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Last Minute Show a Hit
Apr. 15th, 2022 08:06 amLast night was pretty fantastic and turned out way better than I could have hoped for. I'll start with the stuff of the day and then get to the show in chronological order. I got a few cds in the mail in a couple packages (and one package had corresponding shirts). The cds: Christina Kubisch: Schall und Klang, Jocelyn Robert: The Maze, and Coil: Musick to Play in the Dark - Vol 2. The shirts: a Coil shirt with a big rainbow circle, and a Time Machines shirt (artwork that's similar but to what's on the cover of that album but modified a little). Okay, then after work I went and drove to meet Mary Beth in the park who was already there on a walk. We walked around a bit and it was very lovely out. Then back home to pack and get ready for the show!
I get there and Bing & Ruth had been there and setting up and sound checking but no one from the Hi Tone that set up the show or knew anything about the show was there. So they were confused and frustrated and didn't know what was going on until I got there. They were a little more reassured when I'd gotten there. They had almost been on the verge of cancelling. I let them know at least some people would be coming out (and I even let them know my lovely wife who was waiting outside was a fan and excited about the show...don't worry, not in an ingratiating way, just a fyi that it might not be as bad as it seems!). They went to eat and I set up. Jill arrived in time but JUST, so I was a little worried if she wasn't coming as I hadn't heard anything, but then she did and we got her set up! So yeah, window was first and was really good and really great to see her perform in person! She ended her set with an Aphex Twin remix, because well, sure enough, yesterday did happen to be April 14th! (So yes, it was that song!) Bing & Ruth were next and were really good too! They were a three in this configuration with organ, upright bass, and clarinet. They have a very Steve Reich-esque minimalist sound and it was lovely. I was last and did my thing, this time with a guitar. But uh, well. So the whole thing was built around myself playing one single muted chord (and "chord" is a bit generous, it did keep my fingers muting the strings in the same position, but it was a series of thuk!s) very infrequently with lots of pause between each hit. Actually, I was about to describe it but I'll be posting the music later so I'll let it speak for it self. Anyway, very minimal, percussive guitar run through the modular. I even attempted something I never do which is eye contact with the audience (I always look down at my stuff) given that there was a lot of empty space and awkward pauses, I thought it might be a good time to up that uncomfortable ante (I still looked down a lot as it's hard to break that, but I did look up at the audience SOME). As I was playing I could tell it was going well and was coming together better than even I'd practiced so I was happy about that. Also, setting up I was having some issues where some of the parts weren't coming through clearly and others were louder and I was a little worried but then everything came together pretty well and sounded balanced so I was happy with that. The audience even seemed to stay with me. I got a pretty warm response so that warmed my heart. Later Zachary posted that it was a top-five ever show (and I'm sure that's unintentional over-optimism mixed with proximity to the event, but still pretty flattering). After everything, I picked up some Bing & Ruth merch. I got a bunch of cds and a shirt. The cds are: Bing & Ruth: Species, Bing & Ruth: Tomorrow Was the Golden Age, Bing & Ruth: City Lake, and Bing & Ruth: No Home of the Mind.
After the show I talked to some people. Patrick who is the current band director at CBHS (I guess he's been that for like twenty years or so!) and who I was in high school band with at CBHS came, he's apparently friends with David who brought him out so that was cool. One thing we'd got to talking about is, well, the band had recordings up in office going back each year to 1948, but the Krepper (our director and the one who Patrick replaced) recordings were missing. Patrick had talked to him in the past and he'd said that he'd gotten rid of everything. But then after he died his sister contacted Patrick and let him know there were ALL these tapes and recordings. So he spent a summer copying it all and put it up on bandcamp and there's a bandcamp page for my high school band with recordings from 1948 to today. That's pretty fucking amazing. He also told me about a piece he wrote for the band to play over the internet during covid that uses asynchronous time cues and software to randomly highlight performers. That sounds awesome. Okay, but for now, I have to share this which was my senior solo (actually a duet with another senior percussionist). It's a battling drum thing. We had two drum kits on the stage and we were trading off and stuff. I was pretty floored at how it sounds. I mean, two simultaneous drum kits always sounds pretty awesome and then in a concert hall. Need to dig some more but there was some of the tympani shit I did junior year and that was pretty wonderful. Oh, I could also make a joke about it being a high school band performance and how bad it would be, but really, that's probably when I was at my peak of drumming abilities (maybe, I remember being pretty bad junior, at least on the kit, but maybe by senior year I was better, though John (my "sparring" partner was the better musician). Anyway, I do have to share this one.
