Berlin Debut

These are from, kid you not, my first time playing out. It was in Berlin a few years ago, at a historic bar about a block from Checkpoint Charlie near the Wall. It’s called The Oscar Wilde Bar and was the first place people would go to have a “free” beer in West Berlin. It was full of posters plastered to the ceiling, exceptionally friendly people (we met people from all over that night) and a singer on an electric-acoustic doing crowd-pleasing singalong stuff. I had enough beer (the best stuff, called Kilkenny) to be cajoled into getting on stage and doing a few covers in front of complete strangers. Seriously, this happened, and it was awesome. What a great memory.

The setlist:

1. Chalkdust Torture (Phish)
2. Dirt (Phish)
3. Over the Hills and Far Away (Led Zeppelin)

I insisted, and still do, that I sounded like complete shit.  The people I was with said it was awesome, but I think they were just being nice.