David (dah-veed) Garza is playing four free consecutive Monday-night open-mic shows at the Cactus Café in Austin. I went to the first one last night and caught the 9:30 show (the first was at 7:00). Having only seen David once at a festival, I was very excited to see him in a club as small as the Cactus, which only sits about 50 people and stands 50 more. It’s about as ‘intimate’ a venue as possible without being the sidewalk.
I didn’t know what to expect. I had heard the early show was all piano. For all I knew, the late show could be all acoustic or all rock. Luckily, they went for a combination of both. When I saw the full band set-up packed onto the mini-stage I knew we were in for a rock out. For the first 40 or so minutes they played rock song after rock song, bathing the sitting and standing crowd in David’s signature rock grooviness.
That night happened to be David’s brother Raul’s birthday. After the rock out ended, David retired to a chair (after sheepishly asking to borrow one) and his Martin acoustic. He sang Happy Birthday and dragged Raul onto the stage to sing a Tom Petty cover. From there on out he took requests from the audience. I imagine some of the requestors were friends because he’d make them tell some story about the song. One requestor complained that one of songs was “too mellow.” The audience protested and backed David up. She got booed. Another requestor asked for a song that no one else knew. David, shocked at the request, explained that they only played the song live once in 1993. He played the song anyway and when he got to the second verse, he remembered why they never recorded it. He never wrote a second verse.
Throughout the acoustic portion of the set, David pulled various friends onstage to sing or accompany him on guitar. It was really cool to see him in his element, away from the big stage and lights. I’ve already made plans to see next Monday’s show. If you live in or around Austin, you should definitely come out.
And as David reiterated several times, the show is free so we can't complain. And by the way, "please tip your band." Whataburger is open late.
