The 30 Day Marching Band: Public Spectacle Review

Well, it is all finally over. Last night, between 10:30 and 11:15, Biggles Koskov, Mr Rascal and I regaled a small crowd of about 15 with a select number of our recently crafted songs. The size of the crowd was noticeably smaller due to the André Rieu concert in the city. The 75-100 year old demographic was noticeable scarce at Ric’s for a typical Wednesday night.

Assisting us on drums was the flamboyant front man of Deux Garsons, Mikey. I can’t believe how quickly he managed to learn these songs, much quicker than I did.

Overall, the night felt like a success, with minimal problems. I managed to forget approximately 10-15% of my lyrics, but by channelling the spirit of great ad-libbers, Tim Graham and Alex Dunlop, I fumbled my way through. Also, my bass efforts on Mr. Rascal’s songs were abysmal. Surprisingly, the only thing I was truly happy with was my vocal, who’d have thought.

Highlights;
1. A poorly executed joke that worked hilariously in the practice studio, but backfired horribly on stage (Moist….algorithm)
2. Biggles comical tuning banter whilst Mr. Rascal tuned a bass.
3. A song inspired by Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson
4. Clapping.
5. An inoffensive attempt by a punter to make us stop talking on stage and start playing again. From memory he said something like, ‘yeah it’s it great, we like what your doing now, keep doing it’, whilst making a rolling action with his hands.
6. People asking for CD’s, in particular a compiled CD with everyone’s stuff on it. When I say people, I really mean person.
7. More clapping.
8. Almost crashing my van into a bus getting to the gig.

Overall, now that the stress of the impending gig is over, I can declare that the process has been great. Until I attempted this, I had never written and performed a song publicly. In fact, I had barely written an entire song at all, preferring to write small parts for a band setting. Also, learning some of the basics about recording was quite fun and I think that with some better gear, more time and a little more ability with certain instruments, I could probably make quite a good solo album. As I said to Biggles last night; the execution and equipment were poor, but the ideas were good.

Yes We Can…

Fin.

Wrap-up

My wrap-up speech is up at http://blogs.myspace.com/sonofsea

I fear it's so long that it would hog this blog.

Good luck tomorrow night gentlemen!

Out.