Tag: Shows

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20 Dec: Atlanta

Eddie’s Attic (Atlanta, GA)
w/ the Susi French Connection

Well, of course the show was rough for me, but you expected that by now. Just felt a little off, and my usual level of discomfort playing acoustic. Sometimes I’m able to get past it but last night wasn’t one of those times.

Rob Gal was there to play on one of Susi French’s songs, so he came up and played on the first three of mine. Having not actually rehearsed or ever played acoustic together, it was sloppy. I did one more song of mine solo. Then it was into the seventies hits (more or less). For the curious among you:
“Xanadu” by ELO/Olivia Newton John
“Alone Again, Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan
“Another Day” by Paul McCartney
“The Ballad of El Goodo” by Big Star
“Sunshine” by Jonathan Edwards.

The seventies hits seemed to fare better, not surprising since that was the point of the evening. It didn’t occur to me until a few days ago that it might be a good idea to skew my set that way, I could have used more time to get comfortable with them. But in the end it was a smart move, I think the show would have been worse for me had I stuck to my own material to a lot of polite applause (and the place was full, I was impressed).

The Susi French Connection played next. I could go on and on about what an amazing group of people Gentle Readers are (I’ve done it before, though, so I won’t). But they pull this seventies thing off amazingly well. I’ll never remember the entire set, but highlights:
“She’s a Lady” by Tom Jones
“The Logical Song” by Supertramp
“Here You Come Again” by Dolly Parton
“Lay Down Sally” by Eric Clapton (the one Rob played on)
“Behind Closed Doors” by Charley Pride
“You’re No Good” by Linda Rondstadt
“You’re Having My Baby” by Paul Anka
“More, More, More” by the Andrea true Connection
“Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain and Tennille
“Waterloo” by ABBA
“The Air That I Breathe” by the Hollies

The latter being the one I sang. They had put it next to last in the set (before “Waterloo”) which I thought was very flattering. I thought I was getting a little rough on the choruses (I’m STILL getting over the cold) but apparently it didn’t come across. I didn’t sense a bigger reaction, but I kept getting told afterwards (without asking) that there was one. Which was good since I was busy beating myself up over it. After the show there was much hanging about with Gentle Readers, also Sue Witty’s manager Alayne, Sonia Tetlow, Becky Shaw (who was singing with Susi French all night), and the spoos. To the point that, though after I sang I was feeling somewhat disappointed about my performance, by the time I left I felt a nice little glow. Not because people had been convincing me my show was good, but because I like all of these people a lot, and just sitting around talking felt damn good.

I love those guys. You should go see them.

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2 Dec: webcast

webcast on theguesthouselive.com

Sunday afternoon I went by the studio to sing a backing vocal part for something. Rob told me the name but, to be honest, I don’t remember it. (edit: It was called Desmond Drive) He had a group of people in, including Michael Lorant and Becky Shaw, and John was there. We sang a lot of “na-na”s. A couple of run throughs, one of which the females in the group sang an octave higher for some variety. I was, of course, asked to join the higher voice. There was some brief talk afterward between John and Becky about my range, something of which I really don’t have a clue about. Apparently I’m a tenor (I think I knew that much) but my high range is pretty extended. I suppose I should try to find out so I can tell anyone who needs to know. Particularly if I really want to try to push doing studio work or whatever, which I do.

Sunday night was the webcast show. It’s a converted house in Duluth, all of the bottom floor is a really impressive professional-level studio space. I mean, the whole project has to have run an incredible amount of money. Upstairs the living room has also been converted and that’s where the webcast performances take place. Two long couches are against the wall. Giant baffles hanging from the ceiling, 3 cameras in various places on the wall. Actually, there are cameras all over the house, broadcasting over the web. The house is full of musicians running all this stuff, all of whom were surprisingly friendly. Just a really impressive set-up.

I played through a Vox amp for the first time, something I’ve always wanted to try. I didn’t spend a lot of time tweaking it, but I was surprised to find I wasn’t all that impressed. I think I prefer my little Fender HotRod. Anyway, even our set-up and soundcheck were being broadcast, though I don’t know how many people might have been watching that. We covered a lot of last minute Bowie songs during set-up for some reason.

The show itself went really well, I thought. Musically we did as well as at the EARL, pretty tight. I’m not so sure, not having seen it yet, that I was very animated. It was hard to give a “show” performance in front of about 10 people on two couches. But I think it came across well. That opinion might change once I see it, of course. After the show I went downstairs to the studio and heard a little of what we did. There was something exciting and depressing about hearing myself in that studio. Surrounded by every single thing you might imagine when you picture a major label studio. Dimly lit cherry wood walls and every computerized toy you could imagine. The sound was amazing, as you would expect, and it was really good to hear myself reverberating around the walls of a room like that, and to know that I could do that given a chance, that the music I’m making is quality enough to sound like it belongs there. But also depressing in its way, because I HAVEN’T been given that chance, and the industry being what it is, I have no idea if I ever will.

Not sad, so much, but sort of bittersweet.

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29 Nov: Atlanta

the EARL (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Kenny Howes, Shamgod

So, okay, back in the days of Radiant City, we rehearsed 2 to 3 times a week. It could get grueling at times, but we were pretty religious about it, up until the very end. Sometimes I’ll tell other musicians that and I always seem to get the same reaction, sort of like, “my god, you guys were insane…” So, it’s been odd for me with the Million Box because we’ve had a very sporadic rehearsal schedule. Since they’re all in other bands, booking shows is tricky enough, trying to make sure everyone is available. So, for this show, we rehearsed on November 10, and then we rehearsed again last night at 7pm, before the show.

And the show felt good.

Of the three shows we’ve done so far that was easily the best, the mistakes were small and probably not noticeable except to me. The other two shows I never felt like I caught up to the show (well, granted, I was doped up on Percocet for one of them), but this time I was there. I was able to move around a little more, be a little more complimentary with my guitar playing. One thing about Radiant City is, we all had remote units for the guitars, and so we used to really roam the stage during a show, switching mics during songs, singing along on one mic, that sort of thing. We once played a show in Athens, where the owner really loved our CD so he knew what he was getting, but afterwards wouldn’t book us back in because, he said, we were too “Paul Revere and the Raiders” for his club. So, you can see, we were a pretty active, goofy band live. I doubt I’ll try to get back to that with the Million Box, but it was nice to be moving around a bit more, to sort of feel like I was starting to reclaim the stage, if that makes any sense. It’s felt sort of awkward, the first couple of shows, being back on stage with a band. Bands really are like marriages, it’s a cliche for a reason, and so, being back onstage with another has been strange, and hard not to compare with the past. But last night it really started to feel like it was gaining its own identity.