Report: StageIt Show #1

I did my very first show on the online live music platform StageIt last night, and I can guarantee that it won't be my last.

In a nutshell, StageIt is a web site where people can go and see live music shows via streaming audio and video. The artists who perform there can set tickets prices for the shows, and depending on the performer, it can be a set fee or it can be a "pay what you can" situation. The audience can also tip the artists during the show. Both tickets and tips are paid in StageIt's currency, called "notes". Basically, an audience member purchases "notes", with each note costing $0.10 (i.e., 10 notes = one dollar). They can then use them for show tickets and tips. Simple enough.

StageIt's tagline is "A front row seat to a backstage experience," and it's an apt description. The audience is able to communicate directly with the artist (and with each other) via a chat interface. Those of you who are familiar with Ustream will recognize this type of system, with one major difference: no ads! Yes, those annoying pop-up ads you get on Ustream are not part of StageIt's business model, and let's hope it stays that way.

So, enough background. My show last night was a 30-minute performance, which is the longest that StageIt allows. I found it to be fine; I did six of my original songs in the time allotted, all of which went well. StageIt also allows artists to do an encore, but I'd pretty much planned on a cut-and-dried half hour show, so for this time, I stuck to the plan. Due to it being my first show there (and StageIt still being relatively new and unknown to many), we had a small crowd, but they were all cool people.

StageIt #1 Set List...
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)

Huge thanks to the StageIt people, and the following people who supported my show!
Kat Claxton, Thea Dee, Triana Caldera, Brandy Maltas, Ayesha Lytton, and anyone I missed!

StageIt & New Zak Claxton trailer video

I must be changing my ways. For a long time, it was pretty rare for me to be an early adopter of new products or services. Even though I may seem pretty cutting edge in ways, I usually wait until something is tested by everyone else before jumping in. But when I heard about StageIt, I got onboard pretty much immediately.

StageIt is a remote live streaming video service, and if you know me at all, you're already aware that I've been making use of similar services like Ustream and StreamJam for the last couple of years. The difference with StageIt is that it allows for ticketed concerts and tipping of the artists. While I intend to keep my shows cheap or free as I've always done, the idea of being able to be directly tipped by my crowd (as they do in Second Life) is appealing.

So, tonight at 7PM PDT, I'll be doing my first show on StageIt. You are welcome to attend, dear reader -- and this show is free to see. Just go here at 7PM PDT tonight (Wed June 1, 2011). If you miss this one, no worries; provided ithat it isn't a complete disaster, I'll do more.

New Zak Claxton Trailer Video
One thing that StageIt already inspired in me was the creation of a new Zak Claxton informational video. In their profile setup, StageIt allows for a link to a YouTube video to help audiences get to know the artists better, and I found that such a video was a pretty good idea for a variety of applications.

Therefore, I made one. Enjoy...

Under the Willows (05.27.11)

Nice crowd, great venue, a fun Friday night. I don't ask for much more. Photo by Kat.

I always enjoy an opportunity to perform at venues that are new to me, and this was my first time at Under the Willows. It's a gorgeous SL build, with the stage on a small island in an artificial harbor. I was particularly pleased to see a batch of SL's finest musicians performing that same evening; Damian Carbenell had the 5pm slot, I was up at 6, followed by TwinGhost Ronas and then Max Kleene to round out the evening. All modesty aside, I'd say that owner Precious Rallier has pretty good taste in SL performers!

Only one thing marred an otherwise great night, and it's pretty funny now (though was less hilarious at the time). Right before I was getting onstage, as Damian was wrapping up his last couple of tunes, my computer graphics completely freaked out (which is very rare for me; I usually get pretty damn exceptional performance running Second Life on my MacBook Pro). The result was that suddenly, everything went gray, to the point that I had no idea how I was going to get onstage! Using some combination of intuition and luck (and some degree of seeing shadows in the haze), I managed to make my way in the general direction of where Damian was playing, and planted myself there. It was so surreal, I had to take a pic so you could see what I was experiencing at that moment.

It's amazing I managed to get my guitar attached and point myself at the crowd.

Fortunately, after a couple of songs, my FUBAR graphics suddenly snapped back to reality, and I was able to see my crowd and the rest of my surroundings. Beyond that weirdness, the show was really fun, and I pulled out a coupe of rarities just for the hell of it. Since the venue is named "Under the Willows", I played a tune from the Broadway play Godspell which I last did in 1983 for a high school performance. Also, since Bob Dylan turned 70 this week, I played one of his tunes for the first time in quite awhile.

