redlantern showcase @ next page pub

iwonder which one of my fingers will sue me next.
anyway. it was fun. and 2 of my songs' first + second public appearance respectively. in a pub. how awesome.
and exhausting.
good night.
yinky

"red lantern" auditions

tonight's event seriously warrants a blogpost.

ranked a little lower than the sikh centre experience and humanist gatherings, :p, this was definitely one of the strangest (+ most awesome) places we've played at.

firstly, the place looked like.. this.

i felt like i'd stepped into one of those channel8 ancient china tv drama sets.

secondly, i knew it was gonna be held in a bar, but it didn't really hit me till i told my aunt where i was gonna be playing today.. "i'm going to be playing in a bar... (did i say bar? oh my. a bar..wow.. what is she gonna think..)" 

it looked like a pretty placid performing space in the beginning, but once it got to like 930pm all these expatriates came trickling in, and by the time our friends soul2soul played, it was packed full of very tall, chatty, drinking men (+ a few women). 

besides, when it was their turn to play, all the guys lining the 'aisle' cheered for "sharon!" as she made her way through, like she was an old friend. it was pretty funny.

similarly, rach has this magnet in her that attracts strangers like kids to an icecream uncle :p (no double-meaning intended). they just seem to naturally gravitate toward her and vice-versa (i think). gibby (a loaned gibson) was a great talking point cuz alot of them just started talking abt how beautiful she (gibby.. or..) was. haha. so even before we were up on stage, she'd made like 5 friends in the audience (in all of 15 mins or so).. 

according to our sources, the audience was mesmerised (though from our p.o.v. it kinda looked the reverse, i.e. bored :) ).. and a few girls from the adjacent karaoke section came out to listen. the funniest part for me was just the incredibly enthusiastic + friendly expat crowd. and how rach was like a fish in water.. there was an extra-friendly dude who treated rach like his granddaughter or something when we came off stage.. along the lines of "i'm SO proud of you!!", going a tad overboard.. hahaha.. she did not take to that very well. i said i was sorry for not punching him back.

she's been wanting to play in clarke quay + i think tonight she got her wish. or at least the beginning of it.. :)

by the way, someone wished us "happy easter!" as we left! i thought that was pretty funny. nobody here (sg) ever wishes 'happy easter' and moreso not in a pub ;)

as for playing, my oh my. we were freakin' nervous + shaking. made some mistakes (maybe we shld get rid of that song in our future sets..) but with good originals, it don't matter too much. :)

please supplement, Cove.

this post has too many smilies.

gnite!

Red

highlights of ooom5

*people clapped for us!! (and listened!!) ok just exaggerating but it's the warmest response we've gotten ever :)

*wow, i can't ever get the solos 100% right during the actual event (i know it's quite stupid b/c i made them up myself + they are beyond me).. 

but some pple commented on my playing and really liked it so, yay! more than 50% correct notes.. :p anyway, that's pretty faithful to the phenomenon i experienced way back while playing classical music. tension and nerves cut down my hit-rate to like 75%...

*i was really impressed by the quality of the ooomers (for lack of better word)! really solid guitar skills and voices most of the time. call me biased but my favorite act was rach + syltra's KT Tunstall cover! they were so perfect.. much better than the original :p

*made a bunch of new friends (as usual)! learnt (as usual) that this is a crazy small world (probably 2 degrees of separation so far as s'pore is concerned).

*this is nuts. this is the stuff i dreamed for singapore to have in 2006. when i first met jon how @ the espl library cafe (SAC) i was really excited to c that he had open mic.. and then complained to him tt i didn't have anyone to sing with.. haha. and now, almost 3 yrs later...

 

*next up: singing 3 covers to RJ peeps next thurs! RJ!!!

lalala

Red

*scape prep

or is it "scape*"?

anywayy. rach has been invited to perform at the scape building (youth park, opp orchard cineleisure) this coming sat. i am ever so honored to be her partner-in-crime and incredibly psyched to play at orchard.. it's like my fav part of singapore. hands down.

we pracd at starbucks united sq just now.. it takes like 3-4 hrs to figure out one song leh.. such terribly hard work.. i've never had to prac guitar so hard in my life.. honestly.. never before have i been pressed to acquire such fingerwork skill and control of this instrument.. the fretboard still confuses me (capo makes it even more confusing) n intervals on the violin are tons easier..
i've stagnated for years (why do u need to improve if all u are really 'required' to play every sunday is 6 chords in 5 keys [with tons of overlap.. being a math grad i shld prolly know how to work that out systematically but i shan't try]?).
public gigs are a good thing. a real good thing.

i have yet to learn (it's prolly somewhere on youtube) how to play jazz organ style on keys (which i totally faked during the espl gig episode).. and i guess bluegrass violin.
haha.

see you at *scape, or scape*, or *scape*...
<3 red