GCNE/CoFD gig at Third Life

Friday: Had a bit of extra sleep. Much needed. Up, web, shower, cats. Down basement. Wrote up a set list. Practiced some guitar. Packed the car, somehow managing to fit all my gear in around Shawn's drums. Headed out. A lovely day, so drove the long way around.

In at the office, I hadn't looked deeply enough into some misleading code that Al had written. Mostly got the IO code I've been working on going. There was some tension around the burning issue of two-machine debugging that I overheard, but did not partake in. Engineers are an odd lot sometimes. Took a walk out and got a burrito, which I ate at my desk.

Left around 5:50, arriving in Union Square at 6:07. The gathering of the troops. Martin hadn't gotten my message about the speakers, so back to my house to get mine. My mom showed up, having taken a cab from the train station. Things, of course, took longer setting up than anticipated, so we were still sound-checking at ten minutes to show-time.

Surprisingly, we had an audience. About 20 people. It's nice when the guitar circle doesn't outnumber those listening. Plenty of gaffs, but no train-wrecks. Lodestone proved a challenge, as anticipated. In some ways performance is entirely about the control of the body energy, balancing the juice of excitement with the centered-ness of attention. I found that I was able to hold that line fairly well, pay some mind to the faces before me, and my connection to the rest of the players. The two set format worked OK, but there was some energy lost in the middle. I felt quite blessed to be in the midst of this group of people.

Packing up, saying goodbyes and thanks. Jme stayed after to hang with Victor. My mom got a ride back to our place with MB. Back home, unloading. Eating left-overs, talking to MB and mom around the dinner table. Then they off to bed, and soon me down basement.