Fa-La-La-Lollapalooza

Mall of the Mainland – Texas City

After the Thanksgiving break, the guys head back to the mall…not to shop – but to perform. The food court has been transformed into a mystical winterland. There are two giant reindeers which form an arch at behind the band’s stage. Balanced between their two noses is a majestic Christmas wreath. All of this is lit up, making a splendid backdrop for the guys. Matthew and George joke about climbing onto these beasts to sing a song or two. George is pleased to eat the words he said during the last visit about ‘Mall of the Wasteland’. Reagan and the decorating crew really came through for this place. The mall even feels a little cooler temperature tonight.

The band loads in. George gets caught up in the Christmas spirit and offers to buy Lee a bag of theater popcorn from the megaplex across from the bandstand. The two ask for a small bag and the workers behind the counter produce a comically small sack that has to be less than 5 inches tall. Lee and George exchange bewildered looks then back at the counter. “Is this the courtesy cup size? I mean, you can’t even put a fist in there. What’s the next size up? (pointing) How much does that one cost?” “It costs $4.75… but believe me, that’s a good price.” “Compared to what?” The counter person acts as if he’s relaying some insider trading information by leaning over to them and admitting in a hushed tone “…next month it’s going up even more – so today’s price is really deal.” George is not convinced, but concedes for Lee’s sake. George makes a crack about having to have a co-signer at the concession stand these days and the two head back to unload.


Matthew is already set up. He’s wearing green Larry King-like suspenders with little white Christmas trees running down them. Very stylish – and hip (if you're 78). Lee and George play the ‘Door-Not-Door game’ with the flatbed dolly and the series of locked and unlocked mis-sized doors. After a quick set-up of the remaining gear, the guys kick off the set with WINTER WONDERLAND. A few measures in, Sameer, the worker from one of the small kiosks, approaches speaking in his cell phone. He tells George that mall security says the Texas City Police are outside at his car?


George leaps from the stage and races to the mall’s exit. He slams into one of the locked ‘decoy’ doors. He makes his way outside in time to see the officer emerge from the patrol car. George introduces himself and explains that he’s parked here to unload musical equipment for the event inside. And that he simply forgot to return to move the car. After Officer Ostermayer runs a check on the car’s plates, he writes up a warning citation for being in a red zone. George thanks him for ‘letting him off this time’ and promises to be more attentive in the future.

Meanwhile, back inside Lee is asked by an African-American man if the trio will be playing WHITE CHRISTMAS. Lee says yes. The man cocks his head and squints “So you WILL be playing WHITE CHRISTMAS?” Uh…Lee isn’t exactly sure how to respond to this. Gratefully he doesn’t have to – George returns to the stage and dedicates the first set to Officer Ostermayer of the Texas City P.D.

The music settles in quickly and mall patrons begin to gather and sit in the chairs that have been put out in front of the stage. George grimaces when he sings “...and I’ve got some corn for popping…” remembering the imminent popcorn increase as looks over to Lee. A few tunes later, Mayer (the owner of the mall) checks in on the guys. He is impressed that George remembers his name from the ribbon cutting event back in September. He asks for a very non-holiday song from the group: THEME FROM NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Having not ever played it, the guys do an alright delivery, faking through it every step of the way. They are relieved to have made it through without exposing the bluff (whew). But Mayer likes it so much he asks for them to play it again. Then again when his assistant Kelly arrives. By this take, the trio starts sounding pretty good with it. So much so that they decide to add the tune to their repertoire.

Speaking of new music: Matthew decides to introduce a new holiday parody after Mayer leaves. It’s a joke version of Pink Floyd’s BREATHE he’s written called WREATH. The mall Santa leaves his post promptly at 7:00 P.M (no doubt to check the toy inventory levels of the North Pole). The guys sneak over into 'Santa Land' and talk Sameer into taking some action photos of them in St. Nick's chair. Afterwards, Matthew heads over to his favorite Vietnamese deli, 'Hello Josephine' in the food court to brush up on his dialect with Wang. George follows Sameer back to the phone accessory kiosk. For months, George has been on a quest to find the perfect cradle/holster for his phone. His searching is equivalent to the zeal of Ponce de León for the fountain of youth or the crusaders for the Holy Grail. Sameer doesn’t have what he needs, but George persuades him to order one to arrive for a future visit of the trio.

