Mike's US Tour '08 (Part 3: Contata)
Jun. 28th, 2008 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleetfootmikeFollowing on from parts 1 & 2...
Backtracking a shade, as this belongs more in filk than geek...
Arrived WAY early at O'Hare, saving $25 by sharing a cab. Made up for it by being picked up and dragged off to a Steak and Shake for lunch by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gundo, before being delivered back in time for the flight. It may surprise those who know us to discover that it took us 45 mins before the conversation turned to guitars. Or possibly not, given that we talked sysadminly stuff for those 45 mins.
The flight that made up ours was late arriving, but I still made it to Newark on time, to be met bydan_k_nj at baggage reclaim, and thence to his place via a rather fine ribs restaurant. Spent the evening chilling and drinking beer, followed by a atypically comfy night's sleep.
Spent the morning trying to burn CDs for the Interfilk auction (as Interfilk's first ever guest (to Consonance '92), I feel a certain obligation to do my bit towards it...), gave up since my MacBook Pro just plain didn't like any of the media Dan or I could find to feed it. Lunch at an NJ diner, and thence to Contata via the Apple Store and elsewhere for more CDs!
Arrived at Contata to be immediately grabbed by the siren lure of an unassembled PA rig, overseen byhms42, sounddude and jslove. I can't help it! I'm a techie at heart!
Sat in the back ofstarmalachite's Filk Oldies concert, listening while burning Interfilk CDs (worked this time!). Wandered for a bit, caught Larry Kirby's set (fun, as ever... the man is delightfully warped) and then joined in with the Celebration of Life circle, into which I think "Three Days Away" fitted very nicely (with the loan of dvtune's Guild, which is almost as nice as billroper's). That turned into a filk circle with several outbreaks of runaway followers (including a great run of D&D filks), later enhanced by the arrival of Interfilk guests markiv1111 and partner. On a general note? I find it really odd having to borrow guitars. I'm so used to having one on my lap so I can join in/noodle/take a turn in a chaos circle without having to ask to borrow one.
Eventually turned in about 2am.
Up and at 'em! Breakfasted inmamadeb's awesome consuite (caffeine! carbs! protein!), then caught the end of Heather and Ben's (and guests) kids concert (having taken delivery of the Mongol-posted CDs from Anne and passed them on to jerusha). osewalrus tells a fantastic story.
Brunch break (Subway delivered by the amazingpersis-Techie-Refuelling-Service) while planning my set and getting nabbed by a massed horde of vocalists to practice Rocket Ride. Snuck on stage to set up for my set, and rig filkerdave's Les Paul for the latter.
I have to say? Loved the acoustics in the main room! Set list was (IIRC) All That I Have Known, Childhood's End, Halfway There, Jack, Cassandra, Leviathan's Farewell, Three Days Away. After seeing how the room acoustics muddied All That I Have Known very slightly, I dropped Lily Of Barbary (fast and thrashy) in favour of more sparse and bare stuff, which fitted the room's acoustic perfectly. Halfway There in particular (IMO) went very well onedstauff's piano (sorry, maverick_weirdo), and I was feeling confident enough of the room and audience (and rightly so, as it turned out) to risk a repeat chorus of Three Days Away a capella.
After that? Time for the Tom Smith benefit concert, MCed by Christine Lavin. Some awesome versions of his stuff (the rap Domino Death in particular blew me away, as didpartiallyclips's bare and beautiful take on A Boy And His Frog. And then we rocked 'em with Rocket Ride, before Christine took the stage to lead everyone in a version of Tom Paxton's Peace Will Come, with both Toms (Smith and Paxton) listening on the phone. Awesome stuff. I was buzzing for several hours afterwards.
From there, on toorawnzva's excellent set (note to UK filkdom - YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS MAN!), and then...
Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps main concert was just awesome. I've heard, and liked, her albums, but her live work is just fantastic... and I'm a total sucker for piano ballads, and the lady writes such damn good ones. That and Ben's guitar work blows my mind, with loads of interesting partial capoings (despite him suffering from an Imported English Cold).
Grabbed some time during supper to rehearse our hat band (me,edstauff, dvtune and Virginia whose LJ name failed to surface if she has one! doing Jordin Kare's Heart Of The Apple Lisa).
