A Rainy Night at Jitter's

Jitter’s Coffee House – Atascocita, Texas

A rainy Saturday evening in H -Town, and on the north side of the city, in a quaint little coffee house is our fearless trio preparing to do battle. Lee’s eldest sons Zachery and Austin are in town for a Father’s day visit. Since both are musicians in their own right, the act of loading in equipment and setting up is very familiar to them. The sons help Lee set up his customized drum kit (including those weird roses that wrap around the cymbal stands).

The group begins with an appropriate selection of covering John Hiatt’s FEELS LIKE RAIN. George announces that “The trio will be performing a special set of songs for Father’s day”. After a few more tunes, Chris and Lindy arrive with their kids, Rosie (age 3) and Xavier (9 mo). Rosie quickly gets into the groove to the extent that many begin to question if she’s truly dancing of if she needs to visit the Lady’s room. Xavier has freed himself car from seat restraints and joins Rosie on the ‘dance floor’. He wobbles with arms shaking looking a lot like a miniature Frankenstein’s monster, but he’s got style.

Soon the trio finds themselves in the midst of an unscheduled jazz improvisation that eventually morph’s into a raucous version of THE THINGS WE SAID TODAY from the movie A HARD DAY’S NIGHT. About this time, Havilyn and Carmen arrive. They have decided that the best warm-up for the cage fight match fight they’re going to see is to drop by and check out the band beforehand. Havilyn serves up some vengeance for Matthew and Lee as she pranks calls George’s cell phone (see previous blog). Nice One, Hav.

Robert and Eileen arrive in time to see Chris do a rap song he’s written about Jitter’s. He does the rap to the tune of BABY GOT BACK. He even manages to work some lines about the band. Chris wins himself a free coffee from the staff and a demo CD from the band. And while everyone enjoys it, Rosie is most impressed and proclaims, “He’s my Daddy! He’s my Daddy!” Chris buys her a soft serve cone which inspires the trio to play the Sarah McLachlan tune (Your Love is Better Than) ICE CREAM.

Loretta arrives with Lee’s youngest sons Dylan and Noah. (Lee’s entourage is quickly becoming as large as PDiddy’s.) After a few songs Dylan decides that he’d rather play outside in the rain than listen to his old man play drums. Becky Sue (Matthew’s wife) and Sabrina (George’s) arrive with George’s children, Faith and Joel. “We’ll be performing the Father’s Day medley soon, now that everyone is here.”, announces Matthew. For now the group plays Joel’s favorite song: YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME (the Randy Newman song from the movie TOY STORY). Joel is 3 ½ .

Right about then, Matthew spills his almost empty coffee. NOTE: This has become somewhat of a Jitter’s tradition. Though the cups are the exact same size every month, and the width of the ledge that he attempts to balance it on is unchanging, Matthew still believes that it will support the coffee. It never does. ‘Ploop’ goes the coffee onto the tile floor. The interesting part is that Matthew is genuinely surprised each time this happens. Even frequent members of the ‘audience’ such as Robert and Eileen know it’s going to happen. It’s almost a part of the show – like pyrotechnics. Xavier ‘Frankenstein walks’ towards the spill, but Chris is faster and snatches him up.

Robert, Eileen, and Becky Sue continue their monthly Rummy tournament as the band plays more rain-themed tunes: RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD, HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN, etc. “The ‘Father’s Day Song Spectacular’ will be played for you in just a few minutes” is the announcement. All night, Matthew has been fighting a losing battle with the pull string for the neon sign on the window above his head. In an effort to ‘up the ante’ he somehow manages to stab himself in the head with his bass tuning keys. While there is no blood let, it is still very painful. George contemplates whether or not to have the group play THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST, but changes his mind and nominates Matthew as band MVP for the night.

“The Father’s Day Musical Extravaganza is about to begin in just a few minutes! Please take your seats!” Robert wins the band trivia contest when the question is “What is Robert’s middle name?” and is awarded a demo of GP3. For some unknown reason the group plays the most ridiculously slow version of the Nat King Cole song ORANGE COLORED SKY. It is sooooo slow that it is barely recognizable, and George still messes up the lyrics. Even Robert is confused. Semi-recovered from his head trauma, Matthew saves the day crooning Leonard Cohen’s HALLELUJAH like a rock anthem. The effort garners ‘concert lighter gestures’ from the crowd.

As Lee proclaims the last announcement about the Father’s Day medley, a distinguished black man and his father enter. Just as they are seated, the older man’s coffee explodes onto the table. The air is instantly filled with the delicious aromatic of fragrance of a mega-grande roasted dark butter chocolate espresso. The table where the two are sitting has been swallowed up in the overflowing brown foam that drips to the floor like mocha lava. The trio (in the middle of a set of Eagles’ songs) responds by changing the lyrics to DESPERADO. “…Now it seems to me some …COFFEE HAS BEEN SPILLED… (fine things have been laid) upon your table…” etc. Matthew secretly admires the spill, as it has made 10 times the mess any of his have ever made.

The evening draws to a close as Robert cheats at Rummy. The band plays I’LL FOLLOW THE SUN…but wait! What happened to the Father’s Day’s Extravaganza??? Out of time! How can that be? … Well, maybe next year.

Debut of GP3

Art Walk Outdoor Exhibit – Galveston, Texas
The trio’s debut performance is a road trip to Galveston, Texas for the annual Art Walk exhibit and parade on the Strand. (Note: Even though Lee had performed with Matthew and George several times before this event, this was the first performance of the three as George Poe Trio)

In order to save money on gas, the three meet at Lee’s place to load in the equipment, and the madness ensues. Unbeknownst to Matthew and George, Lee apparently suffers from some rare type of proportional space deficiency thing; meaning that he thinks the cargo area of his truck is larger than it actually is. This becomes a zany “WARNING objects are larger than they appear in the mirror” moment in which Lee has to come to terms with the fact that George’s piano DOES have 88 keys instead of 22 or 23. Fortunately, for the group, Lee has studied the fine art of bungee cording and has a PHD in tarp coverings; so this minor oversight is quickly forgiven as Lee begins to stack all of the band’s equipment in the bed of the truck. As Matthew comments about how the truck is beginning to look like the Beverly Hillbillies pickup with Granny on top, he is handed another bungee cord from Lee.

To lighten the mood, George follows suit by secretly emptying the contents of Lee’s garage into the truck. Everything from Christmas lawn ornaments to adult pogo sticks make their way into the bed of the truck before any of this is noticed. Then Matthew discovers the antlers of lawn reindeer protruding from a bass drum cover and the prank is over. As punishment for these crimes, George is banished to sit in the backseat of the truck with the 88 keys (not 23) and an amplifier. Since there is no room on the floorboard for his legs, he is forced to extend them across the length of the cab of the truck to the front nearly kicking the radio knobs off.

A few minutes later, Lee has run out of bungee cords so he is ready to go. Looking a lot like the junk truck from the TV show, Sanford and Son, the vehicle is put in gear, slumps forward and begins to teeter towards Galveston. Ah, but not so fast: Despite repeated refusals by Matthew to accept a beverage from Loretta (Lee’s wife) for the trip, he is now ready to get one from a neighborhood convenient store less than 3 blocks from Lee’s house. The guys make it less than a mile from the store when they have to stop for a train! At this point, the three are starting to question if they will make it to the island before nightfall, but still they press on.

To pass the time in the hot Houston traffic, Matthew puts on the recently completed new, new, ‘new’ demo CD (Lee had not heard the finished master). It helps the three to focus on the ‘job at hand’. The trio becomes inspired as they advance down the highway. Always the prankster, George decides now is a good time to call Matthew (and then Lee) on his cell phone from the backseat. He thinks it’s a hoot to watch them wrestle for their phones only to see his name on the display. (Even though this joke gets stale VERY quickly, George will continue to annoy the other two with this gag for the remainder of the trip.) The discussion on the highway ranges from dead rock stars to large inflatable balloon displays all to the sounds of Rosanne Cash’s RULES OF TRAVEL CD.

An hour or so later, all of the blood has circulated out of George’s elevated legs and the trio arrive at the Strand in Galveston. While Lee makes contact with the proprietor of the place the group is to play in front of he asks George to watch for an empty parking space to open in front of the venue. He is told to ‘block it off’ when it becomes available. A bit of a confrontation ensues when George faces off with a determined red Cadillac whose driver REALLY, REALLY wants to park in the spot that George is standing in as Lee brings the truck around. But George’s determination wins out and the woman leaves to go harass some other band down the road somewhere. As the three begin unloading the equipment, it is quickly discovered that one of the large orange tarps has frayed and ripped at some point along the journey. As the torn tarp savagely beat against the items it was supposed to protect, fiber particles like a fine dust settle on everything underneath. All of the equipment looks like there was a collision with a giant bag of Cheetos. As George and Matthew ponder as to whether or not their equipment has more orange dust than the Mars rover, Lee begins to ‘set up shop’.

The owner of the business has expressed that the trio must not take up ½ of the sidewalk leaving the guys to perform in a 4 x 6 foot sloping area. While this presents some space obstacles for Matthew and Lee, George pretty much rode from Houston to the island in the glove box anyway, so he is excited about all of the ‘extra’ space he has acquired. George decides to prank call Matthew and Lee again.

As Lee is busy trying to fold his drum kit in half, Matthew and George search for a restroom. The trio is setting up outside of a novelty photo house where patrons have portraits made of themselves wearing vintage Victorian clothing in front of regal-looking backdrops. The two wander past the displays up to the top of a rickety staircase to the toilet. The owner gives some unusual instructions about using the toilet before George enters the bathroom. The toilet looks like it may actually be from the Victorian era and there is a mysterious sweet potato (and cooker) in the small room. Later, the two will discuss its significance to the event. Lee has finally finished setting up, and confiscated Matthew’s stool in the process to use as a drum table. George begins to notice the slight incline of the sidewalk as his chair (on rollers) keeps making its way to the street. This is probably karma for all of those prank calls he made to Matthew and Lee on the way down.

In order to boost the sound of the upright bass, Matthew has borrowed two malfunctioning microphones (also from the Victorian era) from the proprietor of the picture place. The group soon discovers that one of the will mics work, but has a short that causes it sporadically buzz, crackle, (and if you’re lucky) go out completely. Matthew gently shoves the smaller of the two mics into the…(wait for it…wait for it)… the F-Hole… of the bass. If he is completely still and aims the neck of the bass at a slight angle the buzzing sound is neutralized. About this time, George calls Lee over to look at the soundboard. For some reason the vocal channels are not putting any sound through to the speaker. Is it the cords? Is it the speaker? Is it the mics? Is it the amplifier? Is it the orange dust that is covering everything? (George calls Matthew’s cell). After much deliberation, prayer, unplugging and plugging cords in, button pushing, and knob twisting, Lee discovers the source of the problem: A mysterious button labeled ‘Phantom Power’ had accidentally been pushed in. Realizing that the guys are NOT phantoms, but rather live in the material plane, Lee pushes the button back in and instantly there is sound again. Lee is quickly appointed by the other two as head of the ‘Sound Committee’.

The event is good exposure for the band. Strategically positioned between a few restaurants and a Star Bucks coffee house, the trio enjoys a lot of ‘walk through traffic’. There is an artisan directly (Bonnie Blue) to the right of the band that paints caricatures on rocks for people. She has parked her Women of Rock” art car in front our block, and many people come over to get a closer look.

