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Looper's Delight
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I get the shakes too. A strange thing is that I have this strange bell curve when it comes to practice and the quality of my performances. If I practice too much, my performances tend to be more formulaic and predictable. If it's been months since I've touched my gear, I tend to forget the newer ideas and sounds I've developed. So no matter how much I've practiced, I always feel like it's the wrong amount. One of the nice and unintended bonuses about my drum machine rig (or anything else that audiences aren't already familiar with) is that abstractifies peoples' expectations of what they're going to hear. Most people I've encountered who have rigs that look like mine use them for harsh noise music. So, while I hope that each set will leave the ground and transport the listeners somewhere (figuratively), I find that on my worst gigs people still act excited that I made some coherent sounds. Wow, now that I wrote that down, it seems a little depressing - I do well because people have lower standards for me. :( Anyway, doing completely improvised sets comes with pluses and minuses. On one hand, you have faith in your ability to recover from mistakes and gear mishaps. On the other hand, you don't really have an net to fall back on if you're uninspired. Usually things work out in the end, but that situation where you're expected to start playing inspired music in a few minutes, and currently you're feeling pretty empty inside, can be pretty terrifying. -- Matt Davignon mattdavignon@gmail.com www.ribosomemusic.com Podcast! http://ribosomematt.podomatic.com Rigs! http://www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt