Telling Stories Park/Sewell-Tisane Wedding Reception (04.23.22)

A nice day for a virtual world wedding. Photo by Kat.

I was sitting here one day, and... wait. Where is here? Here's something interesting: as you're reading this little bunch of words, you are sitting on a spinning rock in space, orbiting a star that is itself orbiting a black hole at the center of a galaxy, which is itself moving at ridiculous speed through the universe. Sitting there in your seat, those numbers combine to about 530 miles per second. So no matter where you were at the start of that sentence, you are now, referenced from some fixed point in space, thousands of miles away, and you'll never be back to where you were again, never in the remaining history of the universe. And don't get me started on the concept of "when".

Anyway -- where was I? Ah yes. I was sitting here (ha!) and my manager Maali Beck pinged me and asked if I could play a wedding reception event on April 23. I didn't know the betrothed couple, but it sounded like a fun show so I told her to book it. And that is how I ended up performing at the wedding reception for Crash Sewell and Tara Tisane, held at a lovely place in Second Life called Telling Stories Park.

Figuring Out What to Play
As you likely know, when I am doing one of my own typical shows, I tend to play whatever I feel like, occasionally only limiting my set selections based on some kind of theme I've chosen beforehand, or when I occasionally tweak things to match my songs to the audience who I know frequents certain places.

But for something like this, I have to look at things differently. Being hired as entertainment for a specific event where the live music is just part of the experience makes the choice of music a little more important. I tried putting together a list on my own, but not being familiar with the folks being married, I decided to reach out to them the day before the event to ask if they had any specific requests of certain music styles.

It turned out to be a good idea. Tara pointed out that the two other people who'd be playing, my friends Grace McDunnough and FrankLee Anatra, both tended to play softer music, and perhaps I could do some more uptempo stuff. That's all I needed to hear. I should note that I often do shows that are as introspective and mellow as either Grace or FrankLee, but I didn't at all mind being the more rocking section of the day.

I'm glad I inquired about what the bride and groom wanted me to play. This wasn't my show; it was theirs, and I wanted them to be happy. Photo by Kat.

The Wedding Singer

I'm gonna tell you something. In ye olde real world, wedding gigs are a lucrative thing for working musicians. I have many friends in bands and solo performers who pay their rent and bills and keep themselves fed doing a combination of weddings, bar mitzvahs, corporate events and the like. Not every musician has their sights set on the glamorous world of touring clubs and theaters to play their original music to disinterested fans. Or, for those who may once have gone down that road previously, they find that these types of shows allow them to use their musical talents and live performance skills in an environment less likely to cause poverty and insanity.

In my old cover bands, I've done a number of weddings, and they were all really great gigs. You tend to get tipped and fed and appreciated. They're usually comfortable shows where you just go in, play your set, receive adoration, and get home at a reasonable hour. I'd do those any day.

So there's no shame in doing event-type musical entertainment. None at all. In fact, it's really an honor to think that people -- who presumably will want to remember their wedding day for the rest of their lives -- want you to have an important role within their moment. That's cool.

Two points here. First, this was my first SL show for over two years that I didn't wear a mask. I am still masked in public settings in real life. However... at this event, in a wide open outdoor space, I would not be wearing a mask, and so I wasn't here either. Second, Maali made me wear a suit, and I do have to admit that my typical slacker musician look wouldn't have been appropriate for the wedding environment, so I'm glad I dressed up a bit. Photo by Kat.

How Was The Show, Though?

Oh, it was great. The Telling Stories Park area was a pretty, open space (as the name "park" implies). I arrived about halfway through Grace's set. She is always so fucking great. I don't mean only as a musician and songwriter; she's just one of those very special people in the world. I miss that time frame for a couple of years when she'd perform before me at the now-defunct Serenity Gardens; I'd arrive a bit early every time just to hear her gig, as I did for this show.

