Frayed but Intact

"I've been a fan of Jimmy Gnecco since Distorted Lullabies, the first Ours album," says local singer/songwriter Simeon Flick, who caught Gnecco's solo House of Blues performance in December. "Jimmy, about three quarters of the way through his two-hour set, announced he had to go to the bathroom and would someone like to come up and play a song to keep the music going. My friend was egging me on to go up and play something, but I didn't dare. I'd had a couple of drinks...and talk about pressure, going on[stage] in the midst of a major-label guy's set...

"Then James the sound man came by and suggested I go up and play.... Well, if the soundman is insisting, I guess that was all the authorization I needed." Flick performed his song "Too Proud to Love," with the audience reportedly clapping along. When Gnecco returned to the stage, "I handed Jimmy back his guitar and wobbled offstage with my slightly frayed but somehow still intact nerves."

Simeon Flick appears at the Carmel Mountain Borders on January 13.