Live :: Gig Reviews :: Curtain Club Dallas 27. 05. 07

Jerry's View

The show was a contest between myself and 7 other bands.
I didn't enter to compete, however. I just needed an opportunity to try out the electronic rig live. I was the 3rd act

We had 10 minutes to set up my entire rig and no time to test and sound check.

Song 1: I Don't Want Your Love
I was introduced and went to hit one of the sample pads and no sound was produced. We later figured out there was no power to the left side of my rig. It sucked because the first song was heavily dependent on samples produced from the units producing no sound. The audience knew no better. But the song sounded empty without the samples to me. I had to improvise a solo since there are virtually no lyrics to this version. I cut the song short since I felt I had solo'd long enough.

Song 2: Equality
After a nerve racking start I needed a no brainer song. One I knew backwards and forwards. Everything worked perfectly. But the cold I had at the time was taking a toll on my voice. I could feel it and didn't want to over do it with 20 minutes left to go in my set.

Song 3: This Life
This song was all acoustic and was well received.

Song 4: Stage Fright
Probably not the best of choice of a song for a one man job. I had only recently written lyrics to this song and was struggling to remember the words. The audience seemed to like the solo at the end. But at this point it was becoming difficult to keep their interest.

The sound man informed me I only had about 3 minutes left in my set. Ilearned later they had cut me short by almost 10 minutes as they had other bands due to a late start for everyone.

I would had liked to go out with something upbeat but there wasn't enough time to perform or load up the song. Therefore, I had to pull off a really short version of a new song I'm writing.

Song 5: Stranded On the Moon
I made a 7 minute long song into 2 1/2 minutes. by the end of this song my voice was completely shot.

I was exhausted afterwards but the audience seemed oblivious to my anxiety on stage, which is good. The club wants me back for my own proper gig in about a month. We'll see.

I learned lots from this. I will NEVER do another show without proper set up and sound check time. There is just too much that can go wrong. Doing all the work the week before the gig and the late nights and no rest attacked my voice. So I must remember to rest well and not try to sing with a broken voice. I also learned to keep an eye on the audience in case interest begins to fall to be able to pull out something energetic to keep them IN to it.

My plan is to buy a piano and do many simple acoustic shows and only a few large full electronic shows.