: A sound week
Monday: Royal Oak. Mistake in sticking around for two songs, I ended up having to wait so long that by the time I'd performed the last bus had gone and I had to walk about 3km. In the dark. Although the route's well-lit, even that through Southampton Common (for that is a main road), and there was a 24-hour Spar to acquire a flapjack as an energy source for the walk.
A mistake I can't believe I made given what I noticed on the first song; the lights were standard theatre/stage lights, not moving at all, just with coloured gels... but they were turned on and off 'in time' (not) to the music. Response to this was to perform a large part of I'm With You sitting on the floor, and most of the rest facing where the lights were not. Which, given the layout of the place, was where most of the patrons were, and their reception was rather impressive.
Second song? Would you believe it, a Cantsing number, Hero. Hey, it's not that difficult to sing properly, as opposed to doing a straight cover of it. ;) Not my best performance, as I waited, and waited, and waited to sing it, and probably wasn't in the best state to perform when it happened. Still not bad, and deceptively well-suited to me.
Tuesday, H2O. Only just got out of a lighting training session in time for this, as I ended up having a go on the lighting desk. Well, I'm only using it for the next show... Sung the last song of the night, and it ended up being It's Oh So Quiet. And lawks, did it ever go well. Having a wireless mic sure helped, allowing me to leap about the bar (which had no stage) as if I owned it, probably frightening one or two patrons without even trying.
New karaoke books are coming in, and bigger ones too. So big, they're having to be ring-bound. Apparently featuring 40,000 (!!!) songs; there's bound to be a lot of duplicates, and some that won't actually be there when the book mentions them (which undid me that very night, was planning to sing Promise Me, will save that for next Monday instead), but the usable selection will be well into five figures and possibly exceeding One Rock in number. Hoping for some recent hits... oh wait. That'd imply the existence of some that would be worth singing.
Wednesday: open mic night at the student union. Rather a hostage to my own fortune, as I opted to sing unaccompanied. I've done it before, but I was terrified, not least because of uncertainty as to what to perform. Ended up writing some lyrics literally as I waited, put a melody to them in my head, sung that, and followed it with I'm With You, which did work quite well in this form. Particularly appreciated the lighting, little more than small dark blue lights.
This was done with at least half an eye on gaining someone to work with who can accompany me. I only bloody got one right away! We're going to meet at some point again soon I think; it was impossible to do any kind of jamming with other music in the background. Although the songs chosen were rather good, including two from Jagged Little Pill Acoustic...
Monday: Royal Oak. Mistake in sticking around for two songs, I ended up having to wait so long that by the time I'd performed the last bus had gone and I had to walk about 3km. In the dark. Although the route's well-lit, even that through Southampton Common (for that is a main road), and there was a 24-hour Spar to acquire a flapjack as an energy source for the walk.
A mistake I can't believe I made given what I noticed on the first song; the lights were standard theatre/stage lights, not moving at all, just with coloured gels... but they were turned on and off 'in time' (not) to the music. Response to this was to perform a large part of I'm With You sitting on the floor, and most of the rest facing where the lights were not. Which, given the layout of the place, was where most of the patrons were, and their reception was rather impressive.
Second song? Would you believe it, a Cantsing number, Hero. Hey, it's not that difficult to sing properly, as opposed to doing a straight cover of it. ;) Not my best performance, as I waited, and waited, and waited to sing it, and probably wasn't in the best state to perform when it happened. Still not bad, and deceptively well-suited to me.
Tuesday, H2O. Only just got out of a lighting training session in time for this, as I ended up having a go on the lighting desk. Well, I'm only using it for the next show... Sung the last song of the night, and it ended up being It's Oh So Quiet. And lawks, did it ever go well. Having a wireless mic sure helped, allowing me to leap about the bar (which had no stage) as if I owned it, probably frightening one or two patrons without even trying.
New karaoke books are coming in, and bigger ones too. So big, they're having to be ring-bound. Apparently featuring 40,000 (!!!) songs; there's bound to be a lot of duplicates, and some that won't actually be there when the book mentions them (which undid me that very night, was planning to sing Promise Me, will save that for next Monday instead), but the usable selection will be well into five figures and possibly exceeding One Rock in number. Hoping for some recent hits... oh wait. That'd imply the existence of some that would be worth singing.
Wednesday: open mic night at the student union. Rather a hostage to my own fortune, as I opted to sing unaccompanied. I've done it before, but I was terrified, not least because of uncertainty as to what to perform. Ended up writing some lyrics literally as I waited, put a melody to them in my head, sung that, and followed it with I'm With You, which did work quite well in this form. Particularly appreciated the lighting, little more than small dark blue lights.
This was done with at least half an eye on gaining someone to work with who can accompany me. I only bloody got one right away! We're going to meet at some point again soon I think; it was impossible to do any kind of jamming with other music in the background. Although the songs chosen were rather good, including two from Jagged Little Pill Acoustic...