Lutz City of Templemore (08.24.24)

I love being back at Lutz City of Templemore whenever they invite me. Photo by Kat.

Hey there, fun folks. It is I, the magical and musical fool, here with another report from my live music escapades. I believe my show last night at Lutz City of Templemore was my seven billionth overall.

That's... Not True

You are correct; it is not true. That's an exaggeration. If I had to make an educated guess of my total number of live music shows in from of an audience I've performed in my life -- which started when I was 11 years old and continued at various rates of frequency in the 44 years since -- that actual number is probably between three and four thousand, which is still a lot.

That goes back to my high school days, performing in rock bands and playing parties almost every weekend, through my later eras playing small clubs and street fairs and events, to, of course, the past going-on 18 years that I've done solo shows as Zak Claxton in Second Life.

My biggest year for shows? I believe it was 2010, where I did over 130 of them. That's nuts. That's well more than twice a week for a solid year. And yes, still to this day, I know people who do multiple shows daily, leaving my numbers in the dust. Even if I didn't have so many other elements of my life competing for my time and attention, I wouldn't want that at all. I am very much happy doing no more than a couple of shows each month these days. Any more than that feels like a bit much.

So Why Exaggerate?

For me, because it's usually just funny. Obviously, I haven't played seven billion shows. I've only been alive for just over 20,000 days. I didn't start playing guitar in earnest until I turned seven years old. In any case, I'd have to play 350,000 show a day for my whole life to hit that total. That's why it's funny. Ha. Ha.

But also, there's a feeling that I have when I look back which makes me feel that I've always played live music in front of people. I can't remember a time when I didn't. So it might as well be seven billion. Ask any busy musician what happens when someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, remember that one time you played at ____ and (insert thing that happened)?"

And most of them time you kind of nod your head and smile, but in reality, it all kinda fades into one big amorphous blob of a show. I'm much more likely to remember something like, say, a bar that had really good tacos when we ate between sets, or a Second Life venue where something so utterly outrageous happened (often of my own doing) that it stuck out in my memory banks.

Me 44 years ago at age 11, playing a gig.

Here's me 39 years ago at age 16... playing a gig. I've always played gigs.

Anything Else Going On?

Yeah, a whole lot. Obviously paying close attention to last week's Democratic National Convention, which ended up harnessing a lot of my brain that is more accustomed to downtime in the evenings. But I'm not going to just recap the stuff I write here in the daily Zak's Random News updates. You already know my thoughts on that, which are all very positive.

I am already aware that a good portion of my attention will be on various election-related topics and tasks over the next 71 days until the election. Like Coach Walz said at a recent event, we'll sleep when we die. For now, and for the sake of the world, I can muster the extra effort to do my job, do my music, maintain relationships, and still contribute in various ways to the election of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

So frankly, hopefully not much more beyond what's already on my plate for the next 2-1/2 months. That's plenty.

Gratuitous pic of Kamala Harris doing presidential stuff. Get used to it, folks.

How Was The Show?

One thing that's always cool about Templemore: they always make cool-looking, well-designed promo graphics for each show there.

It was awesome. Playing at Templemore is an honor, really. I never ask them to book me, which makes it all the more cool when I get a random notification from them, asking if I'm available on some date. I always am. This time, it was a Saturday night, which was fun for a reason you might not realize.

When you play more often on various weekdays -- say, my first-Tuesday-of-the-month show I've now done for years at Hotel Chelsea -- you forget that some people only tend to come into SL on weekends, which makes sense. So when I do a Saturday show like I did at Templemore, I get all manner of people who I sometimes haven't seen in years, popping up in the audience. It was super fun.

Doing my artistic set at an artistic build. Photo by Kat.

View from the back of the bar. Photo by Kat.

Just me, onstage, being rad. Photo by Kat.

The show itself was great, as far as I can tell. I tend to pull out my more indie singer-songwriter stuff at Templemore for some reason, and always have. And as I note each time I perform there, I make sure to do a song for the sim's late namesake, Garrett Lutz. who passed away from ALS in August of 2017. Garrett was a fan of Sun Kil Moon, and I once again devoted one of Mark Kozelek's songs to Garrett's memory while I played.

We had a solid, steady crowd, and I enjoyed hanging out after my show for a good while, listening to Acoustic Energy, who is another veteran SL performer and a talented dude. A very enjoyable night altogether. Five stars, would do again.

Me, super sweaty and feeling wrung out right after my show. Playing the rock music should be a really solid workout if you do it right. Yes, I'm wearing a me-shirt, but only by coincidence. Laundry day is Sunday.

Lutz City of Templemore set list...

Airport Bar (Martin Courtney)

One of These Things First (Nick Drake)

Snakes And Ladders (They Stole My Crayon)

Among the Leaves (Sun Kil Moon)

Hannah Sun (Lomelda)

Sour Girl (Stone Temple Pilots)

Bird of Paradise (Cory Hanson) 

Sex Kills (Joni Mitchell)

Sex & Candy (Marcy Playground) 

Don’t Let It Pass (Junip)

Bull Black Nova (Wilco)

What I Got (Sublime)

Giant thanks to every single person who came out to my how, with extra special rocket sauce to the following who helped support my show...

Guru Witte, Chipnails Resident, Mandi Mercury, AcousticEnergy Nitely, go2smoky Resident, Trouble Streeter, Rusty Seisenbacher, loki Dada, Asimia Heron, Kat Claxton, my great manager Maali Beck, and  the entire team at Lutz City of Templemore... Luis Lockjaw, AmyraVuitton Resident, Brooks Conundrum, AnaraeShin Resident, and all the rest. You're amazing!