I also brought my latest toy, my new camcorder, to try and document this experience. When the time came, however, for me to go up and sing I felt a bit weird setting up the tripod to record myself. It felt a bit vain even for me. I told myself that not everything in my life needs to be documented in order to be valid, and that the people in that room and I would remember and appreciate my performance without any video.
I started with a song called Something Vague by Bright Eyes. It sounded all right I suppose. I was a bit stiff and was just warming up. I followed with Father and Son by Cat Stevens. This was the best song I did all night. I think it sounded pretty good, and looking back I am kicking myself for not ignoring my self-consciousness and recording the damn thing. Anyway, a teacher from the other school came up and harmonized the end part without my prior knowledge and it felt good. I am pretty sure we sounded tight.
Next I sang Biggest Lie by Elliot Smith. This one wasn’t that great, my voice wavered and I think I was out of tune for most of it. This faltering is when things went wrong. I tried to do Needle in the Hey also by Smith and the wheels came off somewhere in the middle of the song. I stopped and walked off the stage.
Despite the meltdown, I felt good about the Father and Son number. I wish I had it for you to see. Maybe I will do an in house video soon. As always, the more I play the more I enjoy it. In the meantime, here is a short clip of some of the really talented people who were there. Although he kind of looks like me in the dark, the first guy is not me. My camera ran out of batteries earlier and this was all I could record…
I used to love going to open mic nights. I have such a fear of speaking in front of a crowd - and well, I can't sing to save my life. So just reading about this kind of made me nervous.
ReplyDeleteThat is so AWESOME (and I HATE that word) that you got up there and did that!! No, everything doesn't have to be documented to be valid.. but I kinda wish you had a clip of the Cat Stevens number. That's one of my mother's favorite artists. Her favorite song is The Wind - I can't hear it without crying, especially lately.
You made it through two numbers perfectly - that's great! I'm sure it will only get easier. What a great new way for you to express your artistic side. You're constantly finding ways to do that. That's one of the things I really like about coming here. It's very inspirational.