Rockin' the suburbs
Nov. 22nd, 2011 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipjig3So, yesterday's show. Omigod, yesterday's show. It...yeah. Just yeah.
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figmentj and I arrived at Gojirawitziev around 5:30, to find Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps tucking into an awesome dinner by sindrian, along with shadesong, yendi and omnisti, who's in town for Thanksgiving week celebrations. A word about Heather and Ben: nicest people on the planet. Seriously. I went in with fairly frayed nerves for fairly obvious reasons—this was my first solo set in over 20 years—but they were marvelously generous and supportive, and did a good job of keeping me calm and grounded as the appointed hour approached. (figmentj did some good, um, grounding work as well, but that was before we left the apartment. *cough*)
The crowd was slow to grow, and we ended up pushing back the start time a bit to give late arrivals a chance to get in, butomnisti had graciously set up a streaming webcast, so we knew the numbers in the apartment would be only a fraction of the story. Finally I got up there, nervous enough that I wasn't sure if I could even remember which part of the guitar-thing was the squeezy end and which was the strummy end, but I somehow managed to pour that back into the performance, and...um, is it okay to say that I kicked ass?
Okay, there were rough patches; I knew the nervousness was showing through in spots, and I was told later that my between-song banter would have gone over better if I'd, y'know, looked at the audience once in a while. But I also knew I was nailing the performances: "Step It Out, Mary,", then "One By One" (no, I haven't officially recorded it yet aside from a rat-bastard demo, and yes, I'll get right on it), and hammering it home with "Strowler's Song." It felt right, that magical flow was, well, flowing, and I was hitting the highs and lows the way I wanted (mostly the highs, because jeezum, was this an adrenaline rush). The big thing, though, was when I got off the stage, and did not regret a single thing from my performance. Not one.
I can totally do this again. Gods, you don't know how huge that feels.
Heather and Ben, of course, blew everyone away, present company very much included, and we managed to snag their new album which isn't even available online yet, and mirabile dictu, I sold a few copies of The Elmsley Count, including one to someone I didn't know prior to the show (!) and one to Heather (!!!), which we did as a CD-for-CD barter, and signed each others' copies (!!!!!), and...and...and I'm hyperventilating again, so suffice it to say that it was a good gig all around. Gasp.
And speaking of, a huge echoing thank you to everyone who has purchased The Elmsley Count so far! You all have made my day, my week, and a sizable chunk of my year! In the day and a half that it's been out, the response has been overwhelming, and I only hope that I can live up to such an amazing beginning. I love you, guys! (Oh, and my mom bought a copy! Thanks, Mom! <3)
(If you missed the earlier announcement, my first CD, The Elmsley Count is available for digital download at my Bandcamp site. Buy it here!)
figmentj and I arrived at Gojirawitziev around 5:30, to find Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps tucking into an awesome dinner by sindrian, along with shadesong, yendi and omnisti, who's in town for Thanksgiving week celebrations. A word about Heather and Ben: nicest people on the planet. Seriously. I went in with fairly frayed nerves for fairly obvious reasons—this was my first solo set in over 20 years—but they were marvelously generous and supportive, and did a good job of keeping me calm and grounded as the appointed hour approached. (figmentj did some good, um, grounding work as well, but that was before we left the apartment. *cough*)The crowd was slow to grow, and we ended up pushing back the start time a bit to give late arrivals a chance to get in, but
omnisti had graciously set up a streaming webcast, so we knew the numbers in the apartment would be only a fraction of the story. Finally I got up there, nervous enough that I wasn't sure if I could even remember which part of the guitar-thing was the squeezy end and which was the strummy end, but I somehow managed to pour that back into the performance, and...um, is it okay to say that I kicked ass?Okay, there were rough patches; I knew the nervousness was showing through in spots, and I was told later that my between-song banter would have gone over better if I'd, y'know, looked at the audience once in a while. But I also knew I was nailing the performances: "Step It Out, Mary,", then "One By One" (no, I haven't officially recorded it yet aside from a rat-bastard demo, and yes, I'll get right on it), and hammering it home with "Strowler's Song." It felt right, that magical flow was, well, flowing, and I was hitting the highs and lows the way I wanted (mostly the highs, because jeezum, was this an adrenaline rush). The big thing, though, was when I got off the stage, and did not regret a single thing from my performance. Not one.
I can totally do this again. Gods, you don't know how huge that feels.
Heather and Ben, of course, blew everyone away, present company very much included, and we managed to snag their new album which isn't even available online yet, and mirabile dictu, I sold a few copies of The Elmsley Count, including one to someone I didn't know prior to the show (!) and one to Heather (!!!), which we did as a CD-for-CD barter, and signed each others' copies (!!!!!), and...and...and I'm hyperventilating again, so suffice it to say that it was a good gig all around. Gasp.
And speaking of, a huge echoing thank you to everyone who has purchased The Elmsley Count so far! You all have made my day, my week, and a sizable chunk of my year! In the day and a half that it's been out, the response has been overwhelming, and I only hope that I can live up to such an amazing beginning. I love you, guys! (Oh, and my mom bought a copy! Thanks, Mom! <3)
(If you missed the earlier announcement, my first CD, The Elmsley Count is available for digital download at my Bandcamp site. Buy it here!)
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-23 04:30 pm (UTC)You were wonderful!
You rock
Date: 2011-11-23 04:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-23 08:32 pm (UTC)Harry Chapin is proud of you!
You both know there only was once choice! XD
Great first show, great song. Worth the wait all the way!
I have to agree with folks your shoes have had enough serenading, but that's not important. What is is that you produced your own album, then got up onstage!
Now if you'd just get that story finished.....XD