Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Michi and Silas Lighting Fires at Cat's Art MusikCircus w/Pics - Updated

Michi Renoir came back to Cat's Art MusikCircus and maybe you wonder what I can say that I haven't said already but let me worry about that!


Michi Renoir wasn't laughing last night as he didn't stop from the top of the hour until the end of the set.  There's no particular category for what he applies and it would be wasting your time to try that anyway.  It's hugely imaginative and full of magical imagery.  It always amazes me that he manages to pull so many voices at the same time when I know for sure he is only using two keyboards and one of them is a piano.

I've written before about his gift for weaving beautiful piano melodies into wild musical flights so here's an example of the imagery:  at one point he was using a voice that sounded like some kind of animal, a very BIG animal.  Then he added a heavy beat behind it and thought was, oh hell, now it's moving.  After that there were quick, glittering notes as if lots of little animals were running as fast as they could to get out of its way.  His music is as vivid as it is brilliant.

Some are looking for relaxation but you can find that by getting a copy of Reader's Digest and taking it to the W.C.  Michi Renoir's music is not relaxing; it's exciting, stimulating, and consistently amazing.


And you bet Cat and I danced!


This picture was shot after the second show and I couldn't shoot it during the show as I was playing it!


There's no way I can review the quality of my music but I can certainly tell you what it felt like to do it. There's playing a set and then there's being 'on.'  You're happening, you're tuned to it, everything is working, and fires start.  This is what makes live so grand as it's so much more than just laying down tracks in a studio.

I wrote an article yesterday on connecting an iPad to the RC50 looper and this worked pretty close to flawlessly.  It's a bit awkward in execution but the sound came through very well and without any kind of propagation delay or echoes.

So I can't judge whether what I do is any good but you can as audio from the show was captured and I'll put some of that out on the Ride the Dragon podcast shortly.

Thanks and much love to everyone who came last night to Cat's Art MusikCircus!


Update:  I will update here as I load some of the songs out to the podcast.

"Going Downstream" - Direct link to the song
"Woman in the Snow" - Direct link.  This is the rock version but I did a looper version at the 20th Century Theater in Cincinnati a few years ago and Donika from Texas danced in it.  She comes to Cat's Art MusikCircus fairly regularly.  The Raven plays the Devil with the crack cocaine and he's Alex Fraser on Facebook.  None of this was rehearsed and it was improv from top to bottom.  The Raven didn't even know he would be in it until the night of the show.  No-one did.  It just seemed like a cool thing and he went for it!

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