More inviting.
Less guarded.
Less scowly.
I've had a tendency to hate my audiences in the past.
Sometimes good and funny things came from this.
Other times it made for uncomfortable shifting and general oddness.
So today at The Paper Machete, Thea and I played a couple of songs to promote our Nurse Novels show tonight at Schuba's.
I talked to the crowd friendly style, like an NPR pledge drive.
The results were better.
I didn't scowl.
People didn't gather their belongings.
We raised $19,000.
Later, we loaded in at Schuba's.
It was our first show at a venue with a quality sound system.
We greeted the soundman.
He was French.
We had had him before as a soundman with Sandwich Shop.
I remember him being rather rigid.
I set my drums up on stage.
Drummers are often relegated to the very back of the stage.
It's tradition I suppose.
What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians?
A drummer.
What does a drummer use for contraception?
His personality.
Hey, did you hear about the drummer who finished high school?
Me neither.
In The Nurse Novels, I sing and introduce songs.
So I placed my drums a bit downstage.
This way they wouldn't be behind a wall of guitarists.
I would be sharing the same plane as my bandmates.
"No, no, no!"
The frenchmen wouldn't have it.
It would make things more difficult for him to mix.
So I retreated toward the back wall.
How can you tell if the stage is level?
The drummer is drooling from both sides of his mouth.
While I schlepped it all back a few feet, Tom was getting his guitar sound.
It was at a stage volume level.
Between trebly blasts the soundman asked me questions.
"Is that your drum throne?"
"Is that your cymbal stand?"
His questions were annoying.
I had to scream over the guitar to answer him.
"Are you going to move the drums back?"
Clearly I was moving the drums back.
Tom stopped playing.
"YES, I'M MOVING THE DRUMS BACK!!!"
I just shouted at the soundman.
The soundman controls your evening.
If he doesn't like you, he will make you sound like shit.
The audience will think you sound like shit.
You will think you sound like shit.
You will sound like shit.
I had forgotten to be amiable toward the soundman.
Oops.
After soundcheck I tried out amiability.
I asked him where in France he was from.
"Paree."
I told him about my recent French travails.
I mean travels.
He seemed surprised that I had been to France.
He put out his cigarette and walked away.
What do you do if you accidentally run over a drummer?
Back up.
In my drum monitor the show sounded like shit.
It was a smear of noise.
I couldn't hear vocals.
But I didn't take it out on the audience or the band.
Instead, we had fun.
I talked briefly and amiably between songs.
We played a few new ones.
People clapped supportively.
We raised $68,000.
Afterward, Lauren said the sound was really good.
Well, I almost learned something today.
Verdict: Win
No comments:
Post a Comment