Playing and Performing

Last night we went to Little Flower Open Stage.  We hadn't been there since before Christmas.  Getting to Fiddlers Roost (an odd name for a club that is in the basement of a commercial building) right now is a challenging task. The usual route across the North Saskatchewan River that runs through Edmonton is under construction, so I have to go way west or way east to get there.  The same road in front of Fiddlers roost is closed too.  that means you have to find you way down the side streets and miraculously find a parking spot. I lucked out on that one and only had to walk a long block and a half. 

I took my guitar and Banjo and we had planned earlier in the day to play My Dream Automobile, Two Feet in the Water, and Clouds of Alberta.   Normally, we'd play these songs in this order, but I'll tell you later what we did.

Before I tell you about the performance, let me tell you about the few hours before the Little Flower Open Stage.  I decided to sneak out of work earlier than usual to get some grooming.  Yeah, my hair was getting a bit long and strangly, and I figured I should try to look at least neat if not short.   So off I went.  got my hair looked after, went to pay the lady, and no wallet. no money.  I phoned home and luckily Wanda was on the way to work and was going right by, so she stopped in to pay the bill. that took 20 minutes out of my day.  So then I went back to my office,  30 or 40 minute drive in rush hour, to get my wallet. Of course I worried all the way there that I wouldn't find it.   After all I was leaving for Nashville in two days and without credit cards I'd be screwed, and replacing them in one day would be highly unlikely.   Luckily it was there.  But on the way, I got a work call that ended up taking more of my time.

I still had to get home, get my stuff and find my way through the alternate routes across the North Sask to get to Fiddlers Roost.  Hadn't eaten yet, so grabbed a burger at Rotten Ronnies and headed home.  Got home, packed my stuff, and off I went.  I decided to go across the High Level Bridge and then down Saskatchewan drive. That would take me right in behind the area where Fiddlers roost lies.    Great idea, until I got across the bridge and found myself in the wrong lane and ended up going right back down a 1-way into the river valley instead.  this meant I had to loop around to get back over the High Level Bridge again.  I convinced myself not to make that same mistake again, and I didn't.  So I eventually got to Fiddlers Roost. 

Bored yet?  

So at the Little Flower Open Stage.  Now there wasn't a lot of people there, but they were filtering in.  Even with all the trials I went through, I still got there before Don and Brian.   So when our name came up on the list, we headed up to the stage. Breezy, said hold on, Amanda wants to go up.  We got bumped for Amanda.  Well, that was OK, we'd be next.  

Well.  We decided to play the songs in a different order than our normal routine.  We played Clouds of Alberta first.  that's the song that is an aggressive tempo with me on banjo, Brian on bass, and Don on Guitar.  I said to Brian before we started ' this should be interesting, my fingers feel like lead tubes tonight'.  And that's exactly how I played too.  First part of the song, I was off tempo, and got off the song.  I got into the song on the second verse, but lost my place a couple of times later in the song.  Was able to quickly recover though. 

Then we did My Dream Automobile.  This is one of those folksy easy going songs.  I'm on guitar, Brian on Bass, Don on the piano.  We started off.  Brian counts us in.  Brian's on, I'm playing the right chords, but I didn't recognize what I was playing.  Don's trying to figure out what I'm doing so he's off.  We just kept playing until I got the right song going and we all got on the same grove.  Then the song went good.   As Brian said, the harmonies sounded great.  I wasn't very proud of my vocals between the harmony parts though.  So we had a disaster start, but we got on track and got thru the song. 

Last song.  "Finally" I'm thinking.  This should go well. I play the song Two Feet in the Water all the time. I'm on guitar, Brian still on bass, and Don is now on bouzouki.   No problem here.  yeah right.  We start playing.  It sounds like hell.  I start the vocals, and it was so far off.   Brian smiles, asks me this "Do you want to play this in the Key of A".   You see, I usually play this with a capo on second fret, but I forgot to use the capo and was playing in Key of G.   So what can you do? People are watching.  You just smile, say oops, grab the capo, and start again.  Rest of the song went OK.  I still wasn't happy with my vocals and I missed a couple of lines, but we got thru and were done for the night. 

So lessons learned from last night:

Focus.  learn to focus for performing.  I haven't been doing a very good job of that lately.  Last night I felt pretty ho-hum about playing.  that's not a good attitude.  As Don has said many times, we are not just playing music, we are putting on a show.  Can't do that well without focus.  Seems that my focus is better when I have a little nervous energy. 

Pre-show warm up:    Usually when we do a performance, I run through the songs at home before I go.  So you know the story of my few hours before getting to little flower. I didn't do my usual run through the songs.   That is really just an excuse, it is not a good reason not to warm up.  I could have done that in the backroom by the exit stairs before going up to play.  I think that warming up gives me a little bit of that nervous energy too. 

Learn to sing;   You already knew that. 

Write another song: Why not?

And Lastly.      ONE MORE SLEEP!!!!!!!!.    Then I'm off to Nashville.