Here's a statement that will have any guitarist reading this blog nodding his or her head vigorously: when you can't get a good tone on a guitar, your guitar-playing skill will diminish in a direct ratio to how bad the tone is. Last night, I had two strikes against me as a guitarist. First, something in my audio system (mixer? mic? cable? who knows) was causing my guitar to not have the level of sensitivity it usually offers. Strike two was that the strings on my usually awesome Martin D-18V are dead (I've just been lazy about changing them, because, well, changing strings sucks ass).
So, those are the justifications as to why I was playing guitar like a 12-year-old, as opposed to a guy who's been strumming away for 37 years. Still, I don't think a single person who came to my show last night at Molaskey's Pub in Second Life didn't have a good time. And, being honest here, even a bad day for me on guitar doesn't exactly suck. It just wasn't as good as my own high standards would have preferred.
I was playing so poorly that Kat later said my rendition of a Foo Fighters' song should have been titled "Everwrong". Photo and top photo by Kat.
And yet, I was having a great time, and the crowd was too. Photo by Kat.
Molaskey's is a good place to have a great time in Second Life, even when guitars are behaving badly. Photo by Kat.
More important, as I mentioned above, is that it was a good show in that the song choices worked well, my singing was up to par, and the audience had a good time (which is all I actually care about in any case). I kind of started out pretty mellow, but once I got my performance blood flowing, I started putting a lot of energy into the songs, to the point that I was a sweaty mess at the end, and was just about ready to collapse. The better shows I do usually end that way.
Did I died? Only momentarily. I'll tell you, though, good shows take a lot of energy. It's a workout. Photo by Triana.
Molaskey's set list...
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
On The Way Home (Buffalo Springfield)
California (Joni Mitchell)
Fade Away (Zak Claxton)
Fire & Rain (James Taylor)
Nowhere Man (Beatles)
It's Good to be King (Tom Petty)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
1979 (Smashin Pumpkins)
Everlong (Foo Fighters)
Behind Blue Eyes (The Who)
A Million Miles Away (The Plimsouls)
Massive thanks to everyone who supported the show and rocked with me!
Triana Caldera, Lyric Serendipity, shahayla Tearfall, Stihly Augenblick, Cicadetta Stillwater, Aurelie Chenaux, Richy Nervous, Kat Claxton, DirtyDee Sweetwater, Thinkerer Melville, my manager Maali Beck, and Molaskey's GM Mia Kitchensink!
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