Last night we tried to make sure we turned in early, knowing that TODAY we really kick into high gear, must remain PRESENT, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and SO the first thing we did was walk down to the beach to retrieve coffee!
And then it was time to wander the halls, get educated, educate, and generally run amok. I wandered through a number of panels before I had to run my own (Getting Your Venue Online) and some had good notes, some didn’t. Most were plagued with various sound issues and with the hybrid nature of the event, you couldn’t fall back on just yelling to the room and gathering peeps close.
The Stone Pony was a game changer this year. Not that I’ve been to a BUNCH of NERFAs, SERFAs or other FA ilk – and not that I actually even think that many folkies had HEARD of the Stone Pony before outside of the context of this conference. I’d have thought that the connection with Johnny Cash would’ve been a bigger deal than the frequently mentioned Bruce Springsteen (honestly, the number of times someone said something along the lines of “oh, a little guy named Bruce” or “oh you know, some little BOSS or another” with a knowing wink was like to make me scream) – though the latter’s ALIVE and apparently sometimes wanders through – but in any case, whether or not anyone actually knew what the Stone Pony was before they walked in the door, it was STILL something that completely changed how the Formal Showcases felt.
Suddenly they weren’t just the people being highlighted for us by a shadowy behind-the-scenes panel of judges – they sounded and more importantly LOOKED like rockstars because of the sheer rock-club production value of the venue. Though I think the after-event questionnaires are PROBABLY going to make a LOT of mention of the Stone Pony simply being TOO LOUD, I think that stage lent an air of professionalism and glitz that I’ve never seen at one of these conferences before. The lights, the smoke machines, the guitars on the wall, the huge amplifiers – the bar atmosphere – it made even the solo singer/songwriters seem like a big deal in a way that previous NERFAs simply could not.
I wouldn’t have run things the way they did – for as much as Les Rats d’Swompe were a MASSIVE way to explode into the formals, I think they really laid it on thick. A punk rock band with French Canadian trimmings, most of the audience flinched visibly at the sheer assault of light and sound. I think I would’ve eased the show in a little bit more gently and saved the Rats for a little later in the show – but if the idea was to say “NERFA’S BACK AND IT AIN’T LIKE THE OLD NERFA!!!! RAR!” I think that was said quite forcefully.
The first night presented a great lineup of rock and rock-adjacent acts, but just as the immense production values lent an air of ROCKSTAR AWE to the event in a positive way, I do wonder if that also undermined the ability for most of the presenters watching in the room to see bands like Les Rats d’Swompe and the similarly loud-and-aggressive (and French Canadian) Le Diable à Cinq on their folk series stages.
After the formals, we made our way back to the hotel and played a couple of Privilla rooms. I admire Heather’s ability to really run full tilt till things generally died down at 3am or so. I must admit Kristen and I tended to retreat a little bit earlier – and my patience for being in even the reduced crowds of this year’s NERFA – has definitely been eroded from previous years. I had to step away from the Pony crowds, got really, really moody and depressed and just needed to abandon the proceedings. Fortunately the Pony has speakers scattered everywhere so I could leave the crush without leaving the music.
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