Me at My House

Monday, February 20, 2006

Me at My House - 2/18/06

It was a debut of sorts. My only "public" solo performance previously was on Carl's 24-hour radio show. I believe there were 2 people listening at the time. And I hadn't written any songs yet. This time there were 10 - 15 people milling around. I think I played pretty well. I didn't seriously fuck anything up. I can't judge the quality of my singing because I couldn't hear myself, but it felt pretty good.
I played: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue by Bob Dylan; Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen; (As yet untitled) by Me; Perfect Day by Lou Reed; Before the Fall by Me; Give My Love to Rose by Johnny Cash; Lost Cause by Beck; Pennyroyal Tea by Nirvana; And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Traditional; Wayfaring Stranger - Traditional.
I only wanted to play sad songs and I succeeded. Amy told me she was concerned I may have poisoned the food and this was actually a mass suicide. That made me pretty happy. I'm just glad she wasn't bored. Most of the songs went pretty well. I'm not too happy with my voice on Lost Cause, so I might not do that one again. I played Waltzing Matilda on the mandolin and that started out pretty shaky, but I think I found my footing half way through. (I played it because the Pogues are coming to New York next month.) Wayfaring Stranger and Pennyroyal Tea didn't feel as powerful as they sometimes do when I'm practicing. The originals, though, came out pretty good. Especially considering I had just rewritten the lyrics to Before the Fall and had only rehearsed it that way one time. For now, my songs are only skeletons of what they'll sound like if I get around to recording them, but I think this was the best way to do it solo and sans amplification.
Later on, I played with Kevin on I Don't Care About Your Girlfriend; the first time we'd done it on acoustic guitars. And later than that, we attempted Mr. Tambourine Man; occassionally it sounded good.
Other than that, other people played as well. Kevin did some more Dylan songs and some Johnny Cash and some Sweaters. Amy and Lisa formed an all-girl improvisational accordion duo. The didgeridoo passed across a couple sets of lips.
And there are pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72057594067220901/

I guess now it's time to write some more songs and play in front of a proper audience.

Renaissance Man

We shoulda recorded it. First of all, your audience was held captive during your entire set. The entire set. Second, I think a lot of your flaws are entirely your perception. Maybe you were nervouse during the first few verses of "Waltzing Matilda," but at most, that only gave a shakiness to your vocal chords during the first verse or so. Musically it was fine. Mr. Tambourine Man? Also fine. There were a few transitional chords where we weren't as tight as we were during the rest of the song (most notably the A/Asus4/A/Asus2 transition in the refrain, but it was overall a fine rendition.The double rythm worked well. Posted by Renaissance Man on Monday, February 20, 2006 at 8:50 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	King David	Whenever I looked around, I noticed that people had their eyes closed. I wasn't sure what to make of that. Posted by King David on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 10:52 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Belbusti	sorry i missed you. seems like it went well. i'm sure the A/Asus4/A/Asus2 transition was brilliant. Posted by Paul Belbusti on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 8:46 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	King David	I had no knowledge of that transition. Posted by King David on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 10:52 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Belbusti	that's because you're transgender. Posted by Paul Belbusti on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 11:36 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	dipshit	Wish we would have known about it. Next time please. Posted by dipshit on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 10:25 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	King David	Next time, when I'm playing somewhere real, I'll send out a bulletin. Posted by King David on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 9:36 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Alex

Make sure it hits the west coast , yo Posted by Alex on Saturday, March 04, 2006 at 4:24 AM