Under the Willows set list...
I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
*On the Willows (Godspell)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
†Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Pink Moon (Nick Drake)
Help Me (Joni MItchell)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
The Weight (The Band)

*Indicates my first performance of this song in SL.
†Last performance of "Tangled Up in Blue" was in August 2010

What a pretty place to see a live virtual show! Photo by Kat.

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to see me at Under the Willows, especially those who supported my show!
Triana Caldera, Leondra Larsson, Doc Edman, Kalli Birman, Aurelie Chenaux, Horizon Darkstone, Kat Claxton, Christine Haiku, TheaDee, and especially my manager Maali Beck and Under the Willows owner Precious Rallier!

The 69'ers

I've never been ashamed of my age, except when I was in grade school. I had skipped kindergarten, and was therefore a year younger than damn near everyone else in my class. So I did what most kids would do under those circumstances: I lied, and said I was a year older than I actually was. This became so habitual that years later, I still tended to claim an extra year on my age. Funny, huh?

Well, especially now that I'm a little older, getting deeper into my 40s, I don't mind revealing the truth: I was born in 1969. As it turns out, there's a good-sized list of interesting people who were also born that year. Since I have a birthday coming up in a little over a week, here are a few of the people who share my birth year, in order of their respective birth dates:

- Dave Grohl (Musician)
- Bobby Brown (Singer)
- Chaz Bono (Child of Cher and Sonny Bono, gay/transgendered rights activist)
- Bunny Knutson (Musician)
- Paul Rudd (Actor)
- Joe Buck (Sports broadcaster)
- Renée Zellweger (Actress)
- Eagle Eye Cherry (Musician)
- Cate Blanchett (Actress)
- Emmitt Smith (Football player)
- Steffi Graf (Tennis player)
- Ice Cube (Rapper/Actor)
- Joe Sakic (Hockey player)
- Jennifer Lopez (Singer/Actress)
- Edward Norton (Actor)
- Christian Slater (Actor)
- Matthew Perry (Actor)
- Nate Dogg (Rapper/Singer)
- Jack Black (Actor/Musician)
- Dweezil Zappa (Musician)
- Rachel Hunter (Model)
- Catherine Zeta-Jones (Actress)
- Gwen Stefani (Singer)
- Brett Favre (Football player)
- Nancy Kerrigan (Figure skater)
- Sean "Diddy" Combs (Whatever)
- Matthew McConaughey (Actor)
- Sam Cassell (Basketball player)
- Ken Griffey, Jr. (Baseball player)
- Jay-Z (Rapper)

In case you were wondering, I'm chronologically right between Emmitt Smith and Steffi Graf, which isn't a terrible place to be, I suppose.

Band reunion: Liquid to play again July 23

Liquid's classic lineup, rocking a sports bar somewhere. Guitar: Zak Claxton. Drums: Dante Silva. Vocals: Randy Harmon. Bass: Phil Gilbreth.

How many of my friends who read this blog are even remotely aware that for years before I launched my solo singer-songwriter career, I spent the majority of my musical life playing in rock bands? Well, it's true. Starting in 1982, when I was barely a teenager, I played in a number of bands throughout the 80s and early 90s. Starting in the mid-90s, I took time off music entirely, focusing my attention and time on my career. However, in 2002, my old friend (and drummer in several previous bands) Dante J. Silva contacted me. He'd met some guys who he felt would be a good fit for my style of playing, and wondered if I had any interest in getting together to jam with them. Well, it was the right time for me to try and do some live music once again, so I accepted his invitation and was introduced to singer Randy Harmon.

Liquid Forms
We knew it worked right from the start. We did have one weak link with the original bass player, who was a super-nice person but had some trouble remembering his parts in the songs. After awhile, we had to make a switch, which is when we found bass phenomenon Phil Gibreth, and renamed the band Liquid for no particular reason (though it was an apt description for both the fluid sound of the band and the alcohol-drenched bars and pubs where we tended to play).

Liquid generally could be found playing live at seedy sports bars and Irish pubs, most often around LA's South Bay area (though we occasionally had shows in Hollywood, Orange Country, and elsewhere).

Liquid's glory years were from 2003-2006. We did a ton of shows. It was rare that a month went by that we weren't setting up in a bar, at a street fair, at wedding receptions, and other events where people wanted some straightforward rock tunes being performed live by a good band. And make no mistake, we were good. While none of us were young enough to expect anything to happen with the band beyond doing what we were doing, we all had fun, made some money, and enjoyed the adulation from our small but fierce group of fans in the area.

