Would-be Supermom's Procrastination Central: Gigging: Thater Races and Communiversity Fest

I wanted to write about the gig we just did, a big block party downtown jointly sponsored by the community and the university (hence "Communiversity Fest"), but first I'm going to paste in a post I wrote almost a month ago and forgot to put up, about the Thater races, a big gig in the park that we also did last year and were very happy about doing again this year....

AUGUST 28: This was a great gig! Better turnout than last year; in fact, better turnout than we saw for any other band down there (ok, we only saw a few other bands—but still!). It was a very high-energy gig—lots of energy from the crowd, and plenty on stage as well. There was a problem with the guitar amp they provided, so Bob loaned the band before us his amp. This somehow got the set-up all a little off, so we were a little behind schedule when we were setting up, which was a tiny bit stressful. (With these types of gigs, when a whole bunch of bands are playing short sets one right after the other, a quick tear-down and set-up is key, and is insisted upon.) I’m glad it didn’t happen last year because it might have thrown me. But I was able to just let it go when it was time to play.

We opened with All Right Now, which started us off on a high note, and it just got better from there. Right off the bat there was a “tween” girl with a Nintendo DS up front taking pictures of us. Maybe she had just gotten the DS and was experimenting with taking pictures of anything, but still, I felt flattered! The crowd seemed to love Hidin’ Out with the Blues (one of our newest originals), which we played next, and Josie (after that) always goes over big. Next was Ramblin’ Man, and when the opening riff started, you could feel the mood lift in the crowd. They were totally into it, and boy was that fun! Why (one of my songs, that I've blogged about in the past) also went over huge. It was my favorite time playing it, ever. There were these young teen-aged girls off to my left who I noticed were completely digging the song, and digging me, so I gave them a little encouragement by singing some of the lines to them. Well, that’s all it took, and they were off and running. Singing along with each chorus, copping the appropriate attitude… (“when I’m the best that you ever had…”) I can’t tell you how much fun it was, getting that kind of reaction on a song I’d written. After that we hit ‘em with Black Magic Woman, and the crowd's energy seemed to increase again! What a rush. The group of girls started line dancing, and all across the park we could see people really loving it. At the end of that, I said, “All right! Let’s Rock and Roll!” And Donnie, the stage manager, who had come up to the top of the steps, said “Let’s Rock and Roll? How ‘bout let’s go home!!” and then he laughed and said “Ok, one more…” At that point we had planned to play Can’t You See, but I was thinking it was too long (plus I would’ve had to strap on my guitar)... and also I really wanted to keep the energy up. So I called out Mojo, and we ended with that. Of course it went over like hot cakes!

It was one of my favorite gigs. I was so excited and happy and having a ball the whole time. I was nervous beforehand, for much of the day, really. But once I got on stage I was in the comfort zone. It was a blast.

And I’m really glad that of our 3 big outdoor gigs that we have lined up for late summer, this one was first. I’m feeling ready to rock downtown!

Some pictures:

You can see the girl with the Nintendo DS in the foreground:

Love my blue congas!

Here are the line-dancing, chorus-singing, girl-power girls (Donnie dubbed them the "Sparkle Sisters"):

And here's our littlest fan, the precious Baby Ben:

And here are a few pictures from Blues on the Bridge, which I didn't write a separate blog post about. Here's Lindsey with Baby Ben--she watched him for the whole time (Laurie was out of town), and did a truly awesome job!:

I loved this stage. I especially loved that it was right over the foot bridge where Bob and I had a whole slew of wedding pictures taken, as it's not too far from the church where we married. But also it's just one of my favorite spots in Binghamton, right by the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers.

The booths set up on the bridge over the Chenango, directly in front of the stage:

Linds and Baby Ben, after the gig. It might look like Ben's in the same onesie as he had on at the Thater, but that one has a big peace sign on it and this one says "Johnny Cash Folsom Prison" on it. Classic!

