Categories
Everyday

Second Open Mic Down!

Well, I’ve done it again! I am officially a performer.

This time, however, the show did not go as smoothly as the first one. I think it all started with being over tired after work and doing some last minute practicing before the show. I got up, first again, and started into an older song which I realized 1 minute in that I was playing too fast. To make matters worse, the drummer Renaissance was trying to keep up with me and I couldn’t slow down without a car crash. It sort of had a shift in gears and I found my groove

The second real problem was my new song _All Alone_ which is much faster than anything else I have written in both rhythm and lyric. I forgot the chorus once and made one up on the spot which was again hard to work in the second time around. by the second chorus I had things basically together and I finished strong shouting into the microphone.

“Uh-huh, Uh-huh, Uh-huh!”

I had planned on recording this show, but as it turned out the cheap batteries I had were total crap and didn’t last 2 minutes. This is really unfortunate, because I don’t remember exactly what I was shouting at the end of my performance and would have liked to have the playback. I will post anything, if there is anything to post, but I’m not very optimistic.

Things I learned the second time around:

# Buy real batteries not crap bargain-basement *PowerMax* brand
# when singing into a microphone make sure it is pointed at your mouth and not at your nose
# Memorize your songs and practice them until you get them right
# Look at the audience and not at the floor
# Slow it down, faster playing is both harder to play and harder to salvage if anything goes wrong
# Never apologize for screwing up, the audience doesn’t know
# Invite people to the show a week ahead of time

So, next open mic night is *10PM Tuesday June 29!* That should be ample time to book plane tickets, hire a babysitter, get out of rehab, and call your father on father’s day. I expect to see you all there… unless you have plans, then you’re off the hook. As always, if you want to know where I’m playing drop me an e-mail and we shall rock out like it’s 1999.

Actually that’s kind of interesting, I never thought I would ever look at that song from the other side. Things were so good in 1999! Oh how I miss the Clinton Years.

2 replies on “Second Open Mic Down!”

I had never really thought about it before but one time I went to see a band (it may have been John Hiatt, but the Alzheimers is in full gear. Anyway, I was really surprised to see him read lyrics from a notebook as he sang. My bro said he has seen Springsteen do the same. Last time I saw Buck 65, he had his whole 'reading lyrics from a notebook' thing going too. Interesting.

Comments are closed.