Mojo - 13 Aug 2010

Was it something I said?

These falling leaves

Kia tatari mou

I told you brother

The old man and the sea

City streets

Oh my

Not my best show. Some good high points still, 'City Streets' went well, funnily enough it was the song I was most worried about beforehand as it has such a high verse & I can usually hide behind the band. However the song's strong enough to cope with no backing & once I got in the swing of things the uniqueness of the song makes it part of it's appeal. The other song that went over well was 'I told you brother', I was completely relaxed by the time I played it so smoked the slide parts. It was gratifying to play it the way I know it can be played. Otherwise there were a couple of cringe moments, 'these falling leaves', a new track about environmental disaster that I haven't put lyrics to yet & therefore played as an instrumental & 'oh my' both lost me listeners. I knew as soon as I started playing them that I'd made the wrong song choice but it was too late so I soldiered through & finished them both. Overall I'd give the gig a 5/10. I've been replaying it in my head ever since & keep coming back to what a wasted opportunity a gig is if you're not winning new fans. I was talking to Ange about it & if you're not impressing people you're losing them & that's definately how I feel about this show. Some things I learnt:

• If I need to stop a gig to get equipment, just do it. After opening with 'Was it something I said?', I felt 'Portrait' would be a good second song, with the harmonica part, but I'd forgotten to get it out of my bag before I started so would've needed to stop everything to get it. In hindsight I should've because as I suspected 'these falling leaves' just didn't keep peoples interest.
• I need more world class songs. I've decided to forget about Pisces for now & completely focus on my solo performance. I believe I can still put on memorable & engaging performances as a solo act but I need about 5 more great songs. World class songs that are able to silence a loud crowd. It can be done, here's two basic acoustic tracks which show what can be done with just an acoustic guitar & a great song. This is my challenge for the rest of the year, to write 5 great songs. Simplicity, that's what I'm going for.

My goals from here to the end of the year are: Finish the Pisces album & develop my solo show's to a very high level, which means great songs.