A gig.
I had my first gig in something like 8 years last night. Not counting doing a few songs at Dean's birthday parties at Bocce's Cellar in Santa Cruz each of the last few years. It was very, very small- really kinda a practice gig. Tiny venue, no audience to speak of, mostly people who had heard all the rehearsals.
I rented another amp and mic from the local Starving Musician and headed south, and traffic was totally fouled up from the weather. Just awful. So by the time we were all there and set up it was about an hour after our estimated start time. So we cut the set down from 20 songs to 12, and we did 'em. They went well and I had fun- took a few songs to really get into the groove, which was unfortunate given that there weren't that many songs left once we were in the groove, but so it goes. We wrapped up late, made the long drive home, stayed up too late listening to more songs to see if we could find some more to do to expand our set, and called it a night.
Then my rental car got broken into and the rented amp got stolen. So this morning was a fun collection of police reports and paperwork at the car rental place and the music rental place- which I am still expecting a phone call from about the amp. Ah well, I guess it's a rite of passage for musicians, eh?
The playing itself was a lot of fun, though, and I am looking forward to doing it again. I find that if I know a song really well, but have a cheat sheet in front of me "just in case", I'm more likely to screw up by staring at the cheat sheet. Gonna have to figure out what to do about that. The songs that I think made the biggest impression were the two with the most interesting harmonies with me and Becca: Guster's "Eden" and Brother's "The Next Time." Our versions of "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard On Me" and "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" are crowd pleasers. And our originals went over well with the people who hadn't heard them before.
Maybe I need a "musical" userpic. But then I start considering needing a paid account. :P
I rented another amp and mic from the local Starving Musician and headed south, and traffic was totally fouled up from the weather. Just awful. So by the time we were all there and set up it was about an hour after our estimated start time. So we cut the set down from 20 songs to 12, and we did 'em. They went well and I had fun- took a few songs to really get into the groove, which was unfortunate given that there weren't that many songs left once we were in the groove, but so it goes. We wrapped up late, made the long drive home, stayed up too late listening to more songs to see if we could find some more to do to expand our set, and called it a night.
Then my rental car got broken into and the rented amp got stolen. So this morning was a fun collection of police reports and paperwork at the car rental place and the music rental place- which I am still expecting a phone call from about the amp. Ah well, I guess it's a rite of passage for musicians, eh?
The playing itself was a lot of fun, though, and I am looking forward to doing it again. I find that if I know a song really well, but have a cheat sheet in front of me "just in case", I'm more likely to screw up by staring at the cheat sheet. Gonna have to figure out what to do about that. The songs that I think made the biggest impression were the two with the most interesting harmonies with me and Becca: Guster's "Eden" and Brother's "The Next Time." Our versions of "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard On Me" and "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" are crowd pleasers. And our originals went over well with the people who hadn't heard them before.
Maybe I need a "musical" userpic. But then I start considering needing a paid account. :P