Ground Zero (03.10.12)

Ask a group of random musicians to make a list of things that they do not want to have happen before a live show, and you'll get plenty of similar responses. Those lists will almost always include things like equipment malfunctions, feeling unprepared to perform a song, and having the gig cancelled before they start. But one of the other things you'll see on every single list is getting ill or having an injury before playing. At the same time, most of those performers will try and do their show unless death is imminent. The old saying "the show must go on" is kind of burned into our collective psyche, I suppose.

So, that's the long-winded way of my saying that I wish I hadn't been feeling so crappy before taking the stage for the first time at Ground Zero in Second Life. It's particularly weird because Kat and I had been having a nice, relaxing Saturday, and up until an hour or so before the show, I felt fine. However, with the clarity of hindsight, I have to think that inadvertently skipping lunch and then massively overdosing on caffeine in the late afternoon contributed to my general feeling of horribleness right about the time that me show was scheduled to start. Beginning a performance while wracked with aches/pains and pouring sweat is not a good formula for a great gig.

Funny, you don't look sick. Photo by Kat.

But wait... there's more. Making matters way worse, for the first time in many months, my usually very reliable stream decided to go south as I was starting the show. I even tried another stream on the same Shoutcast server... no dice. I can only assume that the server itself committed hara-kiri sometime yesterday, since I'd been using it recently with no problems at all. The good news is that I borrowed another stream via a different server and everything was fine after that. The bad news is that it ate the first 12 minutes of my show. Especially considering that this was my first show at this cool new venue, I had particularly hoped that all would go smoothly. Gah!

Ground Zero is gorgeous. Photo by Kat.

Despite the wackiness, the crowd and I managed to have a little fun. Photo by Kat.

Now that I've finished complaining about the bad aspects of last night's show, let's focus on the good part: the actual performance of music. Once we got rolling, I think the show at Ground Zero was really pretty good, all things considered. Since the venue is owned and operated by a couple of friends -- Thea Dee, who discovered SL through me, and her friend GMetal Svartur, who's been to a good number of my shows over the last year -- I decided to pull out some relatively rare material for their enjoyment.

Ground Zero Set List...

Wonderwall (Oasis)
Polly (Nirvana)
*Roxanne (The Police)
Lines on your Eyes (Zak Claxton)
*Brain Damage/Eclipse (Pink Floyd)
Let's Pretend That Everything's Okay (Zak Claxton)
Man of Constant Sorrow (Traditional)
†Waiting for This (Zak Claxton)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
†My last live performance of "Waiting for This": August 6, 2010!

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to Ground Zero and helped support my show! Thanks for putting up with my tech difficulties and sickly whining!

Katenali, Triana Caldera, Alyss Whitewood, Ariadne Kira, Mulder Watts, Diana Renoir, crimson242 Stipe, Kat Claxton, Alexis Fairlady, adn especially the great Ground Zero owners TheaDee and GMetal!