Day 39: Gig night
Tonight was my first performance in Australia. What a night to forget it was! I never knew 20 minutes could feel so long. The only thing good about it was that there were only about three people in the audience to witness such a disaster.
There was a band that played before us and oh my goodness they were spectacular. I chatted to a couple of them for a bit and they were nice too. The other two were dicks though, unfortunately. But man, when they hit the stage they were incredible! My new favourite band. The crap thing about it was that I had nothing to show. They left during our set and I know it was because it was terrible and rightly so. The songs were shocking, the guy can't sing in tune, the venue's amp I was using was crapping out and so there would be moments of silence randomly in the middle of a song. I felt so uncomfortable and powerless to do anything about it. The guy kept stopping whenever the guitar buffered as well instead of pushing through like a professional. Oh dear. If first impressions count for anything then Australia will not be good to me. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
Afterwards the sound guy was very encouraging. He seemed relatively new to the job and he told us about an open mic he runs at the venue every Thursday nights. According to his facebook status update, the guy I played for took it as a sign that the gig went really well because he got "asked back" to play again. Wtf, how clueless can one get?
Why did I even play the gig, I hear you ask. The gig was set up by a label called Melodic Music so I thought it might be a good way to meet some people from the industry. There was one guy there but he wasn't really around much and plus, how could I approach someone confidently after that dismal display to convince them that I had something good to offer?
Focusing on the positives though, the band before us were so fricken good. It's not too often that you stumble upon an awesome band playing live - especially playing to a completely empty bar. If you're interested to hear some of their stuff, visit http://soundcloud.com/michaelswannmusic
Most of the stuff up on there is the singer playing alone, I think. He has an incredible range. Tonight, he played with his band, 'The Fox Fantasy,' and I think it was better. They were all really good players too. Flip, a missed opportunity.
Peak: Discovering Michael Swann and the Fox Fantasy
Pit: The gig
There was a band that played before us and oh my goodness they were spectacular. I chatted to a couple of them for a bit and they were nice too. The other two were dicks though, unfortunately. But man, when they hit the stage they were incredible! My new favourite band. The crap thing about it was that I had nothing to show. They left during our set and I know it was because it was terrible and rightly so. The songs were shocking, the guy can't sing in tune, the venue's amp I was using was crapping out and so there would be moments of silence randomly in the middle of a song. I felt so uncomfortable and powerless to do anything about it. The guy kept stopping whenever the guitar buffered as well instead of pushing through like a professional. Oh dear. If first impressions count for anything then Australia will not be good to me. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
Afterwards the sound guy was very encouraging. He seemed relatively new to the job and he told us about an open mic he runs at the venue every Thursday nights. According to his facebook status update, the guy I played for took it as a sign that the gig went really well because he got "asked back" to play again. Wtf, how clueless can one get?
Why did I even play the gig, I hear you ask. The gig was set up by a label called Melodic Music so I thought it might be a good way to meet some people from the industry. There was one guy there but he wasn't really around much and plus, how could I approach someone confidently after that dismal display to convince them that I had something good to offer?
Focusing on the positives though, the band before us were so fricken good. It's not too often that you stumble upon an awesome band playing live - especially playing to a completely empty bar. If you're interested to hear some of their stuff, visit http://soundcloud.com/michaelswannmusic
Most of the stuff up on there is the singer playing alone, I think. He has an incredible range. Tonight, he played with his band, 'The Fox Fantasy,' and I think it was better. They were all really good players too. Flip, a missed opportunity.
Peak: Discovering Michael Swann and the Fox Fantasy
Pit: The gig
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