![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/SlimTwig_1.jpg\")
<\/a>All I want is a hot toddy, but the more patient half of me says now\u2019s not the time to order one. Despite my polite efforts and hacking\u00a0cough, something of greater urgency than a breathing statistic of flu season needs tending to.<\/p>\n
The bartender zips along the length of the counter clamping a cordless phone between her ear and shoulder. Her bar back frantically cleans tumblers and disappears periodically. Meanwhile Max Turnbull and his wife Meghan Remy (aka Slim Twig<\/a> and his wife U.S. Girls<\/a>) are schlepping amplifiers through the front door of Cake Shop<\/a> 20 minutes after opener Ryan Sambol-who is sitting right next to me-is supposed to start.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a rough night for everyone.<\/p>\n Things settle down. The bar is calm. I have booze; the warm, honey and lemon accessorized kind that allows you to be a lush\u00a0and say \u201cthis is good <\/em>for me!\u201d at the same time.<\/p>\n I am now wedged between a Tinder date and a semi-bilingual French-lesson date (how you say, Tinder<\/em>?) taking notes in my journal, which I\u2019m sure doesn\u2019t look odd at all. I might as well be chiseling a stone tablet and wearing badger fur.<\/p>\n Collecting cash and stamping hands for the evening is Cake Shop co-owner Andy Bodor, perched on a stool by the venue door. Ryan Sambol<\/a> emerges from downstairs, despondently shaking his head:<\/p>\n \u201cYou know what man, I don\u2019t even wanna play tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Bodor looks shattered.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean???\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cY\u2019know, it\u2019s just, I come all the way from Texas and I just don\u2019t think\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n I realize that though the dust from earlier has settled, a whole new sandstorm is about to kick up; and then Sambol cracks a smile.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just kidding!!!\u201d Bodor sighs:\u00a0\u201cJesus man, you really got me there.\u201d<\/p>\n Two warm alcohols deep I make my way to the show space. I’m\u00a0met\u00a0by a hush crowd politely watching the tricky Texan. It\u2019s not easy to captivate audiences these days, and it\u2019s even harder to do so with such modest and arcane things like a guitar <\/em>and microphone, <\/em>but Sambol seems to have this covered. It doesn\u2019t hurt that he\u2019s a good lookin\u2019 boy from the Lone Star State with a voice like Nashville Skyline <\/em>era Dylan<\/a>.<\/p>\n