Dispatch from the front

Last night's World's Greatest Lovers show at the Crystal Corner went well, and now that the Hometown Sweethearts are on long-term hiatus, it's all World's Greatest Lovers, all the time (well, every Tuesday at 9:30).

Something clicked last night. I'm not sure what.

But I'm not going to get too heavily into specifics: musicians too often do endless post mortems of their shows, and it's a trap I prefer to avoid. Except that the standard post mortem is for a show that didn't go well, as when WGL bassist Chris Boeger and I last week played a campfire party that was attended by four people. We swapped theories with the host: "Well, it was the beer tasting party today, and I think some people were up at Kohler for the PGA championship, and damn, it's cold." All of which was true, but again: musicians never have these conversations when a show is successful.

About last night I'll share just this one detail: I sang the Rolling Stones' druggy disco classic "Emotional Rescue" almost entirely in falsetto, and the audience responded with lusty acclaim. Afterward my friend Ed the DJ said he couldn't imagine any other Madison singer pulling it off.

Which was nice of him!