Interfilk auction after supper - pleased to have raised over $200 with my andbardling's donations. And then markiv1111 and partner Louie's set. I first saw Nate at a Minicon in the early 2000s with bedlamhouse and ladyat, and was blown away. Nothing's changed. :)
After that, we had the hysterically funnysingingpatient, who it's great to see up and active... her partner's a scary scary guitarist, too.
Late night filk circle in the alternative room, a lot of jamming (onredaxe's Red Axe) with folkmew, edstauff, markiv1111 and Louie (and anyone else who'd let me). I can't help it, I'm a compulsive noodler. One of the two personal highspots of the con for me was markiv1111 leaning over to tell me he considered me a musician, not just a guitarist, which coming from him is humbling praise indeed.
Up and breakfast... BAGELS! Proper bagels. Ruined my taste for the tat we get in the UK now, you have,mamadeb! I spent a LOT of the morning in the corner of a spare filk room, noodling on one of Ben's partial capoings (cheater's DADGAD - tune to drop D, capo the low 4 strings at the second fret). Still failed to come up with a tune for This Is My Land that isn't trite and lame, but have two or three nice riffs in that tuning now.
Survived the hat band :) I personally thought I sucked (even if my bandmates didn't suck), but no-one seemed to notice.
Sassafrass were fantastic - close harmony filk. (Note to UK folks - see comments reorawnzva above!). Then got nabbed by folkmew and edstauff to sit in on their short set (along with Heather and Ben). That was just plain fun, and folks seemed to like it - my other con highspot there was Ben leaning over after we'd done Crazy Man Michael to say 'We're like Pentangle, but fun!.
Out for food with a mass of folks to an Applebees whose food was great and service shoddy, thence back for the Dead Apple filk. It really took me a while to settle into this one... it spent a long time being a very a capella/funny/rousing circle, and I was kind of not in that musical headspace for several hours. Did in the end find the right end of the songbook, and we carried on till gone 2am...
Decamped to the hotel lobby, to wait for my 4am shuttle to Newark and thence home. Actually PAID for exit row in the hope I'd get some sleep.
Thanks toredaxe, dvtune and gorgeousgary for loan of guitars, and to ladymondegreen for letting me have a concert set! I had a BALL!
Next time, though? Bringing my own guitar!
Backtracking a shade, as this belongs more in filk than geek...
Thu 19 Jun
Arrived WAY early at O'Hare, saving $25 by sharing a cab. Made up for it by being picked up and dragged off to a Steak and Shake for lunch by
gundo, before being delivered back in time for the flight. It may surprise those who know us to discover that it took us 45 mins before the conversation turned to guitars. Or possibly not, given that we talked sysadminly stuff for those 45 mins.The flight that made up ours was late arriving, but I still made it to Newark on time, to be met by
dan_k_nj at baggage reclaim, and thence to his place via a rather fine ribs restaurant. Spent the evening chilling and drinking beer, followed by a atypically comfy night's sleep.Fri 20 Jun
Spent the morning trying to burn CDs for the Interfilk auction (as Interfilk's first ever guest (to Consonance '92), I feel a certain obligation to do my bit towards it...), gave up since my MacBook Pro just plain didn't like any of the media Dan or I could find to feed it. Lunch at an NJ diner, and thence to Contata via the Apple Store and elsewhere for more CDs!
Arrived at Contata to be immediately grabbed by the siren lure of an unassembled PA rig, overseen by
hms42, sounddude and jslove. I can't help it! I'm a techie at heart!Sat in the back of
starmalachite's Filk Oldies concert, listening while burning Interfilk CDs (worked this time!). Wandered for a bit, caught Larry Kirby's set (fun, as ever... the man is delightfully warped) and then joined in with the Celebration of Life circle, into which I think "Three Days Away" fitted very nicely (with the loan of dvtune's Guild, which is almost as nice as billroper's). That turned into a filk circle with several outbreaks of runaway followers (including a great run of D&D filks), later enhanced by the arrival of Interfilk guests markiv1111 and partner. On a general note? I find it really odd having to borrow guitars. I'm so used to having one on my lap so I can join in/noodle/take a turn in a chaos circle without having to ask to borrow one.Eventually turned in about 2am.
