Strange how autumn sprang upon us. Of course, in all honesty, the air is still very summery. but the nights are getting cooler. I’m creeping my head closer and closer to the window like a fish trying to get back into the water.
The house concert went really well. It’s almost our first one – we’ve played one for Joel Pomerantz with Syl Smith before, but that was done with huge amplifiers and was more about playing around in someone’s studio than it was about the couple of attendees. We’ve played the “i love you And I Miss You” house concert, but the audience pretty much consisted of three people not counting the other musicians.
Really, this can be pointed to as our first time, I think. We were both nervous. Lori had picked us up at Caffe Driade, asked us if we’d be interested. She’d wanted to have a house concert for a long time, had been very familiar with them back in California where she and her husband had Lived before. They had bought a house in Durham making SURE they had a huge room appropriate for house concerts.
The acoustics were beautiful, and I Loved listening to Heather warm up as I snacked on Tom’s (Lori’s husband) oatmeal raisen chocolate chip cookies.
Now, I could go on about the audience – the Lovely, friendly audience. I could go on about the cats. I could go on about the acoustics and I could go on about how nice the night was in general. I’d like to go on about the food, but really, having no access to any of it right now, it would just make me salivate and I would short out my computer, and I can’t afford that.
Most house concert audiences seem to focus on the 40+ age group, wisened folkies who know what they want to listen to, and who generally turn ilyAIMY away without a second thought. It’s why we’re just NOW playing one, and why I don’t really expect to play one again any time soon. Though it was a lot of fun not having a barrier between me and the audience, it was also very disconcerting. I look forward to doing it again, but I don’t really feel that I’ll be placed in the situation till we get back to Durham.
This was an interesting age range. My best guess would be that the youngest was in his late twenties, and the oldest in his early 40’s, with the main concentration falling right in the early 30’s. It was strange to effectively be amongst my peers. It doesn’t happen often. Heather and I generally play to coffeehouses and bars where young twenty-somethings are trying to pick one another up and generally get inside one another.
The energy and the flirtation is fun, and I was pleased to find that the energy wasn’t too different with this group – but a different focus. I think it was awkward to be in a room of my peers and sort of realize I was the only one who was single. It was a little frightening. They were all home-owners and family-builders. Not that I was expecting anything else, it was just disconcerting.
In any case, Lori had gathered about 20 people. Some knew what they were getting into, others didn’t, but I enjoyed meeting them and they mostly seemed to enjoy the company if not the music (though most enjoyed that as well). We kept them up late with road stories and some songs and generally had a really good time.
