When it's over, what can I say...
Well, overall the gig was fantastic. I got to the Midway freakishly early because I made good time and also probably aimed to be there too early anyway. When I got there everyone was still loading up the gear at the house (I didn't go help because the gig was in a southern part of Boston and I was coming from the south, while everyone else was coming from northwest of Boston). I went to a park across the street from the bar/club and read for a while, then wandered back to the bar and had a beer (Sam Summer - yum) while waiting. One of the other bands arrived and I hung out with them for a while, then *my* band arrived and we went to Doyle's for burgers. I tried to convince everyone to get bison burgers (because they're good) but there wasn't a lot of interest in that. We ate and then went to set up, since we were on first. There isn't much to do when you're just singing so I mostly tried to stay out of the way, other than making a little pile of percussion items (tambourine, claves, shaker) next to my microphone. After some technical difficulties we started rocking out. :P
It was awesome - obviously singing in a club is different than singing along with mp3s alone in your car or playing in someone's basement (once) and things came together really well. We were kept to a pretty tight schedule so we had to cut a couple of songs, but I did get to sing "Kiss Me On the Bus" which made me really happy (although I think I sang the beginning of the third verse at the beginning of the second verse - I'm hoping nobody noticed.) The bassist recorded it so hopefully I'll get to hear the whole thing eventually. We had to break down quickly and in trying to help I mistakenly grabbed some cables that belonged to the club, and the sound tech got really pissy about it. I got a little sad because as the "new person" it sucks when you do something wrong.
The band on after us was a pair from NC who each play multiple instruments at once, including some scorching electric violin and classical guitar. We hung around and listened to them, and people slowly had to leave (babysitters at home and other "real life" things drawing rock stars away from the "rock life") but I stayed through the third band along with the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and his wife, and we danced around. I spent a lot of that set playing drumsticks like claves (and dancing.) There was a drunk guy with weird small hands who kept yelling at the band to play some Rolling Stones, and there was another guy dancing with us who was pretty fun.
I think we left around 12:30 or 12:45 and I got home (well, to the beach house which is 30 mins closer than "home") at 1:15, which was cool. Now I am kind of waiting to see what happens. I am going to go to the next gig (in Cambridge) and be a "special guest" for some songs and I'm going to also help figure out and record harmonies for the album. I also want to try to book some gigs for the band on Cape Cod.
So, today I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal. It's a problem I tend to have - I get really excited about things and then feel a little bummed out the next day, and then eventually get excited about something else, like:
- long weekend
- Joe coming home tomorrow for the long weekend
- a cappella gig in Waltham on 6/5 and potentially Boston on 6/7
- a couple of other small events
- gig with the band in Cambridge 6/19?
It was awesome - obviously singing in a club is different than singing along with mp3s alone in your car or playing in someone's basement (once) and things came together really well. We were kept to a pretty tight schedule so we had to cut a couple of songs, but I did get to sing "Kiss Me On the Bus" which made me really happy (although I think I sang the beginning of the third verse at the beginning of the second verse - I'm hoping nobody noticed.) The bassist recorded it so hopefully I'll get to hear the whole thing eventually. We had to break down quickly and in trying to help I mistakenly grabbed some cables that belonged to the club, and the sound tech got really pissy about it. I got a little sad because as the "new person" it sucks when you do something wrong.
The band on after us was a pair from NC who each play multiple instruments at once, including some scorching electric violin and classical guitar. We hung around and listened to them, and people slowly had to leave (babysitters at home and other "real life" things drawing rock stars away from the "rock life") but I stayed through the third band along with the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and his wife, and we danced around. I spent a lot of that set playing drumsticks like claves (and dancing.) There was a drunk guy with weird small hands who kept yelling at the band to play some Rolling Stones, and there was another guy dancing with us who was pretty fun.
I think we left around 12:30 or 12:45 and I got home (well, to the beach house which is 30 mins closer than "home") at 1:15, which was cool. Now I am kind of waiting to see what happens. I am going to go to the next gig (in Cambridge) and be a "special guest" for some songs and I'm going to also help figure out and record harmonies for the album. I also want to try to book some gigs for the band on Cape Cod.
So, today I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal. It's a problem I tend to have - I get really excited about things and then feel a little bummed out the next day, and then eventually get excited about something else, like:
- long weekend
- Joe coming home tomorrow for the long weekend
- a cappella gig in Waltham on 6/5 and potentially Boston on 6/7
- a couple of other small events
- gig with the band in Cambridge 6/19?