Issue #44
Worrying professionally since 2009
My band played the New York venue Bowery Palace (formerly Bowery Electric) at the end of May, and it went really well. I put this show together, so I felt a little more responsible for the outcome this time. After weeks of worrying, resoldering my guitar’s output jack, and annoying every local acquaintance, the show went off without a hitch. I am so relieved!
This show came five weeks after our last and with only a single full-group practice between them. I still wanted to make our set for this show different from our April show. Since we didn’t have time to develop a new song together, I opted for playing a new song solo and re-writing the spoken intro to our last song. That way our dedicated friends and partners had something new to hear.
I wish I could describe how not cool and fun I am under pressure. I spent the better half of May stressed about this gig. I got daily emails from the venue reminding me of our meager ticket sales which made me want to throw up every morning. I proved to myself that I could organize and pull off a successful last minute show in Manhattan, but good god did I feel like a loser.
Thankfully, performing is one of my most-practiced skills. I don’t really have to plan stage banter or my movements on stage. That’s what singing in bands since age 13 gets you. At that age, I mostly sang with my eyes closed and gripped the microphone like it was moments from flying away.
So while I was worried about the logistics of the show, I didn’t really have to worry about my performance. By the time we are on stage, there’s nothing really left to worry about. All the bands showed up on time and a couple bands even got to sound check before doors. We had sold enough tickets to cover the venue’s overhead. Now I could get up on stage and enjoy the fruits of my labor. We had the best time!
Now that summer is in full swing, we’ve set our sights on preparing a few songs for recording later this summer. This looks like: settling on tempos, practicing with metronomes, and recording demos. That way we are prepared to record efficiently, which saves time and money.
It is so easy to get distracted by what other bands and artists are up to. What you’re usually seeing is the highlight reel — the show, the single, the announcement. Getting to the point where we could perform a solid set with little notice took longer than I care to admit, and most of that time looked nothing like music. It looked like spreadsheets, unanswered emails, and me forgetting the chords to a song I wrote. But as with most things, artist’s don’t often share the bulk of the behind-the-scenes work it takes to appear successful. This work is often boring, non linear, and borderline embarrassing.
But shows like our Bowery Palace performance, help me see how far we’ve come as a new band and how far I’ve come as a performer. I am very proud of us.
I’ve been in the weeds at work the past few months, so no exciting parallels this issue. Life and work have been a little sad/hectic lately, so my songwriting practice has also suffered. I’m determined to set aside some time this week to write now that my guitar is back in action! The boring, non-linear, borderline embarrassing work continues. This week, it looks like a blank page and a metronome set to 160 bpm. I'll let you know how it goes.
I will share a few songs I’ve been obsessed with lately…
