Live music has really suffered during the current pandemic with lockdowns and physical distancing making a lot of it non-viable. I have been lucky to have been able to get together with friend to jam outside and do some busking for fun. There have also been on-line 'open mic' sessions for our local set of musicians. Although I have been playing music for a long time I have not done many actual gigs. In my duo @swing47 I got to play the festival in Baldock last year. This week I heard that we had been offered a gig at The Angel's Share in Hitchin. This is a tapas bar with Indian food and a large whisky selection. They also host a lot of live music.
We were booked as the support act for a singer, so we were on fairly early. As we set up around 6pm people were already arriving to get a drink. We were offered drinks by the staff too.
I do not have any pictures from tonight. This was a year ago, but I did wear the same shirt.
We were playing outside the bar, but they set up some plastic screens to make it cosy and even have heaters. It is sited in an arcade and there is plenty of space for people to spread out. We started playing an more people rolled in. I was surprised how busy it was, but then I have not been out many evenings. Bars have to close by 10pm, so people may get out earlier.
We did a selection of songs we have done many times. These are mostly from the 1920s to 1950s, but we have some more modern tunes such as the Cantina Band from Star Wars that go down well. I was playing my Taylor acoustic and Tanglewood ukulele as well as singing. My partner Danielle plays the clarinet. She has a little battery powered PA system that is good for busking and small gigs like this.
People seemed to appreciate the music and we got a few nice comments. The bar owner said he would have us back any time. We even got paid, but I will not be giving up the day job. We would have stayed to hear the main act, but we had our online open mic and had to get back for that. I had recorded a couple of songs for that this afternoon, so it has been a busy day music-wise.
It would have been good to get a recording of our set, but nobody was available to do this. You can hear some of our tunes on Soundcloud.
I would like to do more gigs, but my medical issues with my right hand make it hard for me to play for very long. I also need to work on my singing as my voice struggled a bit in the later songs. It is a good thing we do plenty of instrumentals. I need to learn to sing more efficiently or something.
Please support musicians where you can. There are a fair few on Hive and they will appreciate your votes. We need to encourage more to join up so they can share the benefits. I am sure they would like the extra income.
Have a great weekend.
We have a place in one of the local parks that bands could play, but there hasn't been an event there for a while that I can remember. Now would be a great time for those the city to host these types of events at the local park.
There are still possibilities for performance if local rules allow it. People need to get out there and play if they can. I just don't expect to see people packed into venues like we were doing before 'all this'.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Why so down in the mouth?, you need to smile more when playing.., earn extra Starbits that way!
I'm generally concentrating, but I should think about smiling. Need to get a pic when I'm singing. This was a different mission as I have done licenced busking and small festival. Rising Star needs some way to let you do real life missions.
Haha, good one :-)
I've been really down on myelf the last couple days after putting my back out. I can't play for more than 20 minutes at a time without it killing me. I can related to not being able to play for long periods of time.
The local music scene here is really hurting too. So many full time musicians out of work right now. It's a tough game to begin with, then having to deal with this lockdown business. Just crazy!
That's great you got out to play though. You still got your local open mic at the pub? Sounds you like you had a good time busking though. Rock on!
It's frustrating when you can't do stuff you want to do. My issues with my right hand are annoying as I can't play for very long. We do have another gig at that bar this weekend though.
The pub stuff has not happened in a long while as it just isn't viable. We do online sessions where people play songs live or they record a video. Some people are getting fancy by playing multiple parts and editing it all together.
That is great that you were able to get out and do some playing. I saw a show on TV last night that made me think of you. It was on PBS and called David Holt: The state of music. It seemed to be a regular show with several seasons. I think you can check some of the episodes out on YouTube.
I'll look up the David Holt thing. I have seen some episodes of this series on Netflix. This is the sort of documentary I like.
Very cool! There is a new(er) show on TV called song land where they focus on songwriters. I think it is really cool to see how a song evolves.
You need to do more Basic Singing Lessons. They will give you more eXperience Points.😁
I had a few singing lessons a while back that taught me I had more of a range than I thought. I got somewhere as I feel confident enough to sing in front of strangers. Maybe I got some XP along the way.
Always fun to follow your posts especially these music ones - hope the event was worth financially as well and you enjoy a bit of the Whiskey .-)?
Well it paid for the parking and fuel :)
That is good, now depending on distance and parking space prizes, if like Munich airport garage it was a decent salary then :-)
Our costs were not too bad, but when you consider all the equipment we have it would take a long time to pay for that. We are playing for fun, so the money is just a bonus.
well said, it is like an investment into Hive. However I am not sure which investment i would trust more :-)
Not everything can be judged in financial terms. Enjoyment can be worth a lot. You only get so much time to live and so should maximise the good times.
true - coming back to Hive - do you see any increased enjoyment following the move from Steem just seeing the content platform?
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I think here in Mongolia we might be one of the very few places where musicians, comedians, and theater acts can do gigs without any restrictions (or risk). But even so, I'm betting a lot of local acts here are struggling; public events were closed down for several months early this year as a precautionary measure, and the bad economy is taking its own toll. But still there are many who are getting by and doing their thing, so my wife and her mom had the opportunity to see a play just a couple nights ago.