Sonic nirvana
do you play live music to indulge yourself or to please the crowd?
25 minutes of spinal tap's jazz odyssey for the love of the avant garde or a setlist of maroon 5's and linkin parks?
we were asked by james if we could play some music during dinner at the 2003 summer MASSOC ball. at this time, there was imran, firr, riki and myself left in sheffield. and as this was a formal evening, the setlist had to be mellowed down. way down.
so sod the belief in rock and throw in some R&B. we didn't go that far, to tell you the truth.
we called ourselves desperados, and believe it or not, not a single eagles song was included in the setlist. mellow? we included alice in chains' nutshell and pearl jam's sometimes. what a way to start off, especially when people are just tucking into their appetisers.
we practised for like two times if i can remember (i was doing a john lennon) at firr's house. whilst at yoko's, i practised on my own. since we've played together for so long now, we simply gelled on the first take. easy.
the formula for a good band, i must say, is the band in its entirety. every tom, dick and harry (and yours truly is indeed guilty of this) plays the guitar. it's fair enough as the guitar is an instrument that is piss easy to pick up and you can play it solo. drums are antisocially loud and expensive. the bass guitar gives out low boomy notes and not much else. and both instruments would sound so much better in a band. and how many people out there that are in bands? thus we see a smaller number of people who have interest in this unpopular yet important instruments.
the band won't sound good if the guitarist plays like eric johnson but the rhythm section can't keep the beat. nor would it be good if the instruments were played tight yet the vocals sound like a wailing hound from hell. all the band needs are the instruments to be in tune, played in time, and most importantly, to have the song to be sung well.
in my limited years of performing with friends, i have to say the gig we played as desperados was the best one i've ever experienced. both imran and riki sung superbly. this was the first band i was in that had vocal harmonies. the songs simple yet perfectly executed. without any stress. people say chemistry is rare and i daresay i now know what it feels like.
the mellowed down set, which included imagine, cloud number 9, in my place and imran's self-penned floodgates and transistors, was just a breeze. with people enjoying their food, we weren't under any pressure to perform. we just took our time. bliss.
we may have been paid a doner kebab with chips and coke each, and didn't have to play a million notes a second to impress, yet we found sonic nirwana.
have you?
____________________________________
whilst not playing diagnostician, kudo plays bass in maniacs, eats noodles and fervently buys gear on e-Bay.
25 minutes of spinal tap's jazz odyssey for the love of the avant garde or a setlist of maroon 5's and linkin parks?
we were asked by james if we could play some music during dinner at the 2003 summer MASSOC ball. at this time, there was imran, firr, riki and myself left in sheffield. and as this was a formal evening, the setlist had to be mellowed down. way down.
so sod the belief in rock and throw in some R&B. we didn't go that far, to tell you the truth.
we called ourselves desperados, and believe it or not, not a single eagles song was included in the setlist. mellow? we included alice in chains' nutshell and pearl jam's sometimes. what a way to start off, especially when people are just tucking into their appetisers.
we practised for like two times if i can remember (i was doing a john lennon) at firr's house. whilst at yoko's, i practised on my own. since we've played together for so long now, we simply gelled on the first take. easy.
the formula for a good band, i must say, is the band in its entirety. every tom, dick and harry (and yours truly is indeed guilty of this) plays the guitar. it's fair enough as the guitar is an instrument that is piss easy to pick up and you can play it solo. drums are antisocially loud and expensive. the bass guitar gives out low boomy notes and not much else. and both instruments would sound so much better in a band. and how many people out there that are in bands? thus we see a smaller number of people who have interest in this unpopular yet important instruments.
the band won't sound good if the guitarist plays like eric johnson but the rhythm section can't keep the beat. nor would it be good if the instruments were played tight yet the vocals sound like a wailing hound from hell. all the band needs are the instruments to be in tune, played in time, and most importantly, to have the song to be sung well.
in my limited years of performing with friends, i have to say the gig we played as desperados was the best one i've ever experienced. both imran and riki sung superbly. this was the first band i was in that had vocal harmonies. the songs simple yet perfectly executed. without any stress. people say chemistry is rare and i daresay i now know what it feels like.
the mellowed down set, which included imagine, cloud number 9, in my place and imran's self-penned floodgates and transistors, was just a breeze. with people enjoying their food, we weren't under any pressure to perform. we just took our time. bliss.
we may have been paid a doner kebab with chips and coke each, and didn't have to play a million notes a second to impress, yet we found sonic nirwana.
have you?
____________________________________
whilst not playing diagnostician, kudo plays bass in maniacs, eats noodles and fervently buys gear on e-Bay.
posted by gigmaster at 17:37
1 Comments:
Seriously. That was the best gig lah. No encore, no groupies (hahaha... macam lah pernah ada!), I don't think many even appreciated what we did/played. But just the satisfaction of knowing that we did justice to ourselves, as our own biggest critics, eh?
Thanks for the experience.
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