THE IMPROMPTUS' DEBUT...

Debut performance for The Impromptus last night at the Bay City Arts Center, and it was good. They were good. I got numerous comments later saying how good we sounded. We did:

Pole Dancing for Jesus (me)
Still the One (a Mutt Lange/Shania Twain song, by Candice)
Desperately Sinking Into the Sea (Kathryn)
Armadillo on the Interstate (me)

--and two more songs later on, because there weren’t many musicians left for the open mike: Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” (because we know it, and we could make sound engineer Jim Nelson sing it, and Candice could harmonize), and “Dead Things in the Shower” (which we’d also practiced). With luck, there will be both video and audio of the performance; Jim recorded it, and Charlie videotaped it, and I believe I can use my editing skills to extract out the pieces (assuming the “base” recordings came out good) as separate songs. That will give us the all-important marketing tools a band needs for soliciting gigs—we can answer the questions “What does it sound like?” and “What’s it like when these people are performing?”

And of course, one can post the videos on YouTube, and the audio recordings on an OMD like Soundclick or ReverbNation, and hope they “go viral.” They probably won’t—but the free downloads are a good, costless (the way we’re doing it) and relatively effortless way to generate fans (and maybe some performance-goers) in places one hadn’t expected.

One consequence of the performance is the two bandfolks who weren’t used to performing in public are now energized and anxious to do more of it. (I had hoped that would happen.) We’ve got another paying gig, in Ilwaco June 18 (Candice arranged it), and I think everybody’s in, and we’ll get to do a “preview” performance at the same venue (an old theater) on June 12, a week before.

It is important to jump on this stuff, I think. I have seen some folks telling friends about the Arts Center performance—we have a bit of a “buzz” going, in other words. So we quickly get the performance videos out, and the recording of the performance posted online and turned into a quick EP. I want somebody to take a photo of all of us—maybe we can do that at practice tonight—that I can turn into posters. One advantage independents have in the music business is we can move faster than the Big Boys. It’s an offset—maybe the only one—to the “Star-Maker Machinery” the Big Boys have and we don’t. But that immediacy has to be used to be effective.

“Pole Dancing for Jesus” has now been done in taverns, libraries, a tea shop and a comedy club, among other things, it’s been one of my “debut” songs for audiences that have never heard me before, and now it’s actually been performed by a band. It has been a hit each time. That’s a signal that it’s album material. Does that mean The Impromptus should be thinking about an album? Not yet; perform first, I think, and get a reputation. Or more of one. Besides, whatever I do has got to be done with no money.

Played guitar at The Dutchman (Tillamook) on Saturday (library didn’t have music) and the Tsunami (Wheeler) Thursday night, and in both cases, I think people liked what I did. Becoming a better guitarist is another item for the Worklist (and playing with The Impromptus is an opportunity to play lead), and the more practice I can get, the better. Years ago, I played some with an ad-hoc band that did a lot of Beatles covers, and they wanted me to be their John Lennon—and I decided he was a pretty good role model: competent rhythm guitarist who could sometimes play lead, and who could write real good.

The Deathgrass CDs should arrive this coming week. Tempting to say “I can’t wait.” But I obviously will. Lots of work to do with them once they get here.

Joe