Silent Muse - Part 2: The Show
Nov. 16th, 2003 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realexplodingcatMy fuzzy, but detailed account of the show. I'm going to cover a lot of ground that many readers will already know because they were there to see the show or may have read other journal accounts of it, but I'll describe highlights for the benefit of friends who weren't there.
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solieri asks how I'm feeling after the sound check. "Pretty good," I say. "Although, I'm rather concerned about the darkness on stage." After some debate about possible solutions, he runs to the bar and procures some little tea light candles. I figure that's a good start. However, I have visions of following in the foot steps of the band Great White, burning down the club and everyone in it when my open flame catches all my sheet music on fire. I notice a mostly empty drink glass and decide to borrow it, ducking into the bathroom to throw the ice and dregs down the drain. A minute before the show I find an already burning candle and light mine before dropping it in the glass. krasota hands me a small flashlight and I walk on stage, nearly tripping in the darkness on the small set of stairs, provoking images of my candle getting loose and catching the filthy carpet on fire. However, I make it to my stand of keyboards where I set the candle atop a smooth surface on my Roland, closest to the music stand on my left. I turn on the flashlight and set that on the music stand for indirect illumination of the sheet music. Also, I decide to wear my glasses, which I hadn't planned on doing because my eyes aren't that bad, but I figure I should do everything I can to help myself. I'm ready to rock, but still not entirely sure if my vision is good enough.
At this point, onlynothingoth (Chad) and I are on stage. Where's solieri? Where's Patrick? Chad steps up to the mic and informs the audience, "There will be no Silent Muse show tonight. Patrick has lost his battle with insanity and won't be with us tonight. Instead, for your entertainment, Tom will perform a little song and dance." I display a little fear and claim this wasn't in my contract as Wagner's "Flight of the Valkeries" begins playing through the sound system. As Wagner booms through the club, a commotion arises offstage. Cutting through the crowd are several burly men carrying our singer, Patrick, who is bound up in straight jacket. Some shock and horror was evident on the faces of our audience as the guys throw Patrick on stage. Wagner cuts out and the opening sequenced beats of our first song, "Villains," fills the air. Chad and I attack our respective instruments while Patrick is still wrapped up the straight jacket, and continues to perform the song as such.
I notice my hands are little weak during this first song--the only nervous sign I feel as I begin my first show. "Villains" is the first of our songs I successfully memorized, so I was grateful that it was the first on the set. A good morale boost before attempting the second song, "Salieri," which is the only song that consistently gives me trouble in practice and is the only song for which I absolutely need to have my eyes on the sheet music most of the time. Light, don't fail me now!
After Patrick performs a Houdini escape from the straight jacket, the intro to "Salieri" begins. I begin the first solo on the Korg keyboard, but my finger weakness causes a few creative errors. The light is dim, but I make it through that solo. I start on the Roland part and realize I can't hear it in the monitor. Remember how dark it is on the Roland? That's right, I had the wrong sound selected. Oops...I quickly switch to the strings sound and continue. Let it be known that I've been told this was my only glaringly obvious blunder of the night. Which I almost agree with. The second followed shortly after as I completely lost track of where I was on the sheet music while fumbling with the Roland's buttons and consequently lost my place in playing the song. I just stopped playing for a bit and let the rest of the band and the sequenced backing track carry the song until I could pick it up again at the next solo, which I also screwed up in a creative way. I'm eager to hear the recording of this show to find out what I played and how it sounded, because nobody but me really seemed to notice the error. I nearly nailed the third solo and was quite relieved to reach the end of the song. The darkness was my undoing, as I feared. However, the worst is over, because for the remaining songs, I rarely need to see details of the sheet music. I just need visual cues to remind me which part to play. There's enough light to see that much, thanks especially to my candle. And some of the songs I even have entirely memorized.
I'm looking forward to being able to play all the songs on automatic pilot. For many songs I felt so absorbed in playing them that I couldn't be bothered to notice I was on a stage doing it. I really enjoyed playing the songs that I knew well, because I could move around more and pay more attention to enjoying what was going on around me. When I could come up for air on songs I knew well, I noticed the small but warm audience. Not a tiny crowd, but by no means a large one for that venue. While many songs got several people dancing, many other people appeared content to stand and appreciate (or hate) us quietly. I understand, as this is usually my typical behavior in a crowd. Although I hear that a good many people were drunk or high or both, so that could account for the stupor. But there was dancing, much cheering between songs, and a fair amount of both praise and heckling via large signs created and/or inspired by a drunkenkrasota.
I did a lot of people watching during "Girl Made of Glass," our power ballad. Perhaps the song I play the most notes in, but one my fingers actually can play with minimal attention from my brain. Patrick jumped off the stage and worked the crowd, singing directly to many of the lovely ladies in attendance. As the ballad came to a close, we completely ruined the mood with our cover of "Badgers." That's right, badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers MUSHROOM MUSHROOM. I'm almost ashamed of this, but it was fun and very funny for the duration of our one minute cover version.
