

Now it’s Wednesday. Was it really that bad? Probably not. Nobody ran from the bar screaming. I still think the songs are pretty damned good and the band was great. I probably wasn’t as good as I like to hear myself in my head, but I suspect I wasn’t as bad as what I was hearing in my head last night.

But now I have a better understanding of the insecurities of the job of going up on stage and belting out songs for an audience, and for the need for reassurance that you actually are good.

It’s one show and it’s a roller-coaster, the build-up and the letdown.

No wonder people who actually do that for a living end up so screwed up.

Time to finally do it!

OK. For the past 27 years, I've been writing about musicians and the sounds they make.

For the past year or so I've been telling people about the music I make.

Tomorrow (Sunday, Dec. 7, 4 p.m.), people will get a chance to come out and find out what the critic actually sounds like. That's a scary thought.

The site is the Sportsmen's Tavern, 326 Amherst St., in Buffalo. It's sort of cool that I'll get to play on the same stage that has seen Dave Alvin, Peter Case, Wanda Jackson, Dale Watson and a ton of great local talent perform over the past few years.

The recording, under the name of the Demo Daddies, was made with Matt Smith, former guitarist for Scott Carpenter & the Real McCoys and the Headhunters. Lately he's been leading a group called the Hammond Shutdown and playing with Roger Bryan & the Orphans. Matt plays everything, while I did the lyrics and basic melodies. One full song and a couple of the clips from the album (titled They Don't Write 'em (like that anymore) are posted at www.myspace.com/thedemodaddies.

Over the past few months, the Demo Daddies have been coming together as a band. In addition to Matt, Charlie Gannon (bass for Real McCoys, Dee Adams), Brian Daddis (drummer for the Real McCoys) and Tyler Harrington III (guitar for Doombuggy) have rounded out the group. Damn, the band is good. I'd pay to hear these guys.

Now tomorrow we'll find out whether anybody will come to see us, though. Admission is free. The Sportsmen is a cool place, an old country place on the edge of Black Rock that has become a gathering place for honky tonk fans and old punks alike. I think the crowd will be good, and I know the band will be great.

But I'm starting to understand that piece of performers' anxiety; I'm having this dream that I'm up there on stage by myself. Even the band has forgotten to come. ... That's one dream I'm hopin doesn't come true!