Sat 21 Jun
Up and at 'em! Breakfasted in
mamadeb's awesome consuite (caffeine! carbs! protein!), then caught the end of Heather and Ben's (and guests) kids concert (having taken delivery of the Mongol-posted CDs from Anne and passed them on to jerusha). osewalrus tells a fantastic story.Brunch break (Subway delivered by the amazing
persis-Techie-Refuelling-Service) while planning my set and getting nabbed by a massed horde of vocalists to practice Rocket Ride. Snuck on stage to set up for my set, and rig filkerdave's Les Paul for the latter.I have to say? Loved the acoustics in the main room! Set list was (IIRC) All That I Have Known, Childhood's End, Halfway There, Jack, Cassandra, Leviathan's Farewell, Three Days Away. After seeing how the room acoustics muddied All That I Have Known very slightly, I dropped Lily Of Barbary (fast and thrashy) in favour of more sparse and bare stuff, which fitted the room's acoustic perfectly. Halfway There in particular (IMO) went very well on
edstauff's piano (sorry, maverick_weirdo), and I was feeling confident enough of the room and audience (and rightly so, as it turned out) to risk a repeat chorus of Three Days Away a capella. After that? Time for the Tom Smith benefit concert, MCed by Christine Lavin. Some awesome versions of his stuff (the rap Domino Death in particular blew me away, as did
partiallyclips's bare and beautiful take on A Boy And His Frog. And then we rocked 'em with Rocket Ride, before Christine took the stage to lead everyone in a version of Tom Paxton's Peace Will Come, with both Toms (Smith and Paxton) listening on the phone. Awesome stuff. I was buzzing for several hours afterwards.From there, on to
orawnzva's excellent set (note to UK filkdom - YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS MAN!), and then...Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps main concert was just awesome. I've heard, and liked, her albums, but her live work is just fantastic... and I'm a total sucker for piano ballads, and the lady writes such damn good ones. That and Ben's guitar work blows my mind, with loads of interesting partial capoings (despite him suffering from an Imported English Cold).
Grabbed some time during supper to rehearse our hat band (me,
edstauff, dvtune and Virginia whose LJ name failed to surface if she has one! doing Jordin Kare's Heart Of The Apple Lisa).Interfilk auction after supper - pleased to have raised over $200 with my and
bardling's donations. And then markiv1111 and partner Louie's set. I first saw Nate at a Minicon in the early 2000s with bedlamhouse and ladyat, and was blown away. Nothing's changed. :) After that, we had the hysterically funny
singingpatient, who it's great to see up and active... her partner's a scary scary guitarist, too.Late night filk circle in the alternative room, a lot of jamming (on
redaxe's Red Axe) with folkmew, edstauff, markiv1111 and Louie (and anyone else who'd let me). I can't help it, I'm a compulsive noodler. One of the two personal highspots of the con for me was markiv1111 leaning over to tell me he considered me a musician, not just a guitarist, which coming from him is humbling praise indeed.Sun 22 Jun
Up and breakfast... BAGELS! Proper bagels. Ruined my taste for the tat we get in the UK now, you have,
mamadeb! I spent a LOT of the morning in the corner of a spare filk room, noodling on one of Ben's partial capoings (cheater's DADGAD - tune to drop D, capo the low 4 strings at the second fret). Still failed to come up with a tune for This Is My Land that isn't trite and lame, but have two or three nice riffs in that tuning now. Survived the hat band :) I personally thought I sucked (even if my bandmates didn't suck), but no-one seemed to notice.
Sassafrass were fantastic - close harmony filk. (Note to UK folks - see comments re
orawnzva above!). Then got nabbed by folkmew and edstauff to sit in on their short set (along with Heather and Ben). That was just plain fun, and folks seemed to like it - my other con highspot there was Ben leaning over after we'd done Crazy Man Michael to say 'We're like Pentangle, but fun!. Out for food with a mass of folks to an Applebees whose food was great and service shoddy, thence back for the Dead Apple filk. It really took me a while to settle into this one... it spent a long time being a very a capella/funny/rousing circle, and I was kind of not in that musical headspace for several hours. Did in the end find the right end of the songbook, and we carried on till gone 2am...
Mon 23 Jun
Decamped to the hotel lobby, to wait for my 4am shuttle to Newark and thence home. Actually PAID for exit row in the hope I'd get some sleep.
Thanks to
redaxe, dvtune and gorgeousgary for loan of guitars, and to ladymondegreen for letting me have a concert set! I had a BALL!Next time, though? Bringing my own guitar!
