Wake the children and call the neighbors. Shows that have me shivering in anticipa…………………tion

I play a goodly number of show during the month. The month of July show 33 shows all total, and this is not counting shows I just “Picked up”. I also play a goodly number of “So-called Open mic show”. The shows I’m rather excited about might seem at first like just another Open mic cattle call but they are very different.

Wednesday 13^th of August

The Originals Uncovered.

Featuring

Digby Smalls

POL Arida

Bara Jonson

Zorch Boomhaure

CQ Bravin

While there have been other original shows, like Freestar’s “Pajama party” (no covers), this show is different in the fact it features artist that are rather devoted to song craft. This show also features pure singer/songwriter Mojo unleashed. NO FREAKING BACK UP TRACK, just a man, a guitar and the music they make. My nipples are hard and my sphincter is tingling… in a good way.

Sunday 24^th of August

Villains at Club Rub

Featuring

Edward Lowell

Zorch Boomhaure

Grateful Stryker

Norris Shepard

The Rails

POL Arida

This is an amazing line up simply because it is an AMAZING LINE UP. Let me put that comment in context. There are LOTS of shows that feature LOTS of act, but most are at best “Hit or Miss”. This show features all good performers and you might want to attend all of it. This show is kind of similar to what Harrie does at the Jester, just a lot bigger. Good acts front to back and no filler.

The reason both these show seem so exciting to me is because the people behind both of them really give a rat’s ass about the music. They are featuring the artists they feel best serve the bill.

There is also a theme of LIVE MUSIC here. No back up tracks, none of the bullshit that is far to frequent in SL’s music scene.

Out of all the trends that seem to come and go in Second Life music, I hope this one grows and flourishes. Both these shows you could watch from beginning to end, and never encounter a Kite Looming (At this point the worse artist I’ve ever heard in Second life).

The long and short of it

I played two shows last night and both were as different as night and day. The first, very short, and the second very long.

The first show was the legendary Humming bird café. If you have never been there you need to check it out. It’s to say the least a scene. It is an open mic, but with, in theory 20 minuet time slots. This means lots of acts in a short amount of time… in theory. The act before me played beyond his time slot… the norm lately, and I got on about 4 minuets late. Then I had to wait while Demi introduced me… once again in theory. This introduction kind of boiled down to him talking about how long he’s known Nad, and how we all needed to check out the Nad and Demi show Friday night. Then he said,” Here’s Zorch” and I was on.

Now when I was setting up for the show, my older children were still asleep from yet another “All night video game/TV” bender. So I asked Lilly if she could behave for about 10 minuets. This of course lasted about one song, and she was then asking me to play songs she could sing along with. I played “We all fall down” and “The way you love” with Lilly singing along at the top of her voice. People were charmed, and Lilly informed me she was a much better singer then I am. She’s humble just like her daddy.

It was interesting to touch base with the Humming bird café.

The second show was at a place called “Cheers” that is reminiscent of the TV show of the same name. I’m always kind of leery when playing a venue for the first time, but this show went off without incident. The best part was I was the only act booked there and didn’t have to rush to get on the stage or off the stage. Man… that was such a pleasant change of pace.

I got to set up my MP3 vendor; my group join sign, and my tip jar without rushing. The stream was on right at the top of the hour and I was up and running. I actually played about an hour and twelve minuets. I could have played longer but it seems the audience was kind of drifting off.

Not having to rush is so damn nice. I play a lot of “Open mic extravaganzas” and I gotta tell you the stress level involved in getting up and running in a timely manner and getting off so the next act can play is sometimes distressing. We all seem to embrace the Open Mic because it seems to pull a pretty good crowd, but I’ve notice the crowd for show I play alone is pretty close to the size of an open mic crowd.

Speaking of shows I’ve played by myself. Tuesday I had a show at an Open mic at the Jam Shack. The woman running the show was nowhere to be found and there were no other acts playing when I got there. I was wondering if the show had been canceled and nobody told me. Anyway, I set the land use media to my stream and did an impromptu show using a group notice to get some people out there. Not a bad crowd really. About 20 people which seems to be the magic number unless you are one of the POPULAR KIDS.