It is early evening on a beautiful Saturday and the temperature is a nice 10,000 degrees. The three are soaked with sweat which has begun to wash away some of the orange residue off. The trio begins the set by playing the Irving Berlin tune BLUE SKIES. At this point Matthew realizes that he has positioned himself facing directly into the sunlight. He doesn’t dare move though (as if he could anyway) for fear the bass mic will short out and electrocute him. The group sounds good. The music delightfully echoes off the surrounding buildings, and attracts many passer-bys to come and listen and talk with the group - Mission Accomplished!

Lee makes a connection with a fellow surfer who originates from his home town of San Diego. They have a nice chat while Lee plays. They chat for a few songs. It begins to appear to be some type of A.A. meeting for surfers. Nautical terms like ‘Goofy-Foot’ are bantered about. George and Matthew stare at each other in bewilderment. As Lee is nominated for the Head of the Surf committee, George reaches for his cell phone to prank Lee again. In a moment of weakness he decides not to. Lee’s newfound friend leaves and the three continue on. The guys encounter a rollicking group of Scottish sounding lads that demand that the Ted Nugent song STRANGLEHOLD be played. The trio plays Ray Charles’ HALLELUIAH, I LOVE HER SO instead and it seems to appease the crowd for the moment. As the sun begins to set (and Matthew regains his line of sight), the threesome wistfully performs a number of sun themed songs; I’LL FOLLOW THE SUN, THAT LUCKY OLD SUN, etc.

Just about then, Loretta and friends arrive to offer support. It’s nice to be among friends. George develops a charlie horse from pushing against the sidewalk incline for 2 ½ hours and the band takes a break. Lee fantasizes about what HIS art car would be like. He dreams of the money to be made touring the country in a car that looks like a giant raven. Matthew examines the blister he’s developed on his thumb from overplaying.

An older gentleman approaches the group and requests the song STARDUST. The trio offers to play STRANGHOLD instead. After learning the man used to lead his own big swing band, George convinces him to sit at the piano and play STARDUST himself. Matthew and Lee keep up, but this guy is a master! He leaves after only one song (probably the agent orange dust residue on everything) and George resumes his post behind the piano. In a sentimental moment, George gets the group to play the Beatles’ GOODNIGHT as he sings the lullaby to his children on his cell phone. Tim & Cindy slow dance to HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT I LOVE YOU? Nathan (the host of the event) arrives dressed to the nines to meet the guys. He relays accordion war stories with George and then he and his date dance away into the summer moonlight.

The band plays a few more songs, thanks everyone, and begins to pack up. The loading begins to resemble a Marx Brothers comedy as one of Lee’s beloved bungee cords has gone missing. Matthew immediately jumps into MacGyver mode by using his cell phone as a flashlight – This inspires George to get his cell phone and…well, you know the rest. After searching and searching for the wayward bungee, Lee devises a different scheme to get the equipment home that mainly relies on gravity, driving 30 mph, and asking Matthew to look in the passenger side mirror for debris every 200 yards. This becomes increasing complicated as the three somehow (don’t ask me how) get lost before leaving the island.

Through some tear in the space/time continuum, the boys find their way back to the mainland and the billboards are in English again. They decide to celebrate by filling up on some McDonald’s food but can not find one that will let them in at this hour of night. Finally, George and Lee trick a worker at the second McDonald’s to let them in but the beverage and condiment dispensers are being cleaned. Even so, the group takes the tip jar cash and feast on pre-made diminutive sized burgers. Lee wrestles with a ketchup packet until it squirts on his shirt. At which point, George calls him on the cell phone under the table. The three leave the restaurant. Lee does a brief inspection of the truck’s tarp and bungees, while George assumes his position in the back (and feet in the front seat). Matthew comments about he loves road trips as they head back to Houston.

The conversations are slower now, focused mostly on music and the beautiful architecture of the guitar solo to EIGHT MILES HIGH by the Byrds. Matthew is elated to learn that Lee has seen live performances of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. The truck rolls to a stop in the same spot of Lee’s driveway that it had started 11 hours earlier. It was a good day. Now all that’s left to…Is that my cell phone ringing?