Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.

[vostoklake]

The Classic Theatre are pushing me towards the big time. I'm graduating from the Monday night "perform for free to a half-empty room" gigs to the Wednesday night "play for a glass of beer to a full room of grumpy people" gigs. My associates think I'm holding my own. Although I think tonight there were a few too many people who were scandalised rather than amused by the AC/DC cover.

I am thinking increasingly that what I do is kind of "electro-folk" rather than synth-pop, because it really is based on the words and holding people's attention with those. The synth and backing tracks are simply the 21st century equivalent of the acoustic guitar of a bygone, simpler era. This will determine the kind of gigs I look for for my full-length performances (i.e. those containing the songs which aren't actually funny). At the comedy gigs, audience reaction ranges from the loudly appreciative to the puzzled but intrigued - not the apathy that I often get at musical gigs - precisely because they came there to listen to words. A musical gig, on the other hand, will be mainly people who want to drink and chat with their mates and perhaps rock out to a simple, heavy beat. The heavy energy that I put into every performance also seems to go across better to people who wanted to be jolted out of their comfort zones a bit - which, once again, the comedy crowd do better than the musical crowd.

But this also means that I do have to start taking more care with my lyrics, and making sure that I'm writing stuff that is actually meaningful to more people than me and a couple of nerds. (F'rinstance, I am coming to appreciate just how few people have heard of Aleister freakin' Crowley!) Also, I think I am working at cross-purposes with myself a little bit, in that I want people to be listening intently and appreciating the words at the same time as rocking out to my prog-electro beats. It should be possible - people go to dance to folk music gigs, don't they? But it's a bit different when people simply aren't used to seeing anything on stage like me. In any case, "techno-folk for the 21st century" is an artform which will take more honing and serious consideration.

Happy birthday, doctorcal.

Comments

[calenturian.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

I owe you an e-mail, but I will say here that (a) I admire your professionalism, and (b) an electro-folk AC/DC cover sounds tops.

(and (c) surely everyone in the world knows who Aleister Crowley is! I cannot believe otherwise.)

[laputain.livejournal.com]

Amazingly enough, not everyone is fascinated with the pop occult. In my music as in my politics, I begin to realise that I lived in a bubble for the last fifteen years. :) But on Wednesday night, the one person who seemed to recognize the name was apparently shaking with mirth all evening, so some success.

The only problem now is that Raewyn is at the vet keyboard repair shop - I went a bit far in my Angus Youngisms and broke a key. She's actually been due for a service for years, but... well, you'd be terrified to take your beloved 17-year-old dog to the vet because they might not come back. Same situation.