The group returns to the stage as George sings a delicate and haunting version of HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING. He tests the limits of the court’s acoustics as the sound of his voice gently, but firmly reverberates off of the ceilings and walls down the corridors of the marketplace. It feels as if time itself slows for a few moments - it is truly spectacular. Never considering himself a ‘bonafide singer’, George even surprises himself…then he has a surprise of a different type when a bug flies into his mouth at full speed causing him to choke and end the song prematurely. Matthew sings a few more parody songs while George recuperates from the kamikaze gnat attack.


The night’s final song unexpectedly ends up being the Eagles’ COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS due to an electrical circuit blowing. The band’s board is plugged into the same breaker as the 10ft reindeer backdrop. Lee begins to shout “Mayday! Mayday! Reindeer Down…We blew out a reindeer!” The guys decide to pack it in as the listeners disperse. But the guys have a lot of silly still left in them. Each takes a turn doing impersonations of singer James Brown. Matthew singing ‘Fax Machine’. Lee surfs the flatbed dolly. George rips the black skirt from the piano and drapes over his shoulders “Ooooh! Ya Killin’ Me Baby!” Eventually the threesome regain their composure as the conversation moves to wether or not George genuinely knows someone who met Harry S Truman once and the like. As they say their farewells in the parking lot, George glances over to check his car windshield to see if there are anymore citations. George snatches the overpriced popcorn from Lee before he tosses it in the trash and the three head back home to Houston.

Going to the Chapel

The Wedding Chapel - Galveston, Texas

It's early...very early. But Lee's already up and scurrying around the beach house, loading up his van for the day's excitement. Matthew, then George reluctantly emerge from each of their sleeping bag cocoons at half of Lee's speed. Matthew slowly staggers to the shower to break the zombie-like stupor he's found himself in. The three are shaking off the after-effects of an gig from the night before. The evening was the start of an extended contract with a mall in Texas City. Afterwards, the guys took a 1:30 AM ferry boat ride from Galveston over to Crystal Beach. The Christmas music is still ringing in their ears. (Yawn).

George rolls up his sleeping bag, while Lee is on the phone with today's host: Nathan G. Lee and Nathan have been friends for decades. He now owns a popular bridal chapel on the island (GalvestonWedding.com). Nathan's place handles up to 15+ weddings per weekend during the peak season. His 'bread and butter' is the photography and video services he offers in addition to the use of the chapel. Nathan is looking to expand his repertoire by adding in-house recording services for voice-over work, musical demos, jingles, etc. A sizable investment has been made to build a fully functional recording studio in the unseen second level of the wedding chapel. But Nathan needs a few 'guinea pigs' to make sure the studio is in full working order before marketing it to customers.

Enter the guinea pigs: The trio has been using a demo of home recordings (made by Matthew and George) for months to pass out to potential customers . Lee is eager to upgrade the group's media kit to include a 'professional recording' and Nathan's price is right in line with the band's budget at this time: IT'S FREE!

As tired as the guys are, there is an air of expectancy at the beach house. Sponge Bob Square Pants plays on the television. Matthew has never seen the show. He and George discuss Sponge Bob's outstanding work ethic contrasted with Bob's slacker friend, Patrick the Starfish. Inspired, they make a pact to be 'Sponge Bobs', not 'Patricks' today. Lee (Squidward) is downstairs in his van ready to go, so George clicks off the tube and they head out. Unbeknownst to our fearless three, Matthew has mistakenly left his 'Scooby -Doo Rag' behind in the bathroom! (GP3 censors have asked us to refrain from going into too much detail here -check with Matthew directly to learn how this impacts the band).

