Opening Night

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 7, 2010 – Opening Night

Late Tuesday night I got a Google alert about a reference to Tuning the Air on the web somewhere. Clicked on it and it took me to the Seattle Times, and an article by Michael Upchurch. It opened with:

The sound can be brushstroke-soft or plectrum-sharp as the melodies are passed around the room. And because the nine guitarists surround you rather than face you from onstage, there's a marvelous feeling of floating in the middle of their music, with each "current" of sound coming at you from nine different directions.

That’s something I’d like to experience. Wait a minute… it’s us!

Toward the end of last season, Michael attended a show. We spoke briefly afterward, and on the strength of his experience he posted a short notice in his column in the times. We had record audiences the last two weeks of the season. A little attention is always a good thing. But a little attention from a sympathetic and insightful writer who has the ear of “our” audience – it doesn’t get much better than that. He and I sat down and spoke last week for an hour, and this week’s article was the result.

Good sized audience tonight. Not the onslaught we experienced at the end of last season, but very respectable; not to mention attentive and appreciative.

All in all, a good show. The improvs had life to them. My only critical observation was that the pacing was not what it can be when we are on our A-game. Not surprising for the first show of the season. It usually takes a few shows for us to really hit our stride. The silence after Eye of the Needle was profound. Very difficult to decide to violate it.

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Tuning the Air #186
October 7, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

C Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel
Voices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
Vrooom

Selection from the Hat: Sun and Rain
My Precious Dream
Selection from the Hat: A Picnic on the Moon

Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

The Children's Hour
A Day in the Life

Spontaneous Composition in D Major, with Oboe
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Eye of the Needle