Club RoCa (09.07.12)

As any reader of this blog knows, I always look forward to opportunities where I can expose my music to new groups of people. In Second Life, those opportunities come knocking when I perform at venues where I've never played before, which is exactly what happened last week when Maali booked me at Club RoCa. While it's not a brand new place, the entire venue just moved to a new location and had re-opened the day before, so there was plenty of newness in the virtual air for everyone.

Since I'd be playing for at least some folks who hadn't heard me before, I decided to do what I'd consider a "typical Zak show", where I mixed in a good number of my originals with some covers of artists people don't always hear performed in SL or elsewhere. The show didn't exactly start out with a bang; during my very first song, the audience lost the audio, and I started to get that sinking feeling that happens when the technology of live streamed audio bites me in the ass. But I needn't have worried; we restarted the stream and everything seemed fine after that.

Club RoCa is a really nice, contemporary and elegant-looking build without seeming stuffy. Rob and Maggie did a good job on the place. I ended up enjoying my debut show there quite a lot. Photos by Kat.

We also started things out with a pretty small crowd, but as I played, more and more people popped in, and it was really a good-sized audience by the halfway point. I've always said that musicians don't get new fans in bunches, but rather one at a time. I'm happy to say that at least one person in the crowd at Club RoCa truly seemed to enjoy my music and my performance, and she made some generous tips and joined up with the "Zak Claxton Happy Fun Group" immediately after the show. I don't ask for anything more than that, and hope to see her at more Zak Shows around the grid.

Club RoCa Set List...
Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
A Million Miles Away (The Plimsouls)
*Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Fire & Rain (James Taylor)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello)
In My Time of Dying (Traditional)
Man on the Moon (R.E.M.)
I Am A Child (Neil Young)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)

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

Huge thanks to all who came out to my debut at Club RoCa, especially the following folks who helped support the show!
Artemis Rexie, Triana Caldera, GMetal Svartur, Endymian, JDHoney, Rusty Seisenbacher, Sesh Kamachi, Kat Claxton, TheaDee, and Club RoCa owners/hosts bballrob and Maggie Ashbourne!