I decided to get out of Dodge for the evening and headed to Macungie for the Listen Live monthly open mike. An interesting night. Lots of young folk (14 yr old girl, 17 and 20 yr old guys) who are on their way as players and songwriters. Nice to see.
Recognizing the role of OM’s in community-building music, it’s still a little painful to hear some of the raw stuff. I am simply spoiled when it comes to listening to live music, especially with the consistency of the Godfrey’s OM. I am so lucky to be amongst the folks at the GD OM. Period.
I went towards the end due to my late arrival, and looked forward to playing ‘Lessons from Pete’. It’s still not down and I was approaching the magical ‘play it five times in front of a live audience’ benchmark with the song. So I led off with it and pretty much nailed it (I’d give it a 90%) and it felt good to be able to pull it off with relatively little sweat. It made the evening worth it.
I followed with ‘Shoo that Fly’, a relatively automatic tune that kicks, especially in a folk situation. I am still amazed how tentative audiences are in singing along and how seldom they are asked to participate. I’m sure there are cultural reasons for this – TV, screen selectivity, etc. I actually stopped and said, “That was pitiful.” I realized I have a habit of pointing these things out in the moment and it’s probably not a great performance device. But I find it necessary to do it, just for that effect.
A good night. I left my parking lights on and I didn’t need a jump at the end of the evening. Good Carma!.