Another highlight includes Patrick throwing a pile rubber devil duckies at the crowd. Some complimentary souvenirs, one of which I was asked to sign later on after the show.
The energy of this show felt very different to me. I love the feel of a live music performance, but I am more accustomed to the cramped energy of being a member of the audience. I enjoyed performing and it felt very natural, but I couldn't help but notice all the space around me. The rest of the stage felt unusual to me, as I'm accustomed to more people around me at live shows. But this time, there was an obvious barrier between me and everyone else. I am certain I will get used to the different feel of being the one on stage after a few more performances. However, I was quite amused to feel that barrier fall during the last song of the show, during our encore.
As my rhythm solo of industrial noise approaches in the song "Ghosts,"rozzgoth leads the audience in storming the stage. In seconds, nearly everyone who was on the floor, is now on stage making up for any lack of dancing they might have been guilty of while on the floor. My noise solo became a collaborative effort between me and several other grooving audience members. By the end of the solo, the stage is packed. Chad's guitar has cut out due to unknown damage. Patrick's microphone is lost, and then recovered just in time for a raucous sing along of the chorus. And I decide this would be a good time to blow out my candle before playing the closing part on the song Sure, there was potential for disaster. We did lose Chad's sound. But I must admit that I loved the rock n' roll chaos of the moment and I absolutely relished the challenge of finishing the song while trying to keep the keyboards straight on the stand as people dance all around me, bumping into me, each other, and the instruments. I danced, kept the beat, hit all the right notes, and helped bring the song to cacophonous end without setting the stage on fire.
I feel pretty good about that. I don't think I could have asked for a better first show, despite my fumbling at the outset. I'm looking forward to doing it again. Many thanks to Patrick for inviting me to join the band and managing to turn out a decent performance despite an ill throat, to Chad for holding down his side of the stage and rocking us with the guitar, and to the audience, without whom this wouldn't have been nearly as fun...nor would it have been my first show.
Come see Silent Muse again. January 17th 2004. Tokyo Rose.
solieri asks how I'm feeling after the sound check. "Pretty good," I say. "Although, I'm rather concerned about the darkness on stage." After some debate about possible solutions, he runs to the bar and procures some little tea light candles. I figure that's a good start. However, I have visions of following in the foot steps of the band Great White, burning down the club and everyone in it when my open flame catches all my sheet music on fire. I notice a mostly empty drink glass and decide to borrow it, ducking into the bathroom to throw the ice and dregs down the drain. A minute before the show I find an already burning candle and light mine before dropping it in the glass. krasota hands me a small flashlight and I walk on stage, nearly tripping in the darkness on the small set of stairs, provoking images of my candle getting loose and catching the filthy carpet on fire. However, I make it to my stand of keyboards where I set the candle atop a smooth surface on my Roland, closest to the music stand on my left. I turn on the flashlight and set that on the music stand for indirect illumination of the sheet music. Also, I decide to wear my glasses, which I hadn't planned on doing because my eyes aren't that bad, but I figure I should do everything I can to help myself. I'm ready to rock, but still not entirely sure if my vision is good enough.At this point, only
nothingoth (Chad) and I are on stage. Where's solieri? Where's Patrick? Chad steps up to the mic and informs the audience, "There will be no Silent Muse show tonight. Patrick has lost his battle with insanity and won't be with us tonight. Instead, for your entertainment, Tom will perform a little song and dance." I display a little fear and claim this wasn't in my contract as Wagner's "Flight of the Valkeries" begins playing through the sound system. As Wagner booms through the club, a commotion arises offstage. Cutting through the crowd are several burly men carrying our singer, Patrick, who is bound up in straight jacket. Some shock and horror was evident on the faces of our audience as the guys throw Patrick on stage. Wagner cuts out and the opening sequenced beats of our first song, "Villains," fills the air. Chad and I attack our respective instruments while Patrick is still wrapped up the straight jacket, and continues to perform the song as such. I notice my hands are little weak during this first song--the only nervous sign I feel as I begin my first show. "Villains" is the first of our songs I successfully memorized, so I was grateful that it was the first on the set. A good morale boost before attempting the second song, "Salieri," which is the only song that consistently gives me trouble in practice and is the only song for which I absolutely need to have my eyes on the sheet music most of the time. Light, don't fail me now!
