Gig Report: First non-open mic outing in ages..

[u6crash]

So, I mentioned here that I would be playing my first gig (of sorts) tonight for the first time in several years. I've been playing open mic every other month or so, but it's three songs and I'm out. Tonight I was playing in a coworker's basement and it went pretty well.

 

Originally this was only going to be half a dozen people in his basement and I thought I probably didn't need an amp, but I'm glad I had it. At the height there were probably thirty people packed into his basement and it got noisy. I really only had this week to practice and didn't do as much practicing as I should have, but I pulled off most of the songs that I planned on doing, and even threw in a few extras. Here's what my setlist looked like:

 

Dead Flowers - Rolling Stones

Turn It On - Flaming Lips

I'm Always In Love - Wilco

You Gave Your Love To Me Softly - Weezer // Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground - White Stripes

Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

Cause & Effect - White Stripes // Bad Days - Flaming Lips

Between Planets - The Jesus and Mary Chain

(I'm An) Orange Daisy - John Morton (John Morton = u6crash)

Thirty-Three - Smashing Pumpkins

Slip Sliding Away - Paul Simon

Butterfly - Weezer

 

BREAK

 

Intro/Stop Sign - John Morton

Moscow - John Morton

Poor Places - Wilco

Jamie - Weezer

All the Kids Are Right - Local H

Learned to Clot - John Morton

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Wilco

Blue Flashing Light - Travis

Bad Moon Rising - CCR

Zeitgeist - Smashing Pumpkins

Half the World Away - Oasis

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley-esque

Have You Ever Seen The Rain - CCR

 

Unplanned additional tunes:

Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

Hurt - NIN (in the style of Johnny Cash)

Sex and Candy - Marcy Playground

Divorce Song - Liz Phair

Big Me - Foo Fighters

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Flaming Lips

Karma Police (tease) - Radiohead

Say It Ain't So (tease) - Weezer

My Name Is Jonas - Weezer

Wonderwall - Oasis

 

My voice was starting to feel it by the first break. This was a small basement with low ceilings and plenty of people smoking. I got through it okay though. Halfway through the second set someone set out a tip jar and I knew I was going to have to play some more songs. Mostly this was an experimental gig as a favor to a coworker, but everyone raved about it and asked me if I played out other places, etc. I'm using it to gauge how I feel about practicing more and trying to play real gigs. I had a blast and made more money that I would make at three hours of work, but there's an awful lot of preparation that went into it, and in my mind I should have practice more.

 

Another cool thing, I gave my camera to my sister to take pictures. She handed it off to her friend's husband who does photography for a living and took some kind of artsy shots. Here's a few of them:

 

 

 

 

 

You know, at this point I really don't think I want to be a semi-regular gigging musician; putting in all the practice time and extra work necessary to pull it off. One guy mentioned that his buddy has a studio in Aurora and I was good enough to play there whenever I wanted or open for his band, but he's not a musician so he doesn't realize that these are mostly three chord songs. The songs I do I do pretty well, but they are fairly easy songs and I just manage to get by on some of the more challenging ones. Maybe I'll change my mind. The host already asked me to come back for New Years, but we'll see if he remembers that when I see him at work on Monday.

[Stackabones]

Cool gig review! Congrats!

[Samilyn]

Wow! Great write up and great pics!

 

Glad to hear the gig went so well. Yeah, I know what you mean about the voice getting all scratchy when playing a long one in a smoky place.

 

Love that gorgeous git.

[panhandler]

I'm glad it went well.... Sounds like a good time for everyone.

Sorry you had to endure the smoke! Bleeeeeccch!