We have worked hard on getting our songs ready to perform at the Heart of the City Festival in Giovani Park (Edmonton). We weren't able to practice for a couple of weeks because our regular lives sometimes get in the way, but we managed to get together on Friday night. After a two week period of not playing, the rust had surely found its way in. at our practice, our first run through the songs was pretty rough, but on the second run through, we got it back. So on Friday night we were ready.
Saturday I spent my day at the HOTC Festival volunteering. It was frightfully cold for June. there were reports of snow on the ground west of the City. After 8 hours, I went home very chilled.
Sunday morning was a great warm sunny day in June. I was jittery all morning. ran thru the songs on my own, just to make sure my fingers worked. Got to the HOTC about 2 pm - our set was at 5. Boogie Patrol - a local blues band - was playing and really rocked the place. I talked to a few friends that showed up to see us play, then met up with Brian and his daughter Kathryn. Kathryn was our official photographer and did a superb job capturing the Magpies at the HOTC.
Seemed as soon as we got up to play, a dark cloud slid over the park, the wind got up, and a bit of rain started to fall. A few in the crowd started to scatter, but the die hards stayed on to give us a listen.
At the Heart of the City, there is no time for sound checks, so you cross your fingers and hope the sound guys get it right. Both previous years we've had issues with the first song. Year 1, the sound guy had the reverb/chorus cranked up so high, and when he finally noticed, he ran as fast as he could to the sound board to fix it. You can hear that on the 2009 Youtube video that was put out by HOTC.
Year 2, the sound guy didn't turn on the microphones until half way through the first song. He must have been asleep because the audience was yelling to turn up the mike.
I think this year, it was much better. there were still some sound issues. My guitar apparently had a buzz going on that I didn't hear. I know I had difficulty hearing my vocals on the monitor. Over all, I think we did pretty well. I definitely think it was our best performance of the 3 years. Some of that has to do with our song writing is getting more interesting and because we are adding in more instruments. It also has a lot to do with practice, practice, practice. Can we do better? Absolutely. You always strive to improve on your last performance.
Speaking of instruments. I think the sound guy on the acoustic stage we played got used to setting up one, or maybe two instruments for each performer over the two days. The 3 of us showed up with a total of 7 instruments (8 if you include Don's shaker). The look on his face was well worth the effort of hauling all that stuff down there. (3 guitars, bouzouki, banjo, keyboard, bass guitar, and don played percussion with a shaker on the last song).
We had instrument changes on every song, which made the sound folks earn their keep because they had to pay attention to the sound balance on every song. You also have to remember the sound guys don't know our music, and they don't know what instrument should dominate through the song.
All in all, I think our performance went over well. I was watching the crowd out front (the ones who aren't our friends and family) and I think their was a positive reaction to what we were doing. I stuck around after the last performer to help with tear down, and I got some good feed back from the organizers, so I left feeling pretty good.
The song list (and song writer):
- Sitting Here (Jim)
- Earnest and Lucy (Don)
- Clouds of Alberta (Don)
- Melt Sugar (Don)
- Johnson Brown (Jim)
- Road to Nowhere (Jim et al)
- Green Valley Monsters (Jim, Don, Brian)
- Black Room (Jim)
- Two Feet in the Water (Jim)
Two feet in the water wasn't in the planned set, but for the 3rd year in a row, we were also asked to do another song. this year we were somewhat prepared, except we didn't practice that song on Friday.
