Seaside Lounge (03.19.15)

A nice big crowd, ready to be rocked at Seaside Lounge in Second Life. Photo by Aurelie Cheneaux.

Top five things to know about my debut show at Seaside Lounge:

5. I Nearly Had A Technical Nightmare
So, there I was, at the venue nice and early, and really enjoying the show before mine, which was the awesome supergroup of Lisa Brune, Funkyfreddy, Voodoo Shilton, and Max Kleene. I was enjoying it so much that I looked up and noticed that it was three minutes before the top of the hour, and I hadn't set up my own audio for the show. No biggie; it was just a few flips to switch and I'd be good to go. Except I wasn't; there was no sound coming through my headphones. I felt a bead of sweat drip down my forehead as I frantically started pressing various buttons and turning knobs on my mixer and audio interface. Then the musical gods smiled upon me, as I looked down and saw that I'd unplugged the audio feed to the interface while doing some recording earlier. I literally jammed those suckers in with seconds to spare, hit the broadcast button, and jumped into the start of my show as if all had been peaches and cream instead of panic and death moments before.

4. I Couldn't Breathe Through My Nose
I'd caught a pretty sucky cold earlier that week, and I was hoping that by the time I had my show on Thursday night, it would be gone. It wasn't. That morning, I awoke with basically no voice at all. It wasn't encouraging for the show, and I actually warned my lovely manager Maali that there was a slim chance that my voice wouldn't cooperate at all. But after some solid warming up and about a ton of water, I was able to at least sing in a reasonably decent manner. My voice held out through about 90% of the show with only occasional bouts of uncontrollable coughing, which was way better than I was expecting earlier.

3. The Return of Kat
My ladyfriend Kat, who is my near constant companion, had spent the previous two full weeks in Japan on business. I'd been missing her pretty badly, and it just so happened that her plane back across the Pacific was landing at LAX about the same time as I was wrapping up my show. I basically finished my set, thanked everyone, and zippy-bang... I was in the car and headed to the airport to get her. I should mention that I did change out of my sweat-soaked t-shirt before going. I didn't want her to have to return to a stinky musician.

2. Seaside Lounge is a Great Place
I've seen this venue on various schedules many times, but I'd never had the opportunity to play there before. One thing I want to point out: the people who run it are terrifically organized. It's always a pleasure to have great communication with a venue's management and staff. They do a great job, and the process of playing there for the first time was super smooth. Also, I should point out that the build is really cool and fun, with sharks swimming around and under the entire area. My show itself went really well, and we had a nice-sized crowd (many of whom were hanging out after the awesome multi-streamed performance before my show).

The sun sets at Seaside Lounge while I sing at the peoples. Photo by Aurelie Cheneaux.

Seaside Lounge set list...
Save It For Later (English Beat)
Blew the Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)
Man On the Moon (R.E.M.)
Low Key (Tweedy)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Sleeper In The Valley (Laura Viers)
Swing Lo Magellan (Dirty Projectors)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
Pancho & Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)
Shame Chamber (Kurt Vile)
What I Got (Sublime)
What's So Funny About Peace Love & Understanding (Elvis Costello)
California (Joni Mitchell)

Which brings us to...

1. That Was Awesome
Despite all the wackiness before my show, I still had a really great time playing at Seaside Lounge, and felt the show went really well. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Thanks to all who came out to the show, especially the following cool people who helped support it!
OliviaXTimeless Resident, Funkyfreddy Republic, RoxxyyRoller Resident, Richy Nervous, heavenlei Lexenstar, Maurice Mistwallow, Rusty Seisenbacher, Mavenn Resident, TheaDee Resident, Aurelie Chenaux, my manager Maali Beck, and Seaside Lounge's great staff... Montana Clowes, Mollyann Aeon, and XXjojoXX Remex.