Amazing! Great show at the Blarney Stone (11.11.08)

I had what must have been one of my top-ten all-time SL shows last night at the Blarney Stone in Dublin. One thing I really like about playing places like the Blarney Stone is that they have a built-in crowd of regulars. At a lot of places, if I arrive 20 minutes before showtime, I'm the only person there, often getting there before the venue owner/manager. But not last night! It's a great feeling looking at the map before you teleport to the club and seeing 20 green dots waiting for you!

So, a few funny notes... first, I started the evening with a naked guy who decided to wiggle his nude ass on my stage moments before I started my show. According to Cher Harrington, there were a total of four nekkie people that had to be dealt with during my show, so apparently I bring out the freak brigade, which is fine with me as long as there's someone there to deal with them.

Getting ready to rock, with a nice poster behind me.

A happy crowd makes for a happy Zak.

One of the several times I got an uninvited guest on stage with me that night.

Second funny (kind of) moment: at 4:59, one minute before I was going to do my first tune, I crashed SL! It's been a long time since I've had any SL crashes at all, but this one wasn't so bad... I did a fast restart of the MacBook Pro, popped back into world at my last location, and jumped into my first tune. Contrasting that, my audio/streaming computer went through the entire show without even a hiccup, which was a welcome change.

But all that is pretty normal, in SL anyway. The other things that made this show awesome...

• First, I'm VERY happy these days with any 40+ crowd. I think we peaked at 47 or so. That means we had a good 60+ people who saw the show, counting some who came late or left early with crowd turnover. Love that!

• My voice and guitar decided to behave to a satisfactory degree, with no severe screwups. I have no complaints.

• I love having my good friends like Cher, DD, Silas, and Triana in the crowd. I get all happied-up as soon as I see their names pop in.

• The Blarney Stone has a great vibe. After playing so many RL Irish pubs here in the LA area (Hennessey's, Killian's, Keegan's and so on), I felt right at home there.

• Cher Harrington must be the best hostess in SL, bar none. She was on top of everything and seemed to be having a great time (and made sure everyone else was having fun too), and I don't ask for more than that.

In any case, the end result was a great show, with quite a few folks signing up to join my Zak Claxton group right after the show, which is one of my big goals at the moment (building my crowd).

Song Sample: "One" (U2)

Here's what I played!

If You Could Only See (Tonic)
What I Got (Sublime)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Help Me (Joni Mitchell)
*One (U2)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Wonderwall (Oasis)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
All-Star (Smash Mouth)
A Day in the Life (Beatles)

*Indicates first time I've ever performed this song in SL

Thanks to everyone who was at the Blarney Stone, along with these folks who helped support my show!
Triana Caldera, Felix Valeeva, Otawan Fouquet, Noelle Pobieski, GentlemanKev Bookmite, Laelae Nubalo, Padula Bing, Silas Scarborough, bobo Foxtrot, Milan Martynov, Eowyn Atlass, and most of all, the hostess with the mostess, Cher Harrington!