SO – Sandy Spring Museum, with it’s limit of 25 people in the house and the tight time frame and everything, means that all this year I’ve had a TECHNICALLY sold out room and a TECHNICALLY full list. And frankly, even though said TECHNICALLY sold out room never really fills all the available seats since inevitably a couple of people don’t show up, and though the TECHNICALLY full list should be something I can pack a little tighter if I can get the flow to smooth out a bit – I’m really much happier with an open mic that’s filled due more to COVID restrictions and technicalities than one that’s half full and struggling week after week.
Tonight was, unfortunately, also plagued with technical gremlins. Mostly just little blips in the cameras, some got tracked to a source (EISNER STOP PUTTING YOUR CHAIR ON MY ETHERNET ADAPTERS!!!) and others, though I know the source I don’t know the fix (why, oh why, if everyone swears no-one else and no THING else is doing anything online, does the internet signal collapse at 9pm every night?)… one gremlin’s not a gremlin at all, merely a spectre of my own failing ability to keep all my ducks in a row : I forgot to charge my clip-on mics! HOWEVER – none of these effected the room, and my TECHNICALLY sold-out audience probably never had a clue anything was wrong.
Tal Naccarato, from New York and New Orleans (equally!!!), was great – and one of those guys who is a PERFORMER. An excellent example of someone who you could watch and say “huh, look at what he did there – all of a sudden the audience is THERE for him even before he played a note!” And then the notes came! Cool player.
Unfortunately I was aware of PERSONALLY being moody (nothing technical about that!) and, though I’m pretty sure I didn’t make anyone’s Life miserable, my interior monologue featured a LOT of grumbling, mostly along the lines of a hatred for internet spammers. Anywho – for anyone who was there, I apologize if I was grumpy at you. For those internet spammers, please, fuck off. For the guy who asked “are there any Satanists there” – don’t make it weird man. You made it weird.