Good times…good times

Yesterday was quite eventful. First off, the guy that owns the property my rented beach house sits on decided to “sell out” and basically evicted me. While this may seem like a bad thing, it actually worked out to be a blessing in disguise.

My good friend Lucincia offered to rent me a small island for 2750 L$ a month with is a considerable savings over the beach house I was renting. I bought a Pre-fab house and by the end of the day, ZORCHLAND was established.

On of the nice things about renting an island over renting a house is I have control over the media stream now. So I can have a party at my house a play a live show there. While I’m in no way considering opening a venue, it would be nice to have a place to host Zorch Nation events.

I also added a bunch of songs to the Zorch MP3 vendor. The total so far is 9 songs.

The cherry on top of the day was a show at the amazing Jester Inn. I love the Jester and I love Harrie for running the Jester. Every show there seems like a homecoming, and a sold a goodly number of MP3s.

All and all…good times…good times.

Scandalous opinions

I use to be somewhat involved with a Second Life music forum. However I’ve come to the conclusion if I actually said what I thought, it would not be received well, and if you can’t say what you really think, why participate? I’ve concluded that posting certain opinions were the “movers and shakers” move and shake would have a negative effect on my so-called “Career in music”.

Inflammatory opinions don’t really belong in a public forum anyway. The most profound use of a public forum would be the distribution of valuable information. However they are rarely used that way.

On the other hand, Blogs are the tailor made for opinions, inflammatory and otherwise. With this in mind, I present a few opinions and if they offend anybody I suggest they stop reading my Blog.

Talent in Second Life

There is some talent but just like real life, it’s a rare. Second Life is jam packed full of act that will cause you to lose the will to live. While I have no problem with people getting their ROCK STAR fantasy out in the open. But the sad fact of the matter is these people work a lot more then they should. People wonder how we are going to get new people involved in the music scene. Well if they go to a show and see “Joe utterly horrible” they will probably assume most the music in Second life sucks and not bother to attend any further shows. Remember, the write up on “Joe utterly horrible” said is was one of the HOTTEST artists performing in Second life.

Speaking of write ups…

Everybody ask for one, and yes I have one chocked full of purple prose. These are utterly pointless. I have a website, why don’t you just post a link in the notice. I’ve never read anything that inspired me to check somebody out.

Worshiping mediocrity

There are a few people that can string a few cords together, remember most the words to the songs. If they play cover songs they’ll probably raise to the ranks of one of the “Popular kids”. People are comfortable with what they know, and I don’t have a problem with that, but when they confused comfort with talent I have a problem.

Get DJs and Karaoke acts off the LIVE MUSIC listing.

DJs are NOT live music. They are an MP3 collection and a stream. It requires NO TALENT to be a DJ and more to the point it’s not in anyway live music. I personally feel the acts that sing to “Back up tracks” are nothing more then Karaoke and should be treated as such. Once again, if a new person comes to a show, and it turns out to be nothing more then Karaoke, they are not going to grasp what Second life has to offer. A sad fact about the Karaoke scene in Second life is it has all the horrors of Karaoke with none of the fun. In real life you can sign up and make an ass of yourself at Karaoke night. Here you just get to watch somebody else make an ass of themselves. Don’t forget to tip them and join their group.

Act that charge a fee to play

This is a very hot topic on the music related forum mentioned at the outset of this rant. My opinion is an artist that…whoops, acts that charge a fee are greedy bastards. Do they have any idea how much money venue owners spend per month to provide artist and music lovers a place to enjoy live music? The largest portion of this expense is covered right out of the venue owner’s pocket. And while most venue owners are good sports and willing to throw a few dollars to the act (pay the fee), the act is just adding insult to injury. Just another bill for the venue owner to pay.

I have the same expenses other act have and manage to make enough Linden in tips to cover those expenses. I have a beach house and a stream to pay for, and I still cash out a few times a month to have money in real life for strings and a new guitars.

