Thursday April 15, 2010 – Tuning the Air Opening Night
Tuning the Air #174 is in the bag.
Sitting at my place at 7am. Mary Beth and Taylor had rescued the sandwich boards from the storage space and installed the new posters yesterday, and brought them here. After the sitting, a lesson with Mary Beth, focusing on how and what to practice on gig day (after this week, the lesson will be moved to a non-gig day). She and I then headed over to Fremont Abbey to set out the signs and hang up the banner. Dropped her off at her place and then came home.
Work at home on various projects and obligations. Made myself a substantial midday meal, to carry me through the gig. Showered and got into gig clothes, and then sat down for an hour of concentrated warm-up/practice. At 4pm, acknowledged that our work today had begun, and organized my gear. Out the door at 4:30.
Set-up was pretty quick. A little extra manpower from a Fremont Abbey intern got the cables all laid out. Ryan, the soundman, wasn’t arriving until 6:30, so we warmed up as the rest of the team arrived. Soundcheck was predictable – reasonably fast, but it included one or two unexpected technical issues. Ultimately, all was well. We went a little later than planned, right up to doors open time, but for opening night this was pretty painless. Travis was confronted, right before showtime, with an issue not directly related to his role as a performing guitarist, and I was concerned that letting it go would be difficult. I don’t know what his experience was, but from my vantage point he seemed to manage pretty well; maybe a little distraction in the first one or two pieces, but I can’t be sure. If he had a blog, we could check that. In any case, I don't envy him the task.
For the most part, it was a good opening night, from my perspective. Lots and lots of information. Where it felt weak (“weak” probably a bit strong) to me had to do with unfamiliarity with the new format; technical details, distractions, missed cues, basically just little stuff. Occasionally the feeling that we were not necessarily fully committed to some detail or another. But I am being picayune. I imagine it will take a few shows to figure out the various this’s and that’s.
Good sized audience. Very receptive. On guy’s cell phone rang just in time for Brasil. It was a strangely perfect after 10 or 15 minutes of pretty intense music. I thought to myself that we ought to put a shill in the audience with a cell phone set to go off at that point. Great icebreaker.
I honestly don’t know how the first improv went. For me that was the moment of maximum insecurity. The 3 improvs “from the hat” which kind of blended into a suite of improvs, had a definite “something” about them.
Meleah and the lights were on fire. She was in total improv mode, and when I looked up and realized she was circulating the lights to match our improv, I knew we were in good hands.
Lament was stunning; 3 wonderful guitar solos, each unique, yet there was a continuity to them.
Lots of funny moments of things just going horribly wrong that, in the final analysis, didn’t really matter, except that I’d just as soon not repeat them, thank you very much.
The setlist:
Joel Palmer – C Harmonic MinorEncore:
(entrance of performance team)
Chiming in C Harmonic Minor
Voices of Ancient Children
(small group move together)
Cultivating the Beat
(return to places)
The Wig Maker
Spontaneous Composition in D Minor
Brasil
Ikada Jima
(move to smaller circle, without looking like we’re menacing the audience)
Batrachomyomachy
Not My Sharona
Where Is The Nurse?
(return to places)
Address the Audience – Travis
(take positions in aisles within the audience)
Circulating through the audience – spirals, crisscross, other, as the spirit moves
(all except Bob and Jaxie return to places)
Sigh and a Kiss (Bob and Jaxie return to places at 2nd verse)
Lament
Three Improvs from the Hat:
In A Dream I’m Being Chased By Wild AnimalsCirculation in Ab
What Do 100 Guitars Sound Like?
I’ve Lost My Marbles
Twilight
Thrak – acoustic in arc at the west end
Eye of the Needle – acoustic in arc at the east end
No comments:
Post a Comment