Strange weekend. RSM, usually my favorite place to play, broke our streak of "pretty good" gigs, and SCP, usually one of the worst places to play, was one of the best gigs I can remember.
The RSM gig wasn't all that bad, really. It was unusually empty, but we had some nice people listening. Geneva did fine for her songs, as usual. But I felt completely "off", mainly 'cuz the sound was inexplicably terrible. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so I couldn't fix it, but it was muddled and confusing and I couldn't tell what I was doing, so I couldn't perform well. We struggled on, of course, but it never did feel right.
Conversely, at SCP on Saturday, the sound was crystal clear. I could hear myself (guitar *and* voice) perfectly -- from full voice to whisper, strumming or barely picking. It's baffling, 'cuz this was with essentially the exact same setup, speakers and amp-wise, and I didn't touch the amp's knobs between Friday and Saturday. Apparently, it was "the room", either the shape, or the ambient noise, or something.
Also, my parents' old friends, Maryjane and Bill Wiley came by, so I had someone to play to, which always does wonders for my performance. (Jessica Ching came by too, later, though she looked bored the whole time.) It definitely becomes a feedback loop for me -- the clear sound and sympathetically focused attention helps me sing better, and hearing one song go really well makes me give it up even more for the next song, and on and on, and up and up.
My voice is back in shape, finally, after that bronchitis or whatever, and/or the clarity of sound made me *think* my throat is back in shape, which encouraged me to do little things that I don't usually expect to get away with, or can't usually hear whether or not I did/can. It was an amazing feeling -- to feel like I could do anything, and it all worked. Not to keep ranting about this, but it also made me connect to the songs more myself -- I was starting to choke up during both "Jenny Dreamed of Trains", and "Puff". It's hard to sing with a lump in your throat.
(I know, I know -- what a old softie I've become. Truth is, it took me a long time to *stop* choking up on those two (and "Pooh Corner" -- that's why I don't even *think* of adding that new third verse). I usually only get through them by deliberately *not* thinking about what I'm saying.)
Another strangeness -- it seems to have been Repeat Night. We kept getting new people come in and requesting songs that we'd already done. Since most of the crowd that was around the first time would have been gone by then, I went ahead and did 'em. I hope Bill and Maryjane didn't mind too much -- they were there most of the night. By my recollection, we did 49 songs, but 7 of those were repeats.
Anyway, small crowd, even smaller *listening* crowd, low tips -- but still the best night for a long time. Makes it all worthwhile. Sure wish I'd'a had a recorder running.
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