March Microdose Tour – March 2022.
Date: March 31st, 2022
Venue: Verdugo HUUT
Location: Unitarian Universalist Church in Glendale, California
Setting: Solo acoustic
Dose: 1.7grams
Songs: I’m Yosemite Sam, Fun, So Far Away
The Verdugo HUUT hosted by the inimitable Marty Barrett is a singer/songwriter showcase, with some comedy and spoken word performances, along with a trivia contest in the middle. This was my 3rd performance at HUUT, and I knew it would a “safe” environment to experiment. If I found myself too high to perform, well, then that becomes the show. “Sorry folks – I’m too high to play, but let me tell ya why!”
Indeed, this was the highest I’ve been since I started the quest for the perfect dose. It was definitely mild – as hoped – but definitely trippy.
So, this is what went down:
Along with some yogurt, I consumed 1.7 grams (1.679 to be precise) of caps and stems. This was at about 6:10, for a 7:00 show. However, I did not know in advance that I was the opening act. Oh well – for better or worse when I hit the stage at about 7:15, the impact was minimal. I do not believe it helped – nor hindered – my performance.
However, it was later in the show that things got interesting. By around 8:00, I was feeling it, people! Yup – this was getting exciting. And that’s right about when I was asked to join Tom Bishel (a great singer) to play bass for a song or two. Ok – it was planned. Tom was performing The Eye of the Tiger -> The Lion Sleeps Tonight. On ukulele! Now if that sounds a little absurd, well, it was. And the absurdity of the moment was certainly wasn’t lost on me. (If I remember one thing from my earliest trips, it’s that everything is absurd. The world is an absurd place if you stop and think about it…) So it took a some effort to keep from bursting out laughing as I pumped out the relentless quarter-note pulse of this iconic rock anthem. I think I was able to conceal my joy, but maybe I shouldn’t have. Or maybe I didn’t lol… As a side note (no pun intended), I’m pretty sure my bass playing was fine. I have a tendency to overplay sometimes, but there was none of it tonight! Just simple no frills bass playing – pure quarter-notes, man. So that’s a useful datapoint right there, yes it is!
The rest of the show was really enjoyable, but I need to mention the trivia contest. It’s 15 question pop-culture quiz and it’s the stalwart intermission activity at the HUUT. The reason I need to mention it is, well, because I won it, bitch! 😉 This surprised me – I’m not good at trivia. I certainly got some question wrong, but being fast increases your score. So, was I locked in? Did my elevated consciousness guide me to guess correctly when I wasn’t sure? I think so!!! However one thing for certain: I definitely was not impaired. That is perhaps the most important takeaway from tonight’s experiment. I wasn’t just imagining the be here now experience. I beat out everyone in the room – yes I did. So, woo-hoo – let’s do this again!