On the ride over Lee and George leave their vehicles and move to the front of the ferry. The ensuing conversation includes everything from fishing, typhoon season in the Vietnam coastal region, the Jan-Michael Vincent/Gary Busey movie Big Wednesday and it's relationship to Lee and more. As the ferry approaches the dock, George returns to his car to the sound of some idiot's car alarm honking in the distance.

Nathan calls Lee and says he's running a behind and needs a little more time before the guys arrive. So the three head over to a Denny's for breakfast. Lee and George arrive first and convince the waitress to sell them a Denny's gift card with a $2.00 spending amount that they will give to Matthew to 'buy' his breakfast. Lee mentions to George that his new van has a car alarm system on it that he was unaware of. "That was your horn on the ferry?" "Yeah - I couldn't figure out how to turn it off!" Matthew arrives: "Hey did you hear that car alarm on the ferry boat?" "Yeah, That was Lee." "On the ferry?" "Yeah. (laughter)"

The boys finish breakfast and make their way to the register. As Matthew unknowingly attempts to pay for his meal with a gift card that only has $2.00 on it, Lee notices a Crane Claw Game in the corner. George and Lee (both being a tad compulsive) begin pumping quarters into the box to win a ridiculous looking plush donkey with a cape. At the height of the frenzy they manage to convince one of the waitresses to even try. A small crowd gathers around the machine. After several attempts George realizes that he is completely inept at the game and begins to 'sponsor' Matthew to play. But to no avail...the 'Super Donkey' remains trapped behind the glass. George looks for others that he can enlist. Lee tries to reach his arm up through the mechanism to 'liberate' the doll (a stunt he used to do as a young boy with soda machines). But it doesn't work today...and they have exhausted all of their tip money - dejected, the trio abandons the effort.

Upon arriving at Nathan's chapel, Lee breaks out the camera for some photo ops by the plaster horse-drawn Cinderella carriage out front. Each take pictures wearing 'The Magical Recording Hat'. Eventually, the guys make it inside to find Nathan performing some last minute touches to the system. He's almost ready to go... or not. There's a problem with the signal coming from the piano/keyboard booth. Matthew helps Nathan calibrate the eq and tries to solve the midi send problem.

Meanwhile, George waits patiently in the small sound isolation booth. As the two continue to make modifications to the system in the control room George's mind wanders. He imagines that the small chamber that he's confined in must be like John Glenn aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft (only instead of control switches, there are multiple keyboard and synthesizers all around). Thoughts move to how he'd like his coffin to be designed with this many keyboards inside: Buried like a Piano-Pharaoh with everything needed to play gigs in the after-life. But these fantasies are interrupted as it discovered that there's an adapter needed that Nathan doesn't have.

Lee over-enthusiastically offers to go to a nearby Radio Shack to pick up a component. George yells to him from the sound booth that he thinks he has one of the adapters in his car, but Lee insists. As a matter of fact, Lee is SO determined to run this errand, suspicions are raised about his real intent. Matthew and George are convinced he's headed back to Denny's to play the claw crane game again. Whoever wins the donkey with the cape would have bragging rights for a long time. And bragging rights in the GP3 are huge and valuable currency! George becomes equally suspicious when Matthew suddenly has to leave to find a Kinko's to send a fax, even though Nathan has a fax machine directly behind him in the studio.

After an hour or so of tinkering with the system, Nathan decides to have George bring his piano from the car and plug in directly. Sometimes simple solutions are best. Lee returns, then Matthew. To George's delight neither have the donkey. George puts the tip jar out on his piano. "You never know..." Matthew and George begin to lay down the 'scratch tracks' for 7 or so songs. The work progresses very quickly now. Lee's in another part of the studio singing from a Peter, Paul, & Mary songbook he's found. George and Matthew nail the vocals; usually in less than 2 takes (the red hat is working overtime).

As night begins to fall, Matthew heads back to Houston; few hours later followed by George. Lee is the last to leave at around 11:30. It's been a long day, and the guys have worked hard. Nathan is the most tired of all, but the CD is off to a good start. The trio will return in early 2008 to finish up for a 1st quarter release, but for now the super donkey waits.