How much of a difference would that 8-20 $ US make? Not much. I’m more then willing to let the venue owner keep that to help pay for his HUGE overhead. He’s giving me a place to work my craft. God bless him.

Thinking inside the coffin

And finally, the last opinion. While I lurked silent at the forum, I noticed that people kept talking about the same solutions to problems that didn’t work before.

SL Radio: Second life Radio stations don’t work. People are comfortable with what they know, and the few Second Life artist that make music that is legal to play without paying publishing fees is not going to break a radio station.

Second life Music magazines: The music scene is way too fragmented to make it worth the effort. The vast majority of acts do nothing worth reporting about. So the magazine becomes as pointless as the fluffy writes ups posted in group Spam.

Mega events to raise awareness of live music in Second life: Pointless masturbation. The faithful come out to see their favorite acts and everybody gets the warm fuzzies. I just played one of these events without even knowing it. I found out after the show when they sent me a “Thank you for raising music awareness in Second life” card.

I would love to see anybody do something new even if it was remarkably stupid. Doing the same things that don’t work over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of crazy.

It’s all about the vibe part 2

The list continues…


Tantalus

Oddly enough, Tantalus is the kind of show I should hate. They do run an “OPEN MIC” sort of deal, and most the time that is more pain then I can deal with. But I really enjoy playing at Tantalus.

Why? It’s well run, well laid out and more to the point… good people all around. The staff great, the audience great, and the whole experience makes me feel pretty good about what I’m doing.

The acts, while not all my cup of tea seem at least competent. Lots of OPEN MIC show feature act so dreadfully horrid, they strip me of my will to live.

When I look at my calendar I smile. Need I say more?

Cascadia Harmonic/Rocky shores

these venue are listed in my “Gigs Folder” as “Ticious Totter’s Place”. Ticious is one of those wonderful people that just seems to take you by the hand and make you feel very welcome and important.. She is a venue owing veteran that knows the in and out of running a good show. The lay out of both venues is very artist friendly and attracts a music-loving crowd.

While the venue are great, I must say it’s the personality behind the venue that really cause me to look fondly on these shows.

The Humming bird Café

The Humming bird has been hub of Second Life Open mic goodness for years. And the most amazing thing about that, is when you play there is seems so vibrant and happening. It has not fallen into a rut, and seems to be one of the most consistent drawing shows in Second Life.

I really have to look into playing there again, I need a recharge.

It’s all about the vibe part 1

Some shows go well, some shows don’t. In most cases shows that don’t go well you can point at some little SNFU, like at SL5B…the stage actually disappeared. But sometimes all the elements of a good show are present, and there is no magic. Last night was such a show.

But I’m not here to whine about a bad show, but rather talk about the Venues that seem to have their “GOOD VIBE” hardwired in.

The Jester Inn Pixel hill

This has gotta be my all time favorite. The crowd is a music crowd, and there are no mega open mic extravaganza. Harrie (THE Rock Chick) books the acts she LOVES and when Harrie say’s “Check this out”, a lot of people do in fact check it out.

Harrie also helped me get organized, she is like a big sister to me and I have genuine affection for her.

While there are lots of places you can hear music in SL, Harrie makes sure the music you hear is actually GOOD, so people that care about music come to the Jester Inn. More Venues should realize booking a bunch of artist of questionable talent really does less for you then doing a few shows a week with really GOOD acts.

Boogie Beach

I have not played the Beach for a while. But every time I have in the past, it’s been a full on BLAST. There is always a party going on at Boogie Beach, and if you happen to be playing during that party, the people seem quite open to whatever you offer.

Boogie Beach is a rare success story in SL. 24/7 there is a party going on at the beach. This is mostly due to the charismatic owner Jackie Chushing. I once asked Jackie how she managed to create such a popular active place. Her answer was simple, “Make it fun”. Boogie Beach is fun, and a great place to play.

Vincent’s retreat the wilderness stage

Vincent’s is the first venue I play with POL Arida. For that reason alone it hold a special place in my heart. However Vincent’s personable owner Lucincia is a major supporter of Live music and more importantly the artist she really enjoys. She often show up at gigs I play at other venues and that is a level of support few other venue owner extend (For the record Harrie from the Jester Inn also pops up at shows outside her venue).

