not sure where to have put this, performance or gig stories....
played a show last nite at an intimate lounge with a singer from beligium (
www.thebelgiansinger.com). i have been really nervous about this gig since i accepted it. the music is NOTHING like i've ever played, it's a paying gig, and there was LOTS of material to learn - about 40 songs, many of which i've never heard and were thrown at me only this past weekend. not the type of gig i'm used to.
anyhow - the guitarist is almost as new as me, and it was just he, her and myself. bad things happened, i don't even want to go into it for fear of marring her reputation. i'm happy to say that my flubbing was minimal, but all 3 of us were in bad shape a good deal of the time. 3 sets of music.
what made it the best? several things. 1st is this woman (Micheline) is a total pro and was able to openly laugh about what was going on, stop and restart songs in a way that almost looked planned, and kept her head really high in lieu of all that was happening. what i think was more important though was that none of us made a big deal about any of it. it WASN'T THE END OF THE WORLD. we laughed about it, supported one another, did our absolute best, and after the show discussed the things we needed to do differently the next time.
that has so NOT been my experience in many other bands i've been in. people have gotten soooooo uptight over little flubs and other such things. i don't like working that way. i don't believe it's productive. most of those bands (ya know what, i think actually all of those bands) eventually fall apart. we left happily last night, had a really good time throughout the nite, and will be able to work on doing a way better show next time without any anger towards each other, worry, or other bad feelings.
of you can put that last paragraph into one sentence, that's the moral of my little story.
