This is Sam Draisey's latest venture, bringing his ever-brilliant Open Mic nights to Bilston. It felt very different to the ones he's done before in various different places, not least because the Robin 2 is huge. The sound system was really good; never before had I actually been happy with the sound I was getting out of the monitors! (I have this thing about not complaining about my sound, because it probably doesn't sound anything like that at the front, and telling a sound engineer 'can you make the monitors sound any less shit?' probably won't go down well at all.) But with such an eclectic mix of personality and styles tonight, it was all about the songs...
The first of mine was Storm from the North. I picked this one because I'd actually gone on quite late and I had seen that the audience took music and themselves seriously enough to appreciate a track like this. Sam also got a video of it for your enjoyment! I think I did quite well, although if you look at the start where I was about to start the song and I didn't... it wasn't because I'd forgotten the words, it's because I literally couldn't remember what I was doing. I don't know, it's a sort of mental state where I completely blank out and think about nothing but I'm still capable of idly jamming on guitar. It's probably not something I should try again when I'm on a stage, especially not one of this prestiege!
Next was a cover of Do The Strand by Roxy Music. This went very well, I'm getting better at playing it. That guitar part is exhausting and that top F is a little higher than I can comfortably reach, but I'm building up the stamina now, it all comes with practice! I need to be careful who I play this song to, though. If the audience is old enough to remember Roxy Music, they'll be like 'Oh yeah, Roxy Music! I haven't heard this for ages!' and really enjoy it. If they're not old enough, but mature enough to appreciate the style, or at least the challenge of a song that let's face it pisses all over any semblance of song structure, they'll enjoy it as well. Thankfully, the room tonight appeared to consist of both of those things. But I wouldn't necessarily play it at a Prickly gig. Except perhaps in a sound check.
To finish off I played A Lonely Night, giving what I described as a rare performance of the un-edited version of it. This one went well, in fact I think tonight was the least I've messed any gig up for quite a long time now. This is one of those times where the audience helped by being attentive; pretty nearly everyone had been on by then and some people had left, but the people who remained behind were as interested in everybody elses performance as they were in their own, which is really pleasing to see. When I got off the stage, one of the guys who'd been on before told me they really like my lyrics. Well, compared to my contemporaries, I'm not much of a guitar player, and I rely on the quality of my songs to carry the gig, so thanks, you couldn't give me a higher compliment.
All in all tonight went very well. The next one won't be for a while but it's nice to come home from my second gig in a row where the feedback that I've given myself has been mostly positive. Compare that to where I was this time last year and I've not done too badly, have I?
See you next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment