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.