To Be Continued...

For Those About to Jingle

Mall of the Mainland - Texas City, Texas

The trio kicks off the holiday season in the most Christmas-spirit evoking place that they think of: 'The food court of the Mall of the Mainland'. Tonight is the beginning of a six week contract with the mall in which the guys will perform holiday music every Thursday until the holiday.

George and Lee are warmly welcomed by their host, Kelly. She takes them over to the stage area which is surrounded by incomplete Christmas decorations. They are introduced to Reagan who has been hired to assemble all of the ornaments. He and his crew have their work cut out for themselves: The entire area looks like 1945 post-war Berlin with seasonal rubble and debris scattered everywhere but on the band's stage. Little elfin bodies lie face down in white woolen material intended to look like snow. Rows of knotted Christmas lights run like barbed-wire across the floor, in the shadow of a partially constructed giant Christmas tree. It could not look worse if the Grinch, Dickens’ Scrooge, and Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ had aligned themselves together and blown up the mall’s display and hauled the largest fragments off to a tinsel making factory. What a mess.

Matthew arrives. “Shouldn’t they be doing this late at night when the mall is closed?” Note: Many years ago Matthew and George worked for a plant company responsible for the upkeep of foliage and trees within a mall. All of their plant and tree maintenance was performed after hours in order to maintain the magical quality of the mall. As if the stores had mythically sprung up in the middle of the Garden of Eden – But this mall has a different philosophy…Oh well.

George is engaged in a conversation with a nice elderly man named Calvin Davis. The two are discussing jazz greats Miles Davis (no relation) and John Coltrane. He learns that Mr. Davis plays guitar and tries persuade him to play a few songs with the group in the upcoming weeks. He politely declines for tonight, but maybe he'll be back next time.

The three begin playing, and throughout the evening all of the classic holiday songs that you'd expect are covered. But this place is a ghost town. Not counting the elf mannequins, there may be a total of 14 people in this mall that are not employees. Granted it's a Thursday night, but where is everyone? In an effort to generate some business for the lonely mall kiosk vendors, Matthew begins doing 'commercials' for them between songs. "Titan Sunwear: From Cronus to Gaia, all of the Titan's get their eyewear from Titan Sunwear." and remember "The Surgeon General has determined that you should accessorize your Shaheen at least twice a year. When the time comes, you can rely on Sameer Accessories." etc.

As the evening progresses, Reagan's workers continue to decorate as the band plays. The trio has different ideas of what the end product will be. They determine it will be either a replica of Santa’s workshop, a quaint alpine village with friendly ‘snow people’, or a DMV in Antarctica. (Check the blog in a few weeks for the answer).

Matthew decides the time is right to 'unleash' the Christmas parody songs. He and George have a number of classic rock songs that they have 'converted' into Christmas tunes. One of the night's highlights is a song about Thanksgiving dinner, READY FOR LUNCH taken from the Bad Company tune READY FOR LOVE. After this, George invites two young boys up from the 'audience' to sing SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN on Matthew's mic. "Hey, these guys sing better than Matt!" Then Matthew and George sing O TANNENBUAM in honor of the half-finished 30 foot (well, make that 15 foot) Christmas tree.

The night tapers off with a soulful instrumental jam in the key of G. George thinks of Calvin. The trio packs up, wades through the scattered poinsettias and elf parts headed for Galveston, while the decorating crew will work late into the wee hours of the morning. The band is hopeful that once the decorations are up, this mall will be more inclined to 'get their jingle on' and be flooded with cheerful holiday consumers. The trio will return in 2 weeks to see how it turns out.

Grape Expectations

Harborwalk Yacht Club - Hitchcock, Texas

The trio is hired to provide background music and entertainment at a wine tasting event at an exclusive yacht club in Hitchcock. Lee and George arrive together to the club and are immediately impressed with the elegance of the area’s surroundings inside and out. They are greeted by Eddie, the club’s manager who is very poised and charming. He spends a good amount of time with Lee and George on the outside deck (no doubt sizing these two up). Eventually Lee discovers that Eddie’s from San Diego and the two begin calling out cross streets from their earlier days. George has nothing to contribute so he lets the rhythmic sound of the water’s ebb and flow against the dock hypnotize him.

