Merc (seated), Chip and Carrie, photo above was taken in 2003

Had a pretty good night that reinvigorated me from the last few work days. Think I'm in a mini-burnout stage right now, for some reason I've been dreading work. And I haven't been too productive as a result. Anyhow at around 6pm, Corwin called me up to remind me that the Merc (Tony Mercadante, programmer) was playing tonight at the Living Room. I had totally forgotten about it, but since I was going to be pulling a late night anyway, I figured I'd go check it out after work. That and I missed his previous two performances...

The show started at around 8pm, but I didn't make it there until around 9pm. I'm glad I did, I never understood why people would pay $100+ for concert tickets, and I still don't. But the evening was extremely entertaining. When I got there Carrie Rodriguez was just finishing up, soon after Chip Taylor (real name James Voight), John Platania, Javier Vercher, and the Merc took the stage for a few songs before Carrie joined them again.

Chip's a really engaging artist, spinning tales and spotlighting his wife, his brother John Voight (you may have heard of him, they look alike), and his fellow musicians on stage. If you haven't heard of Chip (I didn't until the Merc talked about him at work), he's the guy who wrote Wild Thing and Angel of the Morning (which Shaggy recently remade). John is currently filming in NYC so he stopped by to watch his brother perform and even got on stage to sing one of the first songs Chip ever wrote. Really cool stuff.

And yes, Merc's facial expressions when he really gets into the music are awesome. I think he makes the same faces when he's in the zone programming at work.

If people can guarantee me a similar experience in the future, yeah I'll definitely attend some more music related functions. Literally I was so tired from work, but at the Living Room I was sitting up right the entire time concentrating on everything on stage. Thumbs up...

After the show I went to the nearby McDonald's and got two 4 piece nuggets and a chicken fajita for dinner. I usually grab McChicken's instead but it was $1.39 at this location lame. Oh the horror, that's an entire postage stamp right there! But yes the joke was on me, on the subway platform, I had trouble getting the fajita out of its wrap and eventually it made its way onto the platform. I actually froze for a second there considering the 5/10 second rule (watch Waiting!) but eventually thought better of it. Took the F to the C to the DaCrib =D.

Update: Got a shout out from Chip! "Hi to Tony’s friends Christine, Corwin & the crew… so glad you could be here… isn’t the Merc man just GREAT!!!"