Friday, October 21, 2011

Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show #13 (10.20.11)


VIDEO LINK

I'm sure that many of you thought that the Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show was a thing of the past, but just when you least expected me to get in front of a camera for no reason other than to be a singing fool, there I was again. Hey, I missed me too.

Some clarification and definition is in order here. Confusingly, I've done several different formats of video shows over the years. Back in February 2010, I discovered Ustream, a service that allows people to stream live video over the Internet, and put together a little show so my friends and fans could watch me rock out from the comfort of my (and their) own home. I called it the "Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show", and did 12 shows between February and July of that year. Shortly after that, I was approached by a company called StreamJam who took the same Ustream feed and made it accessible on Facebook. Then, in early 2011, I also did a series of shows for StageIt... a similar service that seemed better at promoting the artists who played there.



Still, while I enjoyed the shows I did with those services, the fact that I was unable to perform cover tunes made the show rather repetitive. Also, while I appreciate that the other services offer varying degrees of monetization, it's nice being to just rock out without hitting your audience up for tips. Ultimately, I'm the kind of performer who likes to do whatever music he feels like on the spur of the moment, which is why after 15 months of having put the ZCHFS on Ustream aside, I resurrected it last night on a whim. See, I had nothing scheduled this week in SL, and didn't want to wait another week before my next show.

Anyway, back to the now. I didn't do a lot of promotion for this show; I thought a simple, low-key thing where a few of my pals could hang out and have fun would be a cool thing to do, especialy since it had been a long time since I did this type of show, so that's what I did. As I often do, I pulled out some rarities and one never-before-played tune at this video show.

ZCHFS Episode #13 Set List...
California (Joni Mitchell)
Alabama Song (The Doors)
Shine (Zak Claxton)
†Don't Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Loser (Beck)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Black Peter (Grateful Dead)
Bein' Green (Kermit the Frog)
*Freaky (Flight of the Conchords)
After the Goldrush (Neil Young)

*Indicates the first time I've ever performed this song.
†My last performance of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" was on Sep 29, 2007! Wow!


Thanks to everyone who saw the show. That was fun!

1 comment:

~Diana said...

You must do this again sometime. Oooh, we could even do it at Coyote, now that I've figured out how to get it to work for those of us that don't have *cough, cough* old viewers.
If only for the reason that "Freaky" would lose something if no one could see your facial expressions. ♥♥♥