After Patrick performs a Houdini escape from the straight jacket, the intro to "Salieri" begins. I begin the first solo on the Korg keyboard, but my finger weakness causes a few creative errors. The light is dim, but I make it through that solo. I start on the Roland part and realize I can't hear it in the monitor. Remember how dark it is on the Roland? That's right, I had the wrong sound selected. Oops...I quickly switch to the strings sound and continue. Let it be known that I've been told this was my only glaringly obvious blunder of the night. Which I almost agree with. The second followed shortly after as I completely lost track of where I was on the sheet music while fumbling with the Roland's buttons and consequently lost my place in playing the song. I just stopped playing for a bit and let the rest of the band and the sequenced backing track carry the song until I could pick it up again at the next solo, which I also screwed up in a creative way. I'm eager to hear the recording of this show to find out what I played and how it sounded, because nobody but me really seemed to notice the error. I nearly nailed the third solo and was quite relieved to reach the end of the song. The darkness was my undoing, as I feared. However, the worst is over, because for the remaining songs, I rarely need to see details of the sheet music. I just need visual cues to remind me which part to play. There's enough light to see that much, thanks especially to my candle. And some of the songs I even have entirely memorized.
I'm looking forward to being able to play all the songs on automatic pilot. For many songs I felt so absorbed in playing them that I couldn't be bothered to notice I was on a stage doing it. I really enjoyed playing the songs that I knew well, because I could move around more and pay more attention to enjoying what was going on around me. When I could come up for air on songs I knew well, I noticed the small but warm audience. Not a tiny crowd, but by no means a large one for that venue. While many songs got several people dancing, many other people appeared content to stand and appreciate (or hate) us quietly. I understand, as this is usually my typical behavior in a crowd. Although I hear that a good many people were drunk or high or both, so that could account for the stupor. But there was dancing, much cheering between songs, and a fair amount of both praise and heckling via large signs created and/or inspired by a drunken
krasota.I did a lot of people watching during "Girl Made of Glass," our power ballad. Perhaps the song I play the most notes in, but one my fingers actually can play with minimal attention from my brain. Patrick jumped off the stage and worked the crowd, singing directly to many of the lovely ladies in attendance. As the ballad came to a close, we completely ruined the mood with our cover of "Badgers." That's right, badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers MUSHROOM MUSHROOM. I'm almost ashamed of this, but it was fun and very funny for the duration of our one minute cover version.
Another highlight includes Patrick throwing a pile rubber devil duckies at the crowd. Some complimentary souvenirs, one of which I was asked to sign later on after the show.
The energy of this show felt very different to me. I love the feel of a live music performance, but I am more accustomed to the cramped energy of being a member of the audience. I enjoyed performing and it felt very natural, but I couldn't help but notice all the space around me. The rest of the stage felt unusual to me, as I'm accustomed to more people around me at live shows. But this time, there was an obvious barrier between me and everyone else. I am certain I will get used to the different feel of being the one on stage after a few more performances. However, I was quite amused to feel that barrier fall during the last song of the show, during our encore.
As my rhythm solo of industrial noise approaches in the song "Ghosts,"
rozzgoth leads the audience in storming the stage. In seconds, nearly everyone who was on the floor, is now on stage making up for any lack of dancing they might have been guilty of while on the floor. My noise solo became a collaborative effort between me and several other grooving audience members. By the end of the solo, the stage is packed. Chad's guitar has cut out due to unknown damage. Patrick's microphone is lost, and then recovered just in time for a raucous sing along of the chorus. And I decide this would be a good time to blow out my candle before playing the closing part on the song Sure, there was potential for disaster. We did lose Chad's sound. But I must admit that I loved the rock n' roll chaos of the moment and I absolutely relished the challenge of finishing the song while trying to keep the keyboards straight on the stand as people dance all around me, bumping into me, each other, and the instruments. I danced, kept the beat, hit all the right notes, and helped bring the song to cacophonous end without setting the stage on fire. I feel pretty good about that. I don't think I could have asked for a better first show, despite my fumbling at the outset. I'm looking forward to doing it again. Many thanks to Patrick for inviting me to join the band and managing to turn out a decent performance despite an ill throat, to Chad for holding down his side of the stage and rocking us with the guitar, and to the audience, without whom this wouldn't have been nearly as fun...nor would it have been my first show.
Come see Silent Muse again. January 17th 2004. Tokyo Rose.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-16 06:45 pm (UTC)And thank you, Tom. I have nothing but positive thoughts about the future of the band, and you are largely responsible for that.
January 17's gonna be a party. . .
no subject
Date: 2003-11-16 06:57 pm (UTC)There's something about happy chaos. It's good to know that occasionally all the order in the world can fall apart, and a complete disaster DOESN'T happen....that's just awesome. And I guess that's a party, too.
Glad to hear it went well!
Date: 2003-11-16 10:06 pm (UTC)Perhaps we will be able to make it to the next show. :)
Badgers
Date: 2003-11-16 10:20 pm (UTC)http://homepage.ntlworld.com/badger10/index.htm
Enjoy!
;)
Re: Badgers
Date: 2003-11-17 06:42 am (UTC)Let me know if you can make it down for the next show.
Someone recorded this last show. So, if it sounds okay, maybe I can get you an official bootleg.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-17 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-17 06:55 pm (UTC)