I mentioned earlier that I'd retooled my set to be a little more upbeat, but I kept in a number of the love-themed songs that I'd already chosen. I also decided that wedding receptions are supposed to be fun, so I threw in some more of my odd covers, while sticking to songs that people would recognize. As much as I love playing new indie music that no one in my audience has heard before, there's a time and place for that, and this wasn't it.

The show itself went great, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I was being my usual self, full of both musical and conversational idiocy, and folks were enjoying the set. It wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon at all. 

This sim was huge and people were kinda spread all over the place. You can see the bride and groom cutting their cake and taking pics a good long distance from the stage area. Photo by Kat.

Finishing my show, as FrankLee Anatra got ready to perform, I took a quick dip in the waterfall behind me. Even after all these years in SL, I had this momentary but real-feeling irrational thought about ruining my suit before remembering the the suit wasn't there, nor the waterfall, nor the water, nor me. I still removed my guitar first. Photo by Kat.

Sewell-Tisane Wedding set list...

Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)

Pecan Pie (Golden Smog) 

Everyday I Write the Book (Elvis Costello)

God Only Knows (Beach Boys)

I Believe When I Fall In Love (Stevie Wonder)

Hand In Pocket (Alanis Morissette)

Hummingbird (Seals & Crofts)

Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)

Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band)

Northern Sky (Nick Drake)

I Feel The Earth Move (Carole King)

Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

*Crash & Tara Improv (Zak Claxton)

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

Special thanks to Crash Sewell and Tara Tisane-Sewell for choosing me for your wedding day entertainment, to my great manager Maali Beck for her hard work, and everyone who enjoyed the show!

Hotel Chelsea (04.05.22)

I like performing after my friend Max Kleene mostly due to our musical and performance styles being similar enough that it works well in back-to-back shows. Oh, and also because I get to start my show with a huge crowd already in place, which is also really nice.

Damn, it's good to be writing just a normal show report. There's been so much strife and sadness and craziness in the world as of late. I mean, there still is, and always has been, and always will be, but at this very moment, I feel like I can actually write about music-related information and not feel like I'm ignoring some crucial topic.

Kurt Cobain

At the beginning of April each year, I'm reminded about the terrible loss of Kurt Cobain, frontman and songwriter of Nirvana. I'll relate a story to you from Fall 1991. I was at my friend Adam Mandel's apartment, being a 22-year-old idiot as one tends to be. I'm sure we were smoking weed and drinking beer, because that's what I did pretty much daily at that point in my life.

We had KROQ on the radio. It's the local commercial alternative music station, or at least it was back then. A song came on that I hadn't heard before. There was a scratchy guitar playing a little four chord progression that caught my attention. Then suddenly there was a massive drum intro fill, and then the guitar's overdriven distortion kicked in, and I immediately said, "What the fuck is this???"

After the song ended, something else came on, and we switched the station over to KLOS, the longtime rock radio favorite here in LA... and the same song came on. A little while later, we changed the station to KNAC, the station with a heavy metal format, and there it was again. Holy shit. What the fuck was happening?

In retrospect, what was happening was a tidal wave that affected global culture, and was a defining moment for my Generation X. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became an anthem for people in my age range, and it was merely the first of many Nirvana songs that would completely change the direction of modern music, along with other bands like Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and many others who were a far cry from the hair metal bands we'd been previously fed.

Anyway, it was 28 years ago that Kurt died via suicide, and like any avoidable death at a young age from Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin to Jim Morrison to many others, what I often wonder is what kinds of music might the person have made had they been able to grow and mature. It's a loss, and we'll never know the answer.

Twitter and Elon

I like Twitter despite all of the shitty aspects that it can bring. I will tell you something: if I want to know what's happening in the world, I don't turn on the news; I rush to Twitter. If I want to get the unfiltered outlooks of people who aren't necessarily spouting some kind of agenda driven by external corporate or political forces, I look at Twitter. When I'm not in the mood to see fucking ridiculous idealized photos (Instagram) or hear about someone's birthday greetings for their cousin's friend's grandma (Facebook), Twitter is my groove.

