My Triumphant Return to Live Music
I played in public last night!! John Thomas of Syloken had mentioned earlier in the week about not having anyone to play with this evening since the Gunship cancelled and so me and this dude named Roy each played a 25 min. solo acoustic set to open for Syloken - who I must say I was very impressed with. It's like psychedelic-jam-metal. I also enjoyed Roy's stylings quite a bit. His voice reminded me of the singer from Crash Test Dummies and his songs were even better than theirs. He called himself "Post-Apocalyptic Farce Metal" and I'd say that's as accurate a description of his sound.
I was using John's guitar and I sounded really weird to myself because of sinus trouble in my ears and because of my positioning against the P.A. but after I got over my nerves I warmed up and it felt quite good and comfortable up there. We played at Pepe Delgado's on campus corner and I'd say there were as many as 30 people there at any given time. I had a blast all evening. My first song was quite shaky and I'm not sure the guitar sounded quite right but by the end of my set I was in the groove. It was, after all, my first official public performance in almost 7 years. Here is what I played:
Bertha
Me and My Uncle
Rubin and Cherise
It Must Have Been the Roses
1979 -->
Rosalie McFall
Like I said I feel Bertha was pretty rough - I was unsure about the sound I was hearing from the PA (always sounds so much different on stage than in the audience) and I was very nervous being that I hadn't performed in so long and I was opening up the evening's festivities. I feel pretty good about most of the rest of it - Me and My Uncle allowed me to open up more vocally and get a little more comfortable. Rubin and Cherise and It Must Have Been the Roses were slightly shaky due to nerves and lack of confidence in my vocals (because of my sinus issues of late). 1979 (Johnny Cash style) was warmly received and then there was no holding back for Rosalie McFall. By the time that one was over I was extremely relieved, and I felt redeemed having finally gotten to play (and play for an audience that I respect and admire - such as John, Chris McD, Brendan, Ben Carter, and the rest of Syloken who I still haven't familiarized myself with, but they're great guys (with a great band), and also Ben Lindesmith, Chase and his wife Carrie, umm... Robbie was there, Lauren and Erin made it, Josh Allen came toward the end of my set. Russell showed up after I played - but all in all I was happy with the turnout, at least for my selfish reasons.) I would have been even more nervous had there been many more people there but I do wish for Syloken that more had showed up because they deserve to be playing for bigger audiences. I suppose there isn't much you can do to get people to go to Pepe's unless you have a fan-base or are playing with somebody who has one. The Gunship dropping out might have had something to do with that - they've been playing around a whole lot and would have had a few more show up for their show... but if that was the case I wouldn't have got to play! All in all I was pleased with myself and happy to be a part of what was going down. It was also nice of John to note near the end of Syloken's set that yesterday was the 67th anniversary of the synthesis of LSD. That's a good day to play a first show back, if you ask me!
more on this another time, perhaps. I have to go organize my homework into manageable pieces. Was supposed to do stuff this morning but after I woke up on Chris and Cody's couch and got a ride home but instead I ate breakfast and layed down until 3pm.
P.S. - Shane: Josh Allen is fun to drink with! He was pretty hammered by the end of the evening and it was pretty funny. At one point I found myself sitting at the bar with Josh Allen, Chris McDaniel, and Russell Bonge. I never EVER saw that one coming.