I may not have known I had a show to do when I woke up today, but nevertheless it turned out to be a super fun Sunday afternoon. Photo by Kat.
An admission: I had very few plans on Sunday, and none of them involved doing a live music show at Terry's Place in Second Life. Allow me to elucidate.
Typically, I am very aware of upcoming events on my calendar for Second Life shows. Like, days ahead of time, if not weeks. I often plan out my set list days before the show, and usually post the event to local media and send invites the day before.Well, for whatever reason, this one went under my radar. I leisurely slept in until about 8:30 (which is super late for me). I relaxed, made coffee, checked some news headlines, all while roaming around my home in a bathrobe. It being a typical Sunday in the fall, I also took a look at the NFL schedule to confirm what games were being played and when.
At some point, I meandered by Facebook. Seeing some new notifications, I clicked one... and was greeted by a post from my manager Maali Beck in an SL live music group inviting people to come to a show that I was apparently giving.
I often respond to Maali's posts about my shows with a surprised face just to be funny. This was the first time I really meant it.
Well, if I'd been in a semi-dazed of Sunday relaxedness at the time, it disappeared quickly as I first went and checked my calendar and then the events list in SL and confirmed that indeed, I was scheduled for 1PM at Terry's Place. This wasn't bad news by any means; I just hadn't planned ahead to do it. So, snapping myself out of my Sunday stupor, I started doing several things at once, like making a set list to perform, taking a shower so I'd be more of an alert human being while doing the show, and posting an event notice and sending invites. People can't come to a show they never knew about, after all.
Visiting the '90s
I still don't quite accept that the time distance between now and 1991 is the same as 1991 to 1961. I mean, I get it in theory, but 1961 sounds like some mythical year in ancient history while 1991 seems like it wasn't long ago at all. I may still own some socks that I had in 1991.
Anyway, when I did my
debut at Terry's Place in June, I visited with owner Ninja Antwoord and made it a point to find out what kind of music he was into and see if there was a good level of crossover to the stuff I also enjoyed. As it turned out, there was; he told me that most of his favorite music was '90s alt rock and grunge.
As you know, of you know me, I'm not a big nostalgia guy. I prefer to live in the present. But music is one of those things that creates a landmark in the roadmap of your life, and if you just look at one year -- 1991 -- you'll probably note that it was an extraordinary year for music that presented a sea change in the direction of popular sounds. I happened to be 22 years old at the time, so I was particularly receptive to cool new sounds. I still am today, but I was then too.
Take a look at a few of the albums that came out in 1991 alone...
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Nevermind (Nirvana)
- Metallica (Metallica)
- Badmotorfinger (Soundgarden)
- Achtung Baby (U2)
- Out Of Time (R.E.M.)
There's a lot more, but holy wow, that's some great new music coming out in a short time frame! I'm not saying the '90s were some particularly spectacular time in music; there are equal arguments that the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '10s were also great in music (sorry '00s, but you just sucked). But for people who share my Generation X age range, the '90s definitely represented a time of massive changes in our lives.
Seriously, these three albums came out within two weeks of each other. Two of them came out the same day. I mean, holy shit.
Back to the '20s
When I found out about my show, one thing I wasn't worried about was the set list. I'd already determined what kind of music would be most acceptable there, so I just checked my last show there, made sure I wasn't repeating any of the tunes (I have a whole bunch from that era and in that style), and put together the list below. It couldn't have gone better.
We didn't have a giant crowd, but we had a bunch of people who seemed to appreciate the tunes I'd selected. Getting crowds in SL is a very fickle activity. There are shows I've heavily promoted that had very light attendance, and there are those I've barely mentioned that are packed with people. There are so many variables to attendance at SL events, it would take me pages to explain them all. I think the biggest one is that you aren't competing with other SL-based events at the same time; you're competing against all of life's attention requirement, which can range from people's jobs to watching football to doing house chores to spending time outside and so on. I've always told other SL performers to not get hung up on the kinds of crowds they pull, or how that fluctuates day to day, place to place.
I've had bigger crowds but literally everyone here seemed to be digging the tunes. That's what makes a good and memorable show. Photo by Kat.
Me onstage at Terry's Place. Still masked, as I will remain in SL until the day I can feel comfortable in public with my naked face. Probably still gonna be awhile. Photo by Kat.
I will tell you that everyone there seemed to enjoy the show, and I'd certainly be glad to do more shows at Terry's Place in the future. I'm also very glad I saw Maali's notice when I did; it would have been an actual panic-inducing moment had I not looked at Facebook pretty early!
Terry's Place set list...
Low (Cracker)
Bird of Paradise (Cory Hanson)
1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
Big Empty (Stone Temple Pilots)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
Bag of Nothing (They Stole My Crayon)
Pink Moon (Nick Drake)
Sex & Candy (Marcy Playground)
Swirl (Charlie Martin)
Tribute (Tenacious D)
Loser (Beck)
*Terry’s Place Improv (Zak Claxton)
*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
Big, big thanks to everyone who came and hung out at the show, with super duper thanks to the following who helped support it!
Donn DeVore, Lanai Jarrico, Orion Baral, Kat Claxton, Ghostie Wildmist, JAdmiral Maelstrom, Diana Renoir, TroyJaimes Resident, Trouble Streeter, Agatha Nowles, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Terry's Place hostess Ghostie Wildmist, Terry's Place owner ninjaantwoord Resident, and the show sponsor, SL Enquirer.
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