Last night "The House Band" took the stage at the kibbutz pub in order to
play a long set of love songs. I'll try not to repeat anything that I wrote
in my pre-performance
blog
1 from two weeks ago.
As opposed to our
previous performance2 at this venue, a space was made for me to stand in the front
line. As a result, none of us had much room in which to move, which is just
as well as we are very static in our playing. Not only that, the two singers
and I had chairs so that we could sit during the slower songs, so room
really was limited.
Unlike previous performances, we had a professional soundman with his own
mixing desk; this allowed us to achieve a more balanced sound than normal.
We could have done with one more on-stage monitor, as 'The Other
Guitarist' (TOG) - placed on far stage left - said that he couldn't
hear everyone else very well. The soundman told him to turn down his
amplifier, thus effectively giving me credit to my contention that he always
plays too loud. The nasty person within me was somewhat glad that we
couldn't hear his dominating playing at full volume either, and so
apparently could not the audience.
I have to admit that I lost concentration for a few seconds in at least two
songs and played a few wrong chords. Next time I won't bother looking at the
audience at all if it means that I mess up. Other than that, I played well;
there's one song on which I played lead guitar for most of the song and I
was criticised in rehearsal for repeating the same lines. So last week, I
thought up enough variations that I wouldn't have to repeat myself. We had a
great deal of trouble with this song in rehearsal, not so much because of
me, but because the coda has a solo from TOG and a hand-off to the
keyboardist who continues until the end. It took a long time before this
hand-off worked properly. My pedals worked properly.
There were two slow songs on which I did not play guitar. Instead I sat on my chair and rattled a maraca. I have no idea whether this could be heard by the audience.
I had wanted to keep my vocal song a secret from my wife so that it would be
a surprise, but before we 'took the stage', she saw that there was a
microphone in front of my place and asked why. So I had to tell her,
although I didn't tell her about my backing vocals in "You're the one that I
want" (from Grease). She filmed "I saw her standing there" on her mobile
phone; I tried to upload it to YouTube but it got blocked as it contains
copyrighted material, so I'll have to share it here. I hope that it plays. [The first minute has been uploaded to YouTube]
Of course, everyone - both band and audience - were very pleased with the
show; today I received some compliments from those who were in the audience.
I also sent the video via WhatsApp to two friends at work who passed it on
to a few more people - they said that it revealed a hitherto hidden side of
me. My manager said that she knows now why I want to retire.
I still have my doubts about the group. A week ago, I (and apparently a few
others) had apprehensions about the performance. They were worried about the
general level of preparation, whereas I was more worried about the attitude
of TOG. I wrote my thoughts in a document that I sent to my wife for
comment; she was somewhat shocked by it. I told her that I wouldn't send it
to the others until after the show as I don't want to ruin it. The show gave
everyone a huge jolt of adrenaline, but I know that when the euphoria wears
off, my concerns will still be valid. I may rewrite it before
distribution.
It's not really connected, but the alarm woke me at 6:30 am (after having gone to bed at about 11:30 pm), and later I swam 26 lengths, which is the most I have swum this year. After a late breakfast (intermittent fasting, remember), I worked a little then started watching a recorded show on TV. In the middle I felt my eyes closing so I laid down for a little sleep that lasted at least an hour. At least from now I should have much fewer late nights so I can return to sleeping well and long.
Internal links
[1] 1971
[2] 1923
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