Day 233
Thursday, April 26, 2007
As Charlie and I let cords sag gently to the ground and tucked guitars into their cases for the night, I smiled. We were to play music in front of an audience in less than two days and--for the first time in my life--I felt more excited than anxious.
If I listed every time I've performed music in front of people--be it in concert band, singing with the Genevans, playing by myself at a 'coffee house,' or being in the background in a rock band--I could go down the list and put a little tick "was nervous" by each item. I can easily recall the mixture of dread and anticipation I would get after the intermission at the jazz band concert, knowing my trumpet solo was right around the corner; or the shakes I got as I sat down in front of a crowd of people in McKee's lounge, hand twitching on the borrowed guitar's fretboard; or the dry mouth I had to water before countless Genevans events.
So that scales in my brain have tipped in favorite of "excitement" (leaving "nervousness" to sway slowly as it rises). I think the closest I've come before to this state was when I played guitar for Rochester's musical; the first performance I was a wreck (four-piece band, 400 member audience, guitar solo--shuddershuddershudder), the last I was in floating in a strange calm.
This calm could be stemming from the fact that Charlie is such a talented musician, or that I'm finally pretty confident in my ability to play guitar and sing. Or that though we're only doing eight songs (all but one covers), we have a pretty great selection. I think the two we're closing with are particularly stunning--I wish Keith could attend, since he has some attachment to both.
As we left our gear in Charlie's basement and climbed the stairs, I looked back one more time and smiled again. We would do a good job, nervous or not. And more importantly, we were going to have a whole lot of fun.
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 4/26/2007 10:55:00 PM,
1 Comments:
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At 10:34 AM,
Al said...
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I wish that I could be there, I am sure the whole evening will be wonderful and most of all, really fun.
I'll listen from afar.