An added bonus in having Randy sing for our band was that his daughter Amanda could also sing her ass off (it must run in the family), and she'd join us from time to time at shows for some female-sung songs.

Unfortunately, in 2007 we ran into a wall. It was getting tougher to schedule practice and gig times. Unlike bands people have as teenagers, Liquid was comprised of guys who at the time were in their 30s and 40s (now 40s and 50s), and we had jobs and families and other responsibilities beyond rocking out. Also, as is common in cover bands, we started burning out on the material we performed. Combined with the fact that my personal musical interests had moved toward doing my own original stuff, Liquid evaporated that year. We parted amicably, the other guys got involved in different bands, and I've obviously kept busy since then, recording a solo album and performing hundreds of shows in the virtual world.

July 23, 2011: We're Baaaaaaaaaaaack
Last weekend, Randy dropped me a note on Facebook. It turned out that he'd run into Phil at a club, and sat in with his band. Had a great time. He mentioned this to Dante, and the end result was the idea of a one-off reunion show. While I have no plans of committing myself to being in a full-time band again, the idea of getting together with these great musicians (and fun, cool people) for a special show sounded great. Therefore, in my long-winded way, I'm here to tell you that Liquid is reuniting for one night only. Hopefully some of you LA-based friends can come watch us get the Liquid rock machine running one more time!

One Night Only... LIQUID reunites!
July 23, 7-10PM

Keegan's Pub
1434 Marcelina Ave
Torrance, California 90501
(310) 328-3750

Click to enlarge.

Virtual Musician Tip #1: Save Your Chat!

Between 2006 and the present, I've performed hundreds and hundreds of shows in virtual worlds such as Second Life, and I think it's high time that I start paying forward on some of the expertise I've accumulated over that time. Therefore, I'll be doing occasional articles on tips and tricks for the virtual live musician. Our first one is simple, yet it's something that's come in handy many times over the past four+ years: save your gig chat!

How to Do It
Couldn't be easier. When you finish your show and have said your thanks and goodbyes to the attendees, don't log out just yet. Instead, open your chat history. It should contain everything that was written publicly (i.e., everything but IMs) within earshot of you since you logged in. Select all of the text, and simply copy/paste it to a text document on your computer, and then save the file. My simple organizing system is that I call the file "gigchat_(date)", so that the show is easily findable in my archives. Betcha had no idea I could be that anal retentive, huh?

Why Do It?
Many reasons...

1. You shouldn't be focused on chat while you're performing. Note that I didn't say "You should completely ignore chat." When you're just starting out, it can be a big distraction, trying to watch text fly by while you're playing an instrument and trying to sing. As a noob, it can affect the quality of your performance. As you get more accustomed to playing in a virtual world, it's fun to glance down every so often and be able to give verbal responses to people typing things to (or about) you. But your first job is to put on a good show and entertain with your music. Therefore, plan on missing a lot of the audience banter while you play. However, having the chat after your show means you can go back and see what was going on in your crowd while you played. That brings us to...

2. You can see what people liked... or didn't like. In real life, it's easy to know how well you're doing onstage. You can see and hear people's immediate reactions when you start a song, sing a certain section, play a solo, or finish with a flourish. You have the benefit in real life of seeing the looks on their faces, and hearing them cheer and clap... or, possibly, boo and throw things. In any case, you're able to use that instant feedback from the crowd for later shows. In virtual worlds, all you really have is the chat, so if you're not seeing it in real time, you don't get the benefit of learning from your audience. I like to scan through my chat after the show and look at the time stamps. I know roughly what I played at various points in the show, and can see which songs received the best reactions. That's cool.

3. You can see who was there. Granted, it's my opinion that virtual musicians should take a moment and pan around the room to greet folks, but everyone has their own style. In any case, you might have missed someone who came to your show, and it's cool to be able to see after the fact who the attendees were. Also, just in case you didn't peek at the map to check the number of little green dots on the sim during the show, you can get a rough idea of your total attendance this way.

4. It's fun! Hey, when you're the entertainment at an event, you don't get to really participate in the event the same way that your audience does. That's true in real life as much as your virtual life as a performer. However, at least in the case of my crowd, there's a lot of fun banter that happens, and since I only am able to see bits and pieces of it while I play, I get to replay all the silly little interactions between my Zaksters and other fans while I'm relaxing after the event.