I was understandably concerned this week when I found out that Elon Musk had not only become the largest shareholder of Twitter but had also joined its board of directors. What am I worried about? Well, Elon himself has seemed to use Twitter for his own personal agenda, causing rises and falls in stock prices from a simple Tweet. There's also the aspect of Elon seeming to be opposed to the most basic tenets of Twitter's TOS, purportedly prioritizing free speech over the attempts to stop hate speech and bullying. That could mean things like a reinstatement of people like Donald Trump to the platform, and worse (yes, there are worse things than that).

Like everything, I'm not going to prejudge this situation. Hopefully this is just a business plan for Elon and nothing more. However, if the result of his influence on Twitter's culture causes changes that make it something that I feel is negative for the world, I have zero problem leaving the platform entirely. He's already stated that his investment in Twitter is specifically for the purpose of affecting change, so I think my concerns are, at least in theory, legitimate.

Hey, How About That Show?

Yes indeed. So, I did not have any sort of theme for this particular night at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life. I had actually planned on doing three cover songs I'd never done before. The comedic reason that I did only one of the three is that my printer ran out of ink and I couldn't find my overpriced cartridges in time to print out the lyrics before showtime. Especially with brand new music where I haven't yet internalized the words, I wasn't going to start a song that I'd have to mumble through the bridge without having a lyrical reference in front of me.

This morning, I got sent this extreme closeup from a fan. Many thanks to photographer Haiku Quan!

The thing I keep in mind... it may be a crowd that Max Kleene brought in, but a whole lot of them do stay for my show as well, and they certainly don't have to. It's appreciated. Photo by Kat.

I really do love Hotel Chelsea. No matter what I play there, people seem to dig it, even though often it's stuff they've never heard by artists they've never heard of. Photo by Kat.

I'm getting close to taking off my mask in SL. It's been over two years now or wearing it. The moment I can feel good walking around in public without one, it will come off my avatar's face on the same day, whenever that it. Photo by Kat.

That being said, I think there was a vibe to the show even without a specific theme. I was in a very relaxed mood, and my voice and guitar were both cooperating with what I wanted them to do. Side note: as most performing musician will tell you, when your monitoring sound is good, the show has a much better chance of being good. What I was hearing in my headphones sounded great as I warmed up, and I tore through the show without having to be concerned about levels and so on. That really helps me focus on the performance, and as a result I had a very solid show.

The one new song I did manage to do was one off Kurt Vile's upcoming new album (watch my moves), which is coming out April 15. "Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)" is everything you want a KV song to sound like, which is chill to the max, kinda druggy, and somewhat whimsical. I knew I was going to cover it from the moment I heard it.

I've mentioned this before, but I find it funny. Damn near every time I do a show (SL or RL), I'm 1 to 1-1/2 pounds lighter the next day. Of course, it's all water weight that I gain back immediately, but since I have next to zero concern or interest in regard to my weight, it's just an interesting phenomena that I note. Related note: I sweat a lot while I play. Like, a lot.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)

Airport Bar (Martin Courtney)

Norwegian Wood (Beatles)

Hannah Sun (Lomelda)

Among the Leaves (Sun Kil Moon)

*Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone) (Kurt Vile)

It's Choade My Dear (Connan Mockasin)

Big Empty (Stone Temple Pilots)

Pink Moon (Nick Drake)

Save It For Later (English Beat)

Radio Free Europe (R.E.M.)

A Million Miles Away (Plimsouls)

*Goodbye Hotel Chelsea Improv (Zak Claxton) 

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

Huge thanks to everyone who hung out for the show, with super giganto thanks to the following who helped support it!

PinkFloyd75 Resident, Maximillion Kleene, Irishk9 Aeon, Catori Mistwalker, Trouble Streeter, bennyhillz Resident, Kat Claxton, Haiku Quan, Nina Brandenburg, Simon Linden, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!