Eddie eventually moves the conversation back to business. He requests that no mics be used tonight. Looking around at the high ceilings, wood flooring, glass windows (all hard surfaces - good for acoustics) George agrees to try it. After Eddie leaves Lee expresses his concern. He questions George about being able to sing since he was out sick earlier in the week. “Your fever hasn’t come back-right? Are you up for this –singing without a mic?” “Sure (cough cough), I’m doing great!” “We’ll just go into ‘Troubadour Mode’” “Troubra – what?” “It’ll be fine. But are you able to play the drums soft enough for Eddie’s ears?” Lee shrugs.

Matthew arrives soon after, and the three load in. It’s 6:00 PM and guests are arriving to an ultra-mellow ‘unplugged’ version of George Poe Trio. Matthew enjoys being the ambience of the room, providing the soundtrack to a hundred conversations that echo through the room.

Eddie introduces the evening’s guest of honor, Vic Bourassa flown in from Bourassa Vineyards of California (www.bourassavineyards.com). Through the course of the evening Vic will stand up and lecture about the particular wine that is being served. Each segment is a five minute speech about wine making. This is time enough for the guys to take a quick break. Matthew sneaks off to the men’s room and unexpectedly discovers a room of stylish elegance. He thinks to himself “Wow, this club is really nice.” He notices that there is even a mouthwash dispenser for the guests. Meanwhile, Lee is downstairs stretching his legs, George stays behind and learns that NAPA makes wine as well as auto parts.

Vic finishes to applause, and the music starts again. Halfway through the third song of the set, two young ladies approach the piano. They present wish list of song requests to George and Matthew. A bewildered Lee asks “What did they want?” Knowing that Lee doesn’t have his reading glasses with him, Matthew jokingly tells him “They gave us their phone numbers.” George admits they’re songs and begins to play one of the requests: FLY ME TO THE MOON. The 2nd request is a song that was originally removed from tonight’s list, MOONDANCE, but Matthew agrees to do it anyway “for the people, for the fans”. The table that the requests came from are impressed. They send more, this time starting off with Van Morrison’s BROWN-EYED GIRL. The guys get into the groove of the song so much that Lee even sings the background “Sha la la la la la la la te da” bits. Matthew and George are noticeably surprised. The trio’s momentum continues to build for another few songs, paused only by another speech by Vic, the wine guy.

Lee listens to Mr.Bourassa tell of the various processes of wine making. He is struck by how closely this resembles what he imagines a bomb making class taught Al-Qaeda must be like. George decides to sneak away to find something to drink so that he can take some more Ibuprofen for his throat. Eventually he ends up in the glamorous men’s room that Matthew talked about. When he goes to wash his hands, he notices two tiny spigots, but which is the soap and which is the mouthwash? He’s got a 50/50 chance – and gets it wrong. For the remainder of the night his hands will smell minty fresh.

The music resumes with another request, this time a little more challenging: The members of the ‘request table’ have ask for KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG. The boys deliver pretty good rendition of the tune considering none of the three have ever played this together or individually – ever. Next, a man approaches and asks if his girlfriend can sing a song with a mic. For those of you who are new to the world of entertainment, take note: Letting slightly intoxicated people perform with your band is almost always a BAD IDEA. There’s nothing quite like people filled with wine thinking they’re the next American Idol. But the trio takes calculated risk and say Yes. They hand over a songlist over for Katherine (the girlfriend) to choose from. She selects the Eagles’ tune DESPARADO. “In the key of A, Please.” Hmmm…maybe this will work after all – she apparently knows her voice. Matthew and George feverously transpose the song from the key for George’s voice to Katherine’s. George welcomes her to the mic and Katherine takes over. As she sings, the dynamic of room is transformed: what was just the background music is now center stage. The guy’s gamble has paid off. Katherine proves to sing well enough to carry the room, and receives a round of enthusiastic applause.

