Wow. I'm so glad my cohort Pat talked me into performing at the school's variety show today. We talked about it early in the year, but as the time got short I wasn't confident about my voice and was fully intending to back out; Pat suggested we do an instrumental, "Hideaway" (Freddie King, but pretty much the Eric Clapton version) and I agreed. We had another teacher playing drums ( a working musician) and another on 2nd guitar. Pretty minimal rehearsals-I wasn't feeling very comfortable. I mean, I worked as a professional for years, but I really like being rehearsed, and we only had a couple of sessions, and those were pretty short.
Then, at the 11th hour, we got drafted into another "teacher band"....I had about four days with the song on disc, and we never really had a full-participant rehearsal.
Too, I agonized about what rig to play. I mean, I have 5 guitars that could've served, and wasn't sure about which of several amps to play. I ultimately decided to keep it as simple as I could, playing my most robust amp but ditching the sophisticated modeling unit and just used a chorus pedal for the "teacher" band, and my old standby 1974 Big Muff for "Hideaway".
I shouldn't have worried. The old confidence rose to the challenge, and the old instincts kicked in fully. We got to play "Hideaway" twice, and both times, the robust, reactive and totally responsive Muff, and the hardtail Strat, and the '67 Showman amp came through and just completely inspired me! I was like a spring-lamb, I couldn't help but dance and show and just be the same old me I had always been on stage. Even on the "teacher" band song (also played twice), clean and jangly with just the chorus and turned down enough so I could just really spank the chimey chords, came off great. I had soooooo much fun!
But I really don't want to start playing out again...it's soooooo tiring to drag the gear around, and even though it's the Non-Performer personality that gets nervous, the Performer personality gets so keyed-up that afterwards I experience a kind of let-down that makes me feel just drained.
Still, good times!
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Did anyone record the session? There's usually someone around with a camcorder. If so, you should post it on Youtube so we can all watch. I'd enjoy seeing you play. Imbed the vid or post a link here would be nice.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a throwaway email address I can contact you about cheesy movies? Posting personal info here isn't smart. We can swap lists and bad movie memories, lol.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone videotaped it-there's legalities involved in filming the kids so I don't think anyone captured the show, unless someone just snagged us. I'll know more Monday; it was only a 1/2 day at school, so everyone pretty much bailed out right after the show. I'll know more on Monday.
ReplyDeleteLet me check something out and I think I'll have a secure way to pass addresses. Definitely like to swap movie lists and blather on about the halcyon days of b/w sci-fi, etc.
Hi bri, wish I could have seen that.
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