Report: Zak Live on StreamJam ep. XI (11.24.10)

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.

I kicked off the Days of Gluttony 2010 by doing my Wednesday evening show on StreamJam, the live music application for Facebook. But well before I got the show started, things got very interesting... as in the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."

StreamJam works by picking up a feed from Ustream, a free online live video streaming service. On a side note, you can see a bunch of my previous performances on my Ustream channel... most of them are archived there. Anyway, Ustream must have recently made some changes, because after months and months of trouble-free use, it suddenly wasn't recognizing my Mac's camera. Great! So, with about a half hour until show time, here I was, frantically clearing cache, updating Flash, looking for files to uninstall, and so on. I usually like to spend that time warming up my guitar and voice, but that wasn't to be. Coming close to the point of having to cancel the show, I remembered that I had another software client that could access Ustream, and it worked... but then, I couldn't get the audio to come through. I briefly considered doing my show as a mime, or perhaps trying an hour of interpretive dance, but I eventually got the audio rolling with three minutes to spare. Whew.

Anyway, despite all those technical shenanigans, the show itself was fine. Took me a couple of songs to get into it (as mentioned above, I prefer to spend the time before a show preparing my music rather than troubleshooting my computer), but as the show rolled on, I had a good time and my little crowd did as well. I also just realized I did 11 songs at my 11th show. I really do go to 11, it seems.

SJ 11 Set List
Fade Away (Zak Claxton)
Triana (Zak Claxton)
Go Easy On Me (Zak Claxton)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
In My Time of Dying (Traditional)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
†Black Phoebe (Zak Claxton)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
*Amelia (Joni MItchell)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)

†"Black Phoebe" is now the name of my new previously-untitled instrumental. This was the first show I played it as a titled song.
*This was the first time I played "Amelia" live.

IMPORTANT NOTE... my next StreamJam show will be held on December 8, 2010... which is the 30-year anniversary of my very first live show (on December 8, 1980, when I was 11 years old). As many of you recall, it was also the night that John Lennon was killed; a very mixed emotional day, as you can imagine! PLease make a note to come to this show, since I'll be sure to make it a special one.

And, as always , thanks to everyone who came to see me! See you next time!