I get there and Bing & Ruth had been there and setting up and sound checking but no one from the Hi Tone that set up the show or knew anything about the show was there. So they were confused and frustrated and didn't know what was going on until I got there. They were a little more reassured when I'd gotten there. They had almost been on the verge of cancelling. I let them know at least some people would be coming out (and I even let them know my lovely wife who was waiting outside was a fan and excited about the show...don't worry, not in an ingratiating way, just a fyi that it might not be as bad as it seems!). They went to eat and I set up. Jill arrived in time but JUST, so I was a little worried if she wasn't coming as I hadn't heard anything, but then she did and we got her set up! So yeah, window was first and was really good and really great to see her perform in person! She ended her set with an Aphex Twin remix, because well, sure enough, yesterday did happen to be April 14th! (So yes, it was that song!) Bing & Ruth were next and were really good too! They were a three in this configuration with organ, upright bass, and clarinet. They have a very Steve Reich-esque minimalist sound and it was lovely. I was last and did my thing, this time with a guitar. But uh, well. So the whole thing was built around myself playing one single muted chord (and "chord" is a bit generous, it did keep my fingers muting the strings in the same position, but it was a series of thuk!s) very infrequently with lots of pause between each hit. Actually, I was about to describe it but I'll be posting the music later so I'll let it speak for it self. Anyway, very minimal, percussive guitar run through the modular. I even attempted something I never do which is eye contact with the audience (I always look down at my stuff) given that there was a lot of empty space and awkward pauses, I thought it might be a good time to up that uncomfortable ante (I still looked down a lot as it's hard to break that, but I did look up at the audience SOME). As I was playing I could tell it was going well and was coming together better than even I'd practiced so I was happy about that. Also, setting up I was having some issues where some of the parts weren't coming through clearly and others were louder and I was a little worried but then everything came together pretty well and sounded balanced so I was happy with that. The audience even seemed to stay with me. I got a pretty warm response so that warmed my heart. Later Zachary posted that it was a top-five ever show (and I'm sure that's unintentional over-optimism mixed with proximity to the event, but still pretty flattering). After everything, I picked up some Bing & Ruth merch. I got a bunch of cds and a shirt. The cds are: Bing & Ruth: Species, Bing & Ruth: Tomorrow Was the Golden Age, Bing & Ruth: City Lake, and Bing & Ruth: No Home of the Mind.
After the show I talked to some people. Patrick who is the current band director at CBHS (I guess he's been that for like twenty years or so!) and who I was in high school band with at CBHS came, he's apparently friends with David who brought him out so that was cool. One thing we'd got to talking about is, well, the band had recordings up in office going back each year to 1948, but the Krepper (our director and the one who Patrick replaced) recordings were missing. Patrick had talked to him in the past and he'd said that he'd gotten rid of everything. But then after he died his sister contacted Patrick and let him know there were ALL these tapes and recordings. So he spent a summer copying it all and put it up on bandcamp and there's a bandcamp page for my high school band with recordings from 1948 to today. That's pretty fucking amazing. He also told me about a piece he wrote for the band to play over the internet during covid that uses asynchronous time cues and software to randomly highlight performers. That sounds awesome. Okay, but for now, I have to share this which was my senior solo (actually a duet with another senior percussionist). It's a battling drum thing. We had two drum kits on the stage and we were trading off and stuff. I was pretty floored at how it sounds. I mean, two simultaneous drum kits always sounds pretty awesome and then in a concert hall. Need to dig some more but there was some of the tympani shit I did junior year and that was pretty wonderful. Oh, I could also make a joke about it being a high school band performance and how bad it would be, but really, that's probably when I was at my peak of drumming abilities (maybe, I remember being pretty bad junior, at least on the kit, but maybe by senior year I was better, though John (my "sparring" partner was the better musician). Anyway, I do have to share this one.
