Any gig is the biggest gig of the day as you can't go to one place and figure, ok, I can budget 50% of my energy for this and then 50% for another gig later. Nah, it's 100% for every gig plus whatever extra energy you can pull from your personal nuclear reactor. The result of doing this is at the end of the shows you are going to be one wilted li'l houseplant ... or completely radioactive.
This is not an Oh How I Suffer story as I'm sure you know the energy doesn't just go one way. When the guitar starts feeling too heavy and you bet it will, energy comes from the audience and all you're thinking is, man, I have GOT to do that again.
And so it was at Sister Julie's Party for No Particular Reason. It took place at The Listening Room which looks more like a library than a rock venue but it was still a cool place to play. Marx gave me everything I needed (e.g. stream configuration, group access, etc) to get started and the show picked up pretty quickly.
Of course there's only one thought when playing in a library: this place needs some lasers. I wasn't really sure how they worked out for people but Yevette said they looked pretty cool. She came into SL for the shows today after a long time away ... and she is still there now almost nine hours later! I have no idea what she has been doing in there as I was out cold but it's cool to see her get back into it.
I didn't think Cat would be able to last long enough for the second show but, sure enough, she did. I love to play anyway but with Cat there it's special. What was cool for her is that here's a gig for which she doesn't have to do anything. There was no need to send out invitations, fix up audio streams, or deal with whatever whacked-out stuff comes up in a show so she could relax ... or relax as much as "I Love Rats" will permit.
This was a huge gig to me as Sister Julie has been an incredibly good and loyal friend and she was not the only one there who has been tremendously helpful. I met her at the Celebration for Circe and we've been buds ever since. We always call each other Sister or Brother and this is saying, nope, no no hanky panky here. That really isn't necessary, tho, as you can tell who has been hanking or panking and women always know anyway. (Pro tip: Don't lie to her, dude. She already knows.)
This one also started out with "I Love Rats" as people have definitely been wanting me to come out of the gate hard and I sure don't mind doing it. In fact, I fookin' love it and it cracks me up that people get such a bang out of being destructive.
There were some abortive attempts to get some different things started as I really wasn't finding my groove thang with the keyboard. I'll keep experimenting with that as it takes a bit to dial the sound in to where everything balances. Once it's balanced, it will stop being an exercise in geometry and become, hopefully, delicious. The word for the day is SCRUMPTIOUS and that is the musical Nirvana. For Dali, the only thing that mattered to him about anything he encountered was whether he could eat it so the performer's exercise is to ensure it's a good meal. YOU RAWK is ok if you like playing for an audience loaded on Qaaludes but YOUR MUSIC IS SCRUMPTIOUS ... yah, that's a whole different musical Nirvana.
There are still physical and musical set-up problems but they're working through. Likely today I'll get the gear moved to permit me to see the computer screen while I play. Without that there are long pauses between songs and those are just not permissible. If you want a gig to pop, that's one way to make sure it doesn't happen.
I tell Cat I'm thinking of her when I play but she thinks that's just being romantic. However, if I turn off the echo it almost certainly means that I'm beaming it straight to her. She really, really hates muddy guitar sounds. (The echo won't stay muddy as it just needs to be twerked a bit to get it right.)
What Cat also probably doesn't realize is that I know without asking that every musician who plays at the MusikCircus is thinking of her in the set. The relationship with a venue owner like her is a very special thing.
It was very special also to play for Sister Julie and friends. During the European Expedition they helped enormously and what sucked for me is I couldn't give anything back. Now, finally, I can start delivering. I'm very grateful and appreciative of the opportunity and we'll see where this maniac expedition goes from here. I know this sounds like stage patter but it's not. It's been killing me that I couldn't play, in part for missing the loud noise making but also very much because I love playing for my friends.
Lately we haven't been dancing but don't read any drama into that as this isn't Facebook. This is when we kicked back after the show and is just prior to collapsing in a heap. I think it was about 4:00 a.m. for her and I'm still on pretty much of a Euro clock so I was ready to call it a day as well.
