A Rainy Night at Jitter's
June 16^th, 2007: 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. (click here to read the lyrics). 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.

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