While the shows are sometimes sparsely attended,I still seem to put on a good show there. I feel this is due to the fact I know that Lucincia and anyone else there has come to hear my music.

To be continued…

Can you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Got an IM and note card the other day. Seems the language lab is sponsoring a major musical even featured Non-English lyrics and rhythms. I had to answer back, “hey while it might not be all the obvious, my song lyrics are in English”.

Is my diction really that bad? Maybe I should just start writing songs in gibberish. Oddly enough I’m rather fluent in gibberish.

Frankly the whole charm of MEGA EVENTS has been diminished for me by my experience with SL5B. I’m not a MEGA STAR, and I don’t think I’ll ever have a MEGA FOLLOWING. But the following I have makes up in quality what they lack in numbers.

Inside Zorch’s head: POL Arida

There are a few “Popular kids” in Second Life. They have HUGE support groups and crash Sims like it’s all the rage. However, their popularity has absolutely nothing to do with talent. Some would say they play music, but I prefer to think of it as “Mc Music”. Stuff that’s not very good but most people can stomach.

I bring this up as a preface to the following comment or statement of fact. POL Arida is the best artist performing in Second Life today.

He does not have the largest group, and I’ve never seen him crash a Sim. This is primarily because artists don’t get mass attention. They are the gourmet food of music in a fast food world.

With this said, I’ll go a step further and say that the people that make up his audience at any show are probably the true music lover in Second Life. They seem to approach music as an expression rather then a consumable commodity.

You may be wondering how all this might give you insight into my head? Well in a nutshell POL and the people that support him have really changed my approach to my music in Second Life.

He’s shown me the guitar can be a powerful flexible texture to use in support of a musical theme. He’s inspired me to seek new technical paradigms for playing an instrument that I’ve played for 34 years.

As to my personal style of Hammer guitar, I find it markedly different from POLs. The rhythmic signature is different. POL plays deep in the hole and I tend to stay up on the neck. And finally, POLs style has more drive and ROCK to it. My style is more about pixie dust and odd synth like drones.

But it’s not the guitar style POL uses that inspires me most. It’s the drama of his music. The depth, and the artistry of it. His lyrics are astounding, and more to the point he has developed an artistic voice. This inspires me to step up my music.

As inspiring as I find POL, if not for the people that seems to “GET” his music, I would have probably gone a safer route. Songs like “The Mourning song”, ”Everything you know”, and “Hide your tears” would not be in the set.

While I can’t claim to be good friends with POL, we do seem to have an informal alliance formed… possibly an UNHOLY alliance if you ask the popular kids. I hope in some small way, I inspire him.

The best group in all of Second Life is…(envelope please)… ZORCH NATION!!!

There are lots of groups you can belong to in Second Life, but in my humble and infallible opinion there is none finer then my own group The Zorch Nation.

Recently, my beloved Alvarez RD23SC guitar took it’s own life in what can only be term Guitaracide. It leaped from its stand and snapped its neck. Of course I blame myself. Too many gig, too many hour of practice and of course the relentless hammering all took a toll on the poor things fragile psyche.

While the passing of a loved one is never easy, more to the point I was without an instrument and had shows booked. A good friend of mine lent me his “Beater” guitar and this permitted me to continue playing, but it was only a loan.

I had to find a way to afford a new instrument. I did have a paltry vacation fund to raid, but that was really not enough to buy anything better then another “Beater” guitar.

In my hour of need, I turned to the people that best understand what a world with a guitar less Zorch would be like. The Zorch nation.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but their generosity was quite impressive. By the end of day one 175 $ (US dollars not Lindens) was collected and that was quite sufficient to turn the tide. Along with the funds from the vacation account, I’ll be able to afford a reasonably priced, but professional sounding guitar.

Much thanks to the selfless members of the Zorch Nation. Making sure people all over the world get the opportunity to GET ZORCHED.

Hello all time to get ZORCHED!!!

Could I would I if I could make a blog? Seems like the hip and trendy thing to do.