The Islands of New England (11.08.12)

There are may factors that can make a show in Second Life great. Some are the expected ones... you get a huge crowd, or you put on some spectacular performance. Those are no different than the real life criteria for a great live music gig. But there's another factor in SL that you don't often see in RL: when you get to perform for and audience of good friends whose company you truly enjoy.

That was the case for me last night at the Islands of New England, which is managed by my pal Christine Haiku. She has been a wonderful supporter of my shows for several years, and I've always enjoyed her cheerful and sweet personality. The few times I've performed at the Islands of New England have all been good, mostly because it generally ends up being attended by our mutual friends, and we have a good time with each other. Last night's show was similar in that regard, though I will say that between Hurricane Sandy and the election, the overall online population in SL has been very low for the past couple of weeks, so we had a pretty small audience.

But I wasn't going to let anything like that deter me from having a good time. In fact, I was probably all the more in "Silly Zak" mode as a result of the little group of friends who were hanging out and having some laughs at the show.

Good friends, good times. Silly music included. Photo by Kat.

I really try and be professional as an entertainer, but sometimes I get the giggles (usually from screwing up songs or the antics of my audience),, and that happened a number of times at the Islands of New England. Photo by Kat.

Islands of New England Set List...
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band)
Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
†Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Comes a Time (Neil Young)
The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie)
1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
Court & Spark (Joni Mitchell)
†It Hurts Me Too (Tampa Red)
Tribute (Tenacious D)

†I'd only performed both "Born to Run" and "It Hurts me Too" once before in SL.

Massive thanks to the folks who came out to my show at the Islands of New England, including the following people who lent their support!
Cassandra1999, Blane Yordstorm, Hells Lobo, Cindy Johnsky, Sesh Kamachi, TheaDee, Kat Claxton, Sassy Nitely, my manager Maali Beck, and most of all, my friend and IONE manager Christine Haiku!