What a BEAUTIFUL day to have some Christmas! Alien vs Predator – Requiem is out today and I’m hungry for goose and slaughter. In the words of Ferdinand the Duck, truly “Christmas means CARNAGE”. Oh and crystalline skies and sunshine and lots of kid-beladen families getting up early and lots of kidless families getting up late.
Last Saturday I threw a big show at College Perk with lots of acts that I really wanted to see. It was like planning your wn movie night and then hoping people share your tastes. They certainly DID share them.
I got there at around 3.30 to start setting up and Rowan and I made short work of creating something beautiful out of the disparate and difficult parts that make up the College Perk sound system. Between the two of us we got things running a little bit early and we had enough of an audience that we could get Acacia Sears on the stage and playing a tad ahead of schedule. It meant she could play longer AND we could move quickly to the next artist – all in all I was amazed that we managed to stay ahead of schedule the whole night while allowing each artist longer than their allotted time and all without feeling insanely rushed.
I’ve been working at the House of Musical Traditions – which – though I do hate having to have a day job at all, where else are we going to see a kazoo band made up of Eric the Amazing kazooist and my favourite Canadian. Earlier it was Traditional Christmas Music on Sitar! A good day indeed. Acacia Sears and Heather Lloyd singing together at not-rob-fest 3 at the College Perk in College Park, MD. Michael Berkowitz ganked We’re About 9 for a song, singing harmony and putting out beautiful words. ORNAmuseMENT is someone Heather and I’d met up in Bel Air, Maryland a couple of years ago. She was utterly spectacular back then and is even better now. It was awesome to have her for Not-rob-fest 3. The Able Birds. Andre Cutair’s new project was surprisingly rockin, a really agile Indie creature of some bluegrassy flavours and beautiful songwriting and tight harmonies. I vote yes. We’re About 9 is always amazing. It’s a shame they don’t play out more often. As it was it was flattering to have them and I thought MichaelBerkowitz was in danger of swooning. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA They make you sick, no? Sharif and Joanna are STILL in Love. (gross!) Allison Weiss and AJ were the real heroes of not-rob-fest 3 – because it was originally their gig and she was gracious enough to turn the night over to me, letting me do with it as I pleased. The result? The Audience at College Perk for not-rob-fest 3. I’m just sayin’, good job rob! Hee!
At it’s height it was the fullest I’d ever seen Perk in the history of the venue. People were leaving because of the temperature and the tightness, which is a bad thing, but on the other hand, it meant that new people could keep coming in, which was a good thing. All in all I thought it was a huge success. We didn’t make much money but it was a good time had.
Since then I’ve been working at the House of Musical Traditions alot – it’s good for me to be around people like that, interacting. Otherwise I know I can have a tendency to just sort of vanish into a little hole. The fact that I’m also learning about lots of different instruments and earning some money too doesn’t hurt. There’s a bit of nervousness surrounding me because of the hold up from last year, but so far so good and we’re past the hump of probability. (knocks on wood).
In any case, I must shower and put on a festive red shirt. it’s what the day calls for and it is what I shall muster.
Happy Hogswatch to all, whether you like it or not.