Semi Live!

Everyone secretly wants to be a rock star, right? How else can you explain the success of "Guitar Hero?" I've been composing and playing music all my life, but taking it in front of an audience is another thing altogether. So I'm going to document my experiences entering the live music scene, triumphs and face-plants and all. If I don't do a good job learning from my mistakes, maybe someone else can!

This beauty has been the instrument of my dreams since I first began haunting music stores, back in the day where the local guitar shop clerk knew me as "The Girl With the Photographic Memory." That's because I used to stand in the aisle with the music books staring at chord progressions until I had them nailed into my brain, then run back across the street to my apartment to scrawl them down.

Semi live, because I love sequencing music. I love building crazy textures of sound and noise; maybe it's because I share at least a nationality with Skinny Puppy.

I've performed a lot in my life, on stage as an actor, singer, and dancer from an early age. But I've never done a solo gig with just my own songs.

I have a nice relationship with the owners of Cafe Taste in Toronto's up-and-coming Parkdale district, so I ask if I can book a show. I decide to play only original music. It's setting the bar maybe a little high, but hey - if I do it, then I'll know I can manage to entertain a crowd with my own stuff. Then I'll feel happy to add covers.

There's not a lot of lead time; I figure I've got about three dozen songs I can possibly perform. Even thinking about 7-9 songs per set for two sets, that's a lot of music to work up. Especially if I'm going to sequence anything on Logic to play along with.

Especially since I haven't a clue about how to use Logic, and have barely scratched the surface of how to use the TR either. I have only the most basic idea of how MIDI works either. Time to do some serious studying, and some even more serious playing.

Tick, tick, tick...

I set up two sets of my own songs -- including a couple of contingency pieces (you know, in case I get a standing "O" and everyone wants encores...) I've picked 17 pieces. That may be a little ambitious. But even if I end up doing fewer, I've at least got them under my belt.

I figure out which songs I'll do entirely live, and which I want to add some textures to.

I think I've finally got the MIDI thing figured out, at least enough to know when I'm bouncing data through to the TR and when it's being used inside Logic to control software instruments.

I'm pretty impressed with the software instruments in Logic! Not as good as playing with, say, a real bass player or drummer, but it's definitely a good step forward to be able to hear a more full band sound.

I also decide I'm going to play two songs on guitar, one with some keyboard sequenced in the background ("Green Lizards") and one solo ("Snowman").

Arrived a few hours early to drop off the equipment - two keyboards, amp, guitar, tamborine and djembe (just in case...)

Planned on using the Cafe's mics; needed two so I could amplify the guitar as well. This is really the scariest part for me. I have very little experience singing into a microphone and I'm kind of intimidated by the concept.

I've been practicing at home with a small mic, but I know it's going to be different when I'm up there.

To get over my nerves, I've been talking to friends who perform live, asking how they got used to getting up in front of an audience and what they had to over come.

Singer/songwriter Paul Price told me a story about performing for the first time in front of several thousand people at a squash match! You don't have much opportunity to be nervous when so many people are watching.

The terrific John Moore said he'd learned to get over his self-consciousness by performing for himself in a mirror. This helped me a lot. You can only watch yourself singing for so long before you're totally over worrying about how you look!

My gig was scheduled for after a wine tasting at the Cafe, so I had a big audience for my first set. I can't say all of them were listening, obviously, since they were there for something completely different.

For the second half, I had maybe 20 people stay which looked decent in the small space. I really found my rapport with them as the evening went on, and ended up laughing with the crowd a lot more than I expected.

I played nearly an hour in the first set, and about half that for the second. Dropped a couple of songs from the set and added in one of the contingency pieces instead, a wacky little piece I play entirely on my cheapy second-string keyboard.

Bill Towgood recorded the entire gig on video. We knew the audio would be bad, so I recorded it separately. Unfortunately, we had no sound check and I knew the mic wasn't in a particularly good place. Things to add to the list of "I'll do this better next time!"

Listening over the recording, I'm not happy with the vocals on really anything. I have a long way to go with being loose enough on stage to sound as good as I know I can, as good as I do in rehearsal.

The playing sounds better than I'd anticipated, and I'm so glad I did the two bits on guitar!

The best part of the evening was the feeling that for the first time in my life, I'd done something entirely satisfying. I can't wait to get you there and play again.