June 21, 2009
June 21, 2009
5:11 pm
sitting in the car outside the Middlewich Folk Festival
We’ve played our set and eaten dinner and are now just waiting til the last act is done before we head to the hotel. You always wanna try to catch that last wave of folks leaving a festival, if you can. Those extra few cd sales really make a lot of difference at the end of a long tour.
But I’m frickin’ tired today! The gig last night in Cambridge was THE COOLEST AND FUNNEST GIG EVER!! There were people in the audience who were singing along to my songs, people who knew the words! :-) It was so surreal but so cool and bizarre!!!! The show was sold out and even though the temperature in the room was too high (they didn’t want to have the A/C on during the concert because it leaks), I think the audience had nearly as good a time as I did. I really, really loved it and look forward to playing in Cambridge again.
A concert can change so much depending on the reaction of the audience. A performance is NEVER a one-way street, and I don’t think audiences are keenly aware of just how much an influence they have on the collective experience.
Some concerts are dry one-way streets, anonymous one-night-stands.
At the other end of the spectrum, some concerts feel like church.
My goal is always church. And yet, in way, you can’t really have a goal for a concert. That’s like having a goal for a relationship, which gets way too much of your ego involved and will always inherently screw everything up. But maybe what I mean to articulate here is that I do go in with a certain intention. And the more I play and the longer I am out gigging every night, the more I am aware of that. That this concert, right here, tonight, right now, THIS is where I am, and let’s all of us, you and me and you and you and you, let’s all really enjoy this next couple of hours we are going to spend here together. Let’s all be really present and engaged and do some laughing and do some crying and do some joking and do some reflecting, and settle down into our seats and into ourselves and share a time together and feel all the edges of what it means to be human and be alive.
And that’s a hard place to get to when you have one or two hours with a group of people. I mean, it’s difficult enough to get that feeling one on one on a first date, let alone on a first date with a group.
And we don’t always get there. Sometimes I’m just kinda off, my energy is low or maybe something happened that day that threw me off, or maybe the vibe in the room is funny, maybe too few people in too big a space, or …. who knows … any myriad of things …
It’s an eternally interesting art to me, this thing called “performing”. And I’m still getting to know it.
Anyhow …
Also at the gig I met the other acts on the bill: Emily MacGuire (UK), and Jenni Alpert (US). I sure have enjoyed meeting other musicians, particularly other female musicians, on the road. It really does feel like an oasis. A refuge. Jenni and I chatted each other up quite a bit.
But we got back to the hotel late, and then it took quite a while for me to settle down after that show. So I think I fell asleep about 3, and then we had to get up at 8am to head to Middlewich.
Last concert here is letting out, so gotta go hang out at the merch table …
R