In order to maximize this new-found momentum, George immediately whips up the Ray Charles tune HALLELUJAH, I LOVE HER SO. It’s at this point that an interesting shift begins to occur – one might say that the band seems to sound better to everyone now because they’re filled with wine , but something more is happening here – this place has crossed some threshold – it is not the same place it was three hours ago. Even though George is popping Ibuprofen for his throat like handfuls of popcorn now, the air is electric. Vic, the wine expert, is gone now (presumably back to California) leaving the night without an emcee and focus. The guys quickly seize the opportunity to fill the void. Todd’s wife pleads with the trio to perform something romantic to get her husband out on the dance floor. The familiar chorus of CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE begins to play –it works as Todd and many others rush to slow dance.

This is followed up by SHE’S GOT A WAY. It’s sounds great until halfway through the song, George begins to choke. No more singing, just coughs and choking. George’s face is red, but he keeps on playing and the three finish the song as an instrumental. Lee thinks to himself that the night’s over: no piano player = no playing. But George manages to find a reserve burst of energy. Lee is shocked. Note: As of the writing of this blog it’s been learned that George was unknowingly suffering from Streptococcal pharyngitis (or by its street name: 'strep throat').

The three begin playing with an unleashed verosity and zeal. They’re playing like madmen on a mission. Every time that the dancing guests almost make it to their seats to catch ‘a breather’ the guys launch into a song more intense than the one before, drawing everyone back to the floor. George winks to Matthew when he sees that Eddie has given in and is also out on the dance floor. After another 45 minutes, the night’s pied pipers wind up 4 hour marathon with a bouncy closer of Irving Berlin’s BLUE SKIES.

Matthew and Lee bask in the afterglow, while George pops out to the deck to get some fresh air (and cough). He is reminded that his hands smell strangely minty. “This place is beautiful.” He closes his eyes and listens to the rhythm of the water hitting the dock again. He returns inside. “Good gig.” Matthew and Lee acknowledge in unison, “Yeah, Good gig.”

Humble’s Got Talent

Starbucks Coffee - Humble, Texas

The fresh coolness of November air delivers a thin layer of condensation upon the 1960’s Starbucks in Humble. The temperature is a coffee house’s dream: Not too brisk, but enough of a chill to move product. And on a night like this the status of the Starbucks crew is elevated from mere baristas to that of magical beverage alchemists who transform stagnant dry beans into savory warm mocha elixirs.

Our trio arrives at the site, and with the help of Lee’s second eldest son, Austin, the guys are ready to go again. Due to the successfulness of the group’s last visit, the store’s management has installed an outside wall outlet to plug into. Lee and George view this modification on the band’s behalf as a welcome sign and are even more eager to get the night started.

The Palomarez family arrives at the same time as Eileen and Robert. Everyone takes their seats and… well little Rosie and her younger brother, Xavier don’t sit –they begin dancing in front of the band. They both are wearing fairy wings (no doubt left over from Halloween). George makes a joke about the infestation of giant gnats seen in this area, but this won’t stop these two -they will dance most of their visit.

During the opening verse of the second song, THEY CAN’T TAKE THAT AWAY, the sound goes dead. “Well apparently they CAN take that away!” On closer observation, it’s determined that the sound board + the light system that Lee likes to shine on Matthew and George’s feet are too much for the new electrical Starbucks has hooked up. While Lee reports the problem inside, George announces that the drain from both systems is too much for the new electrical outlet and “...We’ve blown a breaker.” He continues, “We need to decide if we want music or lights. Let’s take a vote…” Gratefully, the music wins (if even only by a slim margin). Meanwhile, Matthew suspiciously looks around to see if he recognizes any of the audience as saboteurs from Jitter’s (see previous blogs).