Ok, now onto talking about Communiversity Fest:

SEPTEMBER 24: This was the third in our series of 3 big outdoor gigs. Another short gig, which is perfect (so that I can stay for the whole thing but still not be gone from the baby for too long). The Thater Races and Blues on the Bridge were the first two. I loved how the Thater gig went, but I honestly felt just a little deflated after Blues on the Bridge—it went by so fast! I felt like I barely got going and then it was over. This was partly due to the way we had constructed the set list: for one thing, I didn’t sing until 4 songs in, and I didn’t realize how that would affect my feeling connected to the crowd and vice versa. Plus, we were also really bummed to discover that they put the wrong web address for us in the program—a MySpace page for another Voodoo Highway! Anyway, this gig wasn’t going to be much longer, but I liked the pacing of the set list that we’d come up with a lot better, and I was really looking forward to rocking downtown. And I was going to make sure I announced our website, so people could find us if they liked us and wanted to hear us again.

There was some pre-show drama. We all met at the Geers’ (our neighbors' house, where we practice), and were on our way downtown in two cars when Mike, our drummer, realized he’d left his drumsticks back in his car. So we dropped everyone off downtown to get started with the set up (the equipment was all in the Geers’ car), and Mike and I headed back to the Geers’ to get his sticks. When we were on our way back downtown, Bob called to say that although we’d been told there would be a drum kit provided, in fact, there was none, and we’d have to get Mike’s drums. WHAT?! So Mike and I turned around and headed back to the Geers’, and madly started dismantling his kit which was set up in their basement. It’s quite the production. But just when we had it just about all dismantled (but not all packed up), Bob called back and said the drummer in the band that had just finished said we could use his. Ok! So, back downtown….

It took us and the sound people a while to get us all set up. They had some a capella groups on in between bands, and they were quite good, but people weren’t really sticking around. When we had first arrived at this thing, at slightly before 8, there were a lot of people there, but by the time we were ready to go on, hardly anyone was left! All the vendors had packed up and gone home, and most of the crowd had as well.

Anyway, we were finishing up the sound check at about 8:35, so running late by about 5 minutes or so, and then Bob broke a string! So then we had to wait while he changed it, which took almost another 10 minutes.

I took the opportunity to talk up the band to the few people who were sticking around. Telling them our name, website, upcoming gigs… I was actually kind of having fun with it. I felt loose and “on”. And it was good practice for me. I still sometimes am so focused on the music that I forget to talk to the crowd. With no music to focus on just yet, it was easy to remember to talk!

Finally, at 8:45—15 minutes late—we were ready to go on. We busted out with Black Magic Woman. I was a little nervous that there weren’t any on-stage monitors; I was wondering how the heck we were going to be able to hear ourselves. But on both of the speaker stacks that were off to each side they had one speaker that was turned back around toward us and I could actually hear us just fine (though Mike, who was sitting 3 feet or so behind me, said he couldn’t hear at all). I did hear a bit of an echo sometimes, which can be really disconcerting, but it wasn’t too often. All in all, I could hear us just fine.

The crowd, such as it was, seemed to be loving it. And honestly, I will take a small crowd who’s totally into it over a larger crowd that just sits there any day! They were dancing and singing along and playing air guitar, etc., and were clearly enjoying it. It was a great vibe. I was having a blast.

Next came Gimme 3 Steps, which I sing, and I felt really good about it. I felt like we were hitting it just right and again, it was going over very well. I think Bob was a little thrown from the broken string thing, and he skipped ahead a bit in the middle part of the 3-part solo, but I don’t think anyone really noticed. We all just followed him ahead.

Next up was Ramblin’ Man, which I felt like we also nailed, and the crowd also seemed to love. Several groups of people walked by during the song, and everyone was looking like they were really into it.

I was excited to sing Why next, and was trying to decide if I was going to announce ahead of time that it’s one of our songs or wait until it was over to say that… however, when we ended Ramblin’ Man one of the organizers headed over to the stage and told us that was it! Time was up—the sound people were only on until 9, and it was 9.

So, all that work to play 3 songs in front of probably 30 people! But you know what? I loved it. Standing there on Court Street, under the street lights and the traffic signal that kept changing from green-to-yellow-to-red and back again, playing songs I love for people who were digging it… I was really happy.

I do still feel like any experience is good experience at this point. And who knows? Maybe we made a few new fans who will come out and hear us again next time.