Tuning the Air #178

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday May 13, 2010 – Tuning the Air #178

A very, very good performance tonight, at least from my vantage point. Unfortunately, very few people there to hear it. Beautiful weather in Seattle is almost never our friend. People get mildly intoxicated by the weather and going inside to hear music falls many notches down on their list of priorities.

A slightly modified opening that worked very well. My Precious Dream is thankfully back in the available repertoire, and for this week in the predetermined set. It was a little shaky/scary at soundcheck, but came alive in performance. The improvs were quite good. Thanks to the Hat, we had two “spontaneous compositions” in a row. Trust the Hat. The second was in F Lydian and included Joel. I had a clear sense of what I heard in terms of the musical theme/flavor, and launched into it. Joel simultaneously launched into something completely complementary and fitting. I looked up at him across the room and smiled. The piece played itself. Just after the second improv (There’s A Fight In The Street – quite fun, and I managed a kind of anemic but fun faux-police-siren at the end, using the ebow and a slide), Jaxie heard Brasil waiting in the wings and called it.

During sound check we ran Space Zombies! From Outer Space! We are still about one rehearsal away from being actually competent at it, but it is fun and has energy, and doesn’t suffer terribly when enthusiasm is in the place of accuracy. It was not in the set or in the Hat, but was okayed to be called should the spirit move. The spirit moved as we exited the green room for the encore.

Most exciting/scary was the sound check run through of A Day In The Life. I still don’t have the bass part completely at my command without the score, so a certain amount of faking it going on. But it sounded good. The tweaks we did in rehearsal are paying off. After the final E Major chord, for the second week in a row a spontaneous outburst of applause from the House Team. Chris got that “now or never” look in his eyes and announced, “next week”. So, we are committed.

The setlist:

Joel Palmer – C Harmonic Minor
Ringing in C Harmonic MinorVoices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
The Wig Maker
My Precious Dream

Spontaneous Composition in E Harmonic Minor

From the Hat:

Spontaneous Composition in F Lydian, with Joel
Whiz And Zither Madness
There's A Fight In The Street

Brasil (called by Jaxie)

Address the Audience – Travis
Circulating through the audience – spirals, crisscross, zithers, other, as the spirit moves
Sigh and a Kiss

From the Hat:

Open Circulation

Lament

From the Hat:

Pipeline
Ikada-Jima

Circulation in A♭
Twilight

Encore:

Space Zombies! From Outer Space! – acoustic (called on our way out of the green room)
Eye of the Needle – acoustic