Tuning the Air 165, Part Two

A Tuning the Air Journal

Friday October 9, 2009 – Tuning the Air 165, Part Two

Set up went even smoother than last week. The team arrived at 5pm, and by 5:30 everything was substantially in place. Joel arrived and set his gear up. A few technical bugs in the form of some buzzing in the amplifier were pretty much the only wrinkles for us. By 6pm all of the assembled performance team members were warming up together, and the rest arrived shortly. We ran a number of pieces, including material not in the set. “Where Is The Nurse?” was particularly hot.

At 7:30 the full team gathered in the circle and the performance began. Joel set the ambience. After the show I asked him how it went – I am in the green room during the preshow, and can’t really hear. He seemed generally pleased, and identified a few changes and improvements he sees for next week. Very happy to have a human being tuning the room for us.

Doors opened at 7:45. Shortly after 8, we went on. Fair sized audience, including some new faces as well as old friends. Tony was in the audience, sitting in front of Travis, which for some reason I found amusing during “Batrachomyomachy”. All went well. All of the challenges we have discovered remained challenging, but I sensed that we are learning how to negotiate them. “Sigh and a Kiss” was a stunner. Meleah’s lighting continues to evolve, and there were moments in which the music and lights were not separate at all; breathtaking.

Rousing and heartfelt applause as we exited. A number of guitar aficionados in the audience, and so I felt that “Little Gangsters” was called for in the encore. Called “Little Gangsters”, “Thrak” and “Lament”, and out we went. Bob, obeying an intuition, took a slightly unexpected route that threw me just a bit. Clearly the right thing, but I was a little too dozy to go with it, and so our re-entrance was not as beautifully choreographed as we would like, but live and learn. The Gangsters delivered. Before “Thrak” I suggested we “raise the roof”, and we did. The work in rehearsals this week clearly showed benefits. “Lament” was lovely. I had called it, at least in part, because Tony was in the audience. I could see him as we played, and felt moments of emotional upheaval that I usually don’t have in performance.

Tomorrow, rehearsal and work with the House Circle.