The Islands of New England (11.12.14)

I try not to repeat myself for these Second Life show reports. It gets difficult when I'm talking about shows at the Islands of New England, since there's a consistent aspect of amazing fun there. The reason is simple: when I look out from the stage toward my audience there, I tend to see a bunch of green-colored name tags (meaning, for those of you unaware, that I'm friends with most of the people who are in my crowd). And there's another reason: Christine Haiku is a smart, smart event manager. She really understands how a lineup of artists needs to be arranged in ways so that the audience can have a consistent experience, and the result is that people tend to get there and stay there for a full night of entertainment.

I had no specific musical theme for this show; I believe I said it was "Typical Zak Show #752". However, I should note that for the most part, I felt like it was a strong show, and my performance went well both vocally and instrumentally. I'd also like to note that since I asked Ms. Haiku who was performing after me and found out it was my buddy Bat Masters, I decided to do a short homage to Bat by performing a version of his signature song, the Ray Wylie Hubbard tune "Snake Farm". I had to laugh when Bat poked fun at my "California accent" while doing this backwoodsy song. I never was actually aware that I had any accent at all, but no one seems to think they have an accent, so that was a fun discovery. A couple last notes: I made sure to do a tune to acknowledge Neil Young's 69th birthday, as well as a song to salute the culmination of the Rosetta comet landing mission which happened earlier that day.

Lovely photography by Kat.

IONE set list...
Low Key (Tweedy)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Never Run Away (Kurt Vile)
Jane (Barenaked Ladies)
Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
Comes a Time (Neil Young)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Blew the Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)
Space Oddity (David Bowie)
Save Me (Aimee Mann)
Pancho and Lefty (Townes van Zandt)
*Snake Farm (Ray Wylie Hubbard)
Radio Free Europe (R.E.M.)

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

Gigantic thanks to everyone who came out to my show, including the following folks who helped support it!
RoxxyyRoller Resident, Alltra Violet, BAT8997 Resident, Kat Claxton, Cicadetta Stillwater, Harry Wheeler, Sesh Kamachi, Aurelie Chenaux, Shannyn Fall, TheaDee Resident, my great manager Maali Beck, and my wonderful friend and IONE event manager Christine Haiku!