Whisky A Go Go in SL (07.10.12)

It would seem that my residency at the Whisky A Go Go in Second Life is lasting longer than I originally thought! Owner Cameron Trenchcoat got in touch with my terrific manager Maali Beck, and much to my happy surprise, I found out on Monday night that I'd be back at the Whisky the following day.

Getting a crowd together at 6PM on a weekday in SL is always a challenge. There are often 50 or more live music events happening in that same time slot. Fortunately, I have a pack of loyal Zakster fans, and the Whisky is pretty good about rallying a crowd as well. So, we had a nice group of fun folks there, and it was a good time for all.

A quick side note: every musician I know has a different method of planning a set. When you play as often as I do, the last thing you want to do (in my not-always-humble opinion) is play the same group of tunes over and over again, if you have the choice. As every Zakster knows, I do my very best to not only mix up my set list so that every show feels unique in some way, but I also add new covers and original songs pretty often. It's an effort that's not only for my fans; it's very much for me as well. There's nothing worse than being bored at what should be an exciting time (i.e., performing live music).

The lovely Zakster ladies arrived early, which made me happy. Here's a little tip for fans who want to support your musician friends in SL: try to get to the show just a few minutes early. Having some people there before the top of the hour helps bring in other people when they're looking around for something to do. Photo by Kat.

Anyway, I usually pull my set together shortly before a show, while I'm warming up my voice to sing. My sets are influenced by a number of things: my mood at the moment, the level of confidence I have in my voice and guitar playing that day, how recently I've played certain songs, and so on. I try not to overthink it, and pull together the list pretty quickly, rarely second-guessing myself. For last night's Whisky show, I found that the first few songs I pulled out all happened to have titles that started with the letter "A", so on a whim, I decided that it would be "Covers That Start With 'A' Night". I also did the unusual maneuver of playing all my covers in one clump, and then doing the second half of the show with all originals.

Whisky Set List...
A Million Miles Away (The Plimsouls)
A Day In The Life (Beatles)
Across the Universe (Beatles)
†All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow)
Allentown (Billy Joel)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
After the Goldrush (Neil Young)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Go Easy On Me (Zak Claxton)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)

†I've only done this song once before, on December 31, 2007 at a New Year's event.

Big thanks to everyone who came out to the Whisky, including the following who helped support my show!
Annan Dreamscape, GMetal Svartur, TheaDee, Gideon McMillan, Alexis Fairlady, Cicadetta Stillwater, Kat Claxton, my manager Maali Beck, Whisky host Dmitri Polonsky, and owner Cameron Trenchcoat!