datamusicata

I know that I usually post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I wanted to wait until after this concert that I did at Kulak’s Woodshed last night, so that I could write about it. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and there will not be a post. So the next post will be Wednesday. That being said, let’s get back to last night’s concert.

I arrived for the 8 pm show at 6:15. I loaded in and then proceeded to set up all my CD’s, put posters up in appropriate places and then set up my gear, as the sound man wouldn’t be there til 7 pm. He arrived right on time and we proceeded to put the channels flat and hear what the room sounded like with no alteration on either my voice or my guitar. That’s the best place to start out.

Then because I have a looping box, I played a verse and chorus of a song into it and then walked out into the room. I listened to the guitar and then made some adjustments to my LR Baggs direct box. Once I was satisfied with the guitar sound I let the looping box play and sang at various levels and places in my throat and with varying intensity. I located all the harsh and unpleasant frequencies and then had the engineer reduce those frequencies by degree until my voice was clear, had an edge, but was still pleasant to hear and could be understood when I spoke. I have a soft speaking voice so I used mic proximity to accommodate the room. Ken, the sound man, was perfect. He did not over adjust or act like some tyrant about the board or his eq. We finished up and I went into the dressing room and did my usual hour warm-up.

I brought several new songs with me and went over the lyrics, reading them and reciting them allowed before I started playing. After a half an hour or so, I began to hone in on what my first two songs were to be. I decided to be freeform after that and see what the audience needed to embrace me. When I finally settled on my opening song, I sang it three or four times in a row and then they came to get me.

Because we were broadcasting live over the internet, we have to be precise and there were some technical difficulties so we were delayed about five minutes. Then I was announced and the show started.

Though I have played Kulak’s many times, with various musical partners, I have only played it completely alone one other time, and while attendance was respectable, it wasn’t SRO, so I was completely surprised when I came out on stage last night to discover not only a crowd of people in the room but another crowd of people waiting outside, because every seat was taken and the Fire Marshal would not allow any more people to come in. This meant that the crowd on the street was just waiting for someone to leave so that they could get in. And amazingly enough, no one left, so the folks on the outside had to remain out there. I tried to get them finessed in but the Fire Marshal ruling is the final word.

The first set went off without a hitch. Both the comedy and the music were extremely well received and the set went by so fast I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t done many of the songs I had intended to do. I did a really fun meet and greet and then went back for the second set. David Taylor sat in on drums and we had a grand old time playing songs drawn from all of my 23 recordings, and then it was encore time.

After all my preparation over the past two weeks, the show was just fun. I didn’t have to worry about anything except the dear folks who couldn’t get in. And my plan of writing out a whole set fell by the wayside when I got down to it. I just wanted to see what happened.

I’ll watch the DVD next week and determine what I will use for the commercial release, or whether I will have to record one more concert. It would be remarkable if I can just use this whole concert. Probably won’t happen given my propensity for self criticism.

But the lesson here is to be prepared so that when you get there, all you have to do is have fun with what you do best.