Suddenly a lady emerges from the crowd, and introduces herself as Susan. She offers to loan the guys an extension cord. George manages to parley the extension cord offer into a possible gig at an event that she has coming up. Cards are exchanged, the cord is ran from inside, and the sound is restored. The three debut the Dean Martin classic AIN’T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD and dedicate it Susan, the Dancer.

For a little something new, the band introduces jazz arrangements between songs written for a wine tasting event the guys are performing at later in the month. The crowd responds well to the music-only segments. Xavier and Rosie keep dancing. George is so moved with the two dancing fairies, that he asks Lee and Matthew to play Sinatra’s sentimental YOUNG AT HEART.

Loretta, her brother Fred, and Nephew Keith, and respective girlfriends arrive in time to hear Matthew giving a public service announcement about the Sunday morning’s time change. Lee and George sarcastically perform a few bars of TIME IS ON MY SIDE to compliment his voice-over. Then Loretta requests her favorite GP3 tune: HONKY TONK WOMAN. So Chris introduces it with a flawless Christopher Walken impersonation demanding ‘I have a fever and the only cure is MORE COWBELL!’. Later in the song he encourages Lee to ‘Put some Bigelow on it’ during an improvised bongo break.

To balance out the set, the guys ease into an extended version of HOLDING BACK THE YEARS. Mary, George’s mother makes a surprise visit. At the conclusion of the song, Robert approaches Matthew and George to comment on the arrangement. It’s the first time that he’s heard the group with the string enhancements – it’s very ethereal, very nice.

Before the dust settles on that, Lee calls out for the Jackson Browne hit, DOCTOR, MY EYES. He invites Austin to play bongos as they double up for a percussion solo. It gives Lee a well-deserved opportunity to strut his stuff for Darryl, a friend of his for over three decades.

Jody, her daughters, and friend Pam arrive to hear the trio perform a quirky rendition of Radiohead’s CREEP. Through some type of Jedi mind-trick, Matthew quickly discovers that Jody sings in a band called Smoke Break. He invites her to sing a tune with the trio. George gives her the ‘Big Book’ of the group's songs. "Pick out something to sing." Her choice: CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU. Halfway through the song she mentions that she never gets to sing ballads or slow songs with the band she’s in. George seizes on this and has Lee and Matthew double the tempo for a few laughs. Jody manages to make it through and the trio mercifully slows the song down for a big finish.

After several failed trivia attempts on the Jackson Browne / Daryl Hannah movie question, Matthew reveals that the Vangelis song ONE MORE KISS is actually from the 1982 Sci-fi film Blade Runner. Matthew and George jokingly take full credit for the re-release of the classic, as they have performed the song for years. A second (and easier) question is asked. This time it’s about George’s recent visit to Hoboken, NJ. Pam (who’s husband is from Jersey) instantly snatches up the prize and event flier.

At this point the evening progresses intro a strange karaoke-dare-freakshow type thing. It's just what Robert was waiting for to make his move. He has the ability to click and pop his teeth in a way that almost sounds like music – almost sounds like music. It sounds very unusual, but Robert knows he’s safe to do this with this crowd. So he takes the mic and begins making aborigine-like pops to the tune of HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY. A few moments later, Robert accepts the challenge of facing Lee in a pop-off. Lee readies his wood block. Robert licks his lips. And they're off battling it out to the song YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME. An audience member is so moved by this ridiculous display that they put a check for $1.00 in the tip jar. Yes, even though there is an ATM at the bank next door, someone writes a check (Matthew decides to frame it). Not to be out done, Eileen gets into the act. A die-hard Beatles fan, she chooses to sing I’M LOOKING THOROUGH YOU with the band as a rebuttal to Robert’s clicking.

In a bit of a twist, the trio night finishes off with the same song they started with: ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE like bookends framing the evening together. Austin resumes his station on the bongos. This prompts George to encourage all of Lee’s sons to all gather around to play a piece of the drum kit as George sings “What a day this has been…what a rare mood I’m in…There’s a smile on my face…for the whole human race – It’s almost like being, almost like being in love.”