Do You Keep them Forever?
Sure, why not? Text files are tiny, and the hundreds of files of chat logs that I have from years and years of shows take up a miniscule amount of space on my computer. I can tell you at this very moment that at 5:55PM on Monday November 5, 2007, Suka Nishi said "Nothing like a man with a guitar and magical fingers," or that at 3:49PM on Sunday February 17, 2008, Triana Caldera stated, "That's okay - i'm in the north pole. snowed in. can't get home."

Is any of this crucial info? No, not at all. Can I live without it? Sure. But ultimately, since it takes all of 10 seconds to grab your chat before poofing out of world, what can it hurt? There have been times where I've wanted to see when the first time a particular person came to my show, and a simple search of my hard drive sorted by date tells me the exact day and place. That's pretty cool. So save your chat logs, my fellow musicians. You might be glad you did someday.

First Show in InWorldz: Equinox (05.21.11)

Zak Claxton in Second Life (left), real life (center) and Inworldz (right). It would be nice if our virtual selves were more transferrable between an ever-increasing number of virtual worlds.

It's been well over four years since I did my first show in a virtual world. Kat and I joined SL in October 2006, and it wasn't long afterward that I first put on a pixel guitar and started entertaining the virtual masses with my music. Today, for the first time since that moment, I got to enter a new virtual world and play for a whole new crowd, this time in InWorldz.

InWorldz probably looks pretty familiar to anyone who has been in SL; it obviously operates on the same platform, but runs the basic SL interface on a private set of servers apart from Linden Lab. In any case, I didn't know this until Talia Fournier got in touch with me on Facebook, having listened to my tunes, and asked if I wanted to play at her place. I thought it was high time I tried out a virtual world beyond SL, and more importantly, it sounded fun. So I accepted, and we set today as a date to perform.

If anything, my IW avvie probably resembles the RLL me even more than my SL self, oddly.

Days of Noob Revisited
It had been since 2006 since I found myself a stranger in a strange land, with nothing but the noobie clothes on my back. Luckily, registering for InWorldz is easy, and they have a nice welcome area where you can pick up your first set of freebie clothes and such. As a musician, I needed a couple of things (like a guitar, duh), so I explored around InWorldz a bit, getting myself set up for my show.

The process, though simple, made me all the more aware of how nice it would be if one's virtual self was a bit more integrated across the digital universe. Don't get me wrong; it was sort of fun setting up a new avatar for myself (I hardly ever touch my avvie in SL), but it would definitely encourage more inter-world traffic and economic growth were traveling to a different world as simple as teleporting there, with one's inventory intact. Obviously, the current systems of exclusive server-side assets wouldn't allow it for the time being, but I can dream, right?

InWorldz is the same as SL in every basic way, except they have their own currency, the I'z. I'm such a noob, I don't know if this is pronounced "eyez" or "izz-es" or what, but unlike the market-value fluctuation of the SL L$, they're set at $500 I'z per $1USD, making it very easy to keep in mind their actual value.

But enough on InWorldz; you can get the basic info anywhere. Let's talk about my first-ever show there!

Keep on Rocking in the InWorldz
Talia Fournier's music venue, The Lodge @ Equinox, is a nice build reminiscent of many of the better SL places I've played. We had a nice-sized and appreciative crowd there. One nice thing about being in InWorldz is that with such a smaller population, there's not nearly as many events competing against each other. It's more like SL was a number of years ago in that aspect. I may have been the only live music performer on the IW grid today, so visitors seemed glad to have me there. Felt nice.

The show itself went fine. I split up my repertoire between originals and covers, and the crowd seemed to dig what I was playing, so no complaints there. I'll definitely be finding some more shows to do in InWorldz soon.

My crowd at Equinox. I may have been the only person rocking this new grid at the time of my show!

Bringing the Zak Rock to a whole new world...

Equinox (IW) Set list
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Tea in the Sahara (The Police)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
If You Could Only See (Tonic)
Lines on Your Eyes (Zak Claxton)
Fire & Rain (James Taylor)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Things behind the Sun (Nick Drake)
Shine (Zak Claxton)
Lola (The Kinks)

All songs, obviously, performed for the first time in InWorldz.

Huge thanks to all who joined me at my very first show InWorldz! There will be more! Thanks for your support...
Leanna Caerndow, Drakon Cortes, Diana Renoir, Teal Freenote, Triana Caldera, Katie Hawksby, Anna Loom, Roxanne Marksman, David West, Beth Welles, Mera Kranfel, Kat Claxton, and especially today's host, Talia Fournier!