If you look closely you'll see Cat has a candle hat for Christmas. No, I have no idea where she finds stuff like that but I sure get a kick out of it that she does.
This is a very good Christmas indeed! Much love!
This is not an Oh How I Suffer story as I'm sure you know the energy doesn't just go one way. When the guitar starts feeling too heavy and you bet it will, energy comes from the audience and all you're thinking is, man, I have GOT to do that again.
And so it was at Sister Julie's Party for No Particular Reason. It took place at The Listening Room which looks more like a library than a rock venue but it was still a cool place to play. Marx gave me everything I needed (e.g. stream configuration, group access, etc) to get started and the show picked up pretty quickly.
Of course there's only one thought when playing in a library: this place needs some lasers. I wasn't really sure how they worked out for people but Yevette said they looked pretty cool. She came into SL for the shows today after a long time away ... and she is still there now almost nine hours later! I have no idea what she has been doing in there as I was out cold but it's cool to see her get back into it.
I didn't think Cat would be able to last long enough for the second show but, sure enough, she did. I love to play anyway but with Cat there it's special. What was cool for her is that here's a gig for which she doesn't have to do anything. There was no need to send out invitations, fix up audio streams, or deal with whatever whacked-out stuff comes up in a show so she could relax ... or relax as much as "I Love Rats" will permit.
This was a huge gig to me as Sister Julie has been an incredibly good and loyal friend and she was not the only one there who has been tremendously helpful. I met her at the Celebration for Circe and we've been buds ever since. We always call each other Sister or Brother and this is saying, nope, no no hanky panky here. That really isn't necessary, tho, as you can tell who has been hanking or panking and women always know anyway. (Pro tip: Don't lie to her, dude. She already knows.)
This one also started out with "I Love Rats" as people have definitely been wanting me to come out of the gate hard and I sure don't mind doing it. In fact, I fookin' love it and it cracks me up that people get such a bang out of being destructive.
There were some abortive attempts to get some different things started as I really wasn't finding my groove thang with the keyboard. I'll keep experimenting with that as it takes a bit to dial the sound in to where everything balances. Once it's balanced, it will stop being an exercise in geometry and become, hopefully, delicious. The word for the day is SCRUMPTIOUS and that is the musical Nirvana. For Dali, the only thing that mattered to him about anything he encountered was whether he could eat it so the performer's exercise is to ensure it's a good meal. YOU RAWK is ok if you like playing for an audience loaded on Qaaludes but YOUR MUSIC IS SCRUMPTIOUS ... yah, that's a whole different musical Nirvana.
There are still physical and musical set-up problems but they're working through. Likely today I'll get the gear moved to permit me to see the computer screen while I play. Without that there are long pauses between songs and those are just not permissible. If you want a gig to pop, that's one way to make sure it doesn't happen.
I tell Cat I'm thinking of her when I play but she thinks that's just being romantic. However, if I turn off the echo it almost certainly means that I'm beaming it straight to her. She really, really hates muddy guitar sounds. (The echo won't stay muddy as it just needs to be twerked a bit to get it right.)
What Cat also probably doesn't realize is that I know without asking that every musician who plays at the MusikCircus is thinking of her in the set. The relationship with a venue owner like her is a very special thing.
It was very special also to play for Sister Julie and friends. During the European Expedition they helped enormously and what sucked for me is I couldn't give anything back. Now, finally, I can start delivering. I'm very grateful and appreciative of the opportunity and we'll see where this maniac expedition goes from here. I know this sounds like stage patter but it's not. It's been killing me that I couldn't play, in part for missing the loud noise making but also very much because I love playing for my friends.
Lately we haven't been dancing but don't read any drama into that as this isn't Facebook. This is when we kicked back after the show and is just prior to collapsing in a heap. I think it was about 4:00 a.m. for her and I'm still on pretty much of a Euro clock so I was ready to call it a day as well.
If you look closely you'll see Cat has a candle hat for Christmas. No, I have no idea where she finds stuff like that but I sure get a kick out of it that she does.
This is a very good Christmas indeed! Much love!
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