Venue: The Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Date: 16/06/12
Audience: Very packed, very nice
Set: First half - Take Me Home, Keep The Car Running, What You Know, Safe From Harm, Fake Empire, Illuminated, Pull My Heart Away, Guide My Feet, Take Your Mama, You Are My World; Second half - Noches/Whirl/Puirt, Charlie Darwin, I Wanna Life, Sweet Disposition, Undertow, Empty Room, Tonight We Fly, Your Own Spell, November, Glosoli, Beautiful Child, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, Encore - One Day Like This
Notes: Well. I've been delaying writing this one for a day or so because I just don't know where to start. I call myself a writer but it's near impossible to put into words the huge range of emotions of Saturday. I'll have a go. Actually, this morning is probably a good starting point, when I went to pick up my drums from the venue having left them there after the show so I could get drunk with good friends at the aftershow party (I often refer to my drums as 'my babies', in this case I was probably a crap father) and had a brief but nice chat to Andrea - our leader, our genius, the woman behind all of this. She explained to me that perhaps we should just rely on the audience, maybe the audience were right after all - they must be; they pay to watch this and they were ecstatic by the end. And perhaps the choir were right too - they're a joyous bunch anyway but after the gig I've never seen so many smiles (and proper smiles, not just polite smiles, these were smiles of raw emotion, of genuine happiness) and a load of them were still singing at the party. All of these people, these many people - including my friends who made it (many of whom - Jon M, Julia R, Rohan, turned up at the very last minute realising this would be a goodun) said how much they enjoyed it, I've had the texts and Facebook messages, all of these people can't be wrong.
Yet I still felt uncomfortable; on an entirely personal level, about my own performance on the night. After last year's gig I was buzzing - I was jumping around and high-fiving strangers, I probably looked like an idiot. This time around, as soon as the gig finished, I felt more than a little frustrated with my drumming. It can't have been helped at times - there were issues with the sound and as a result the general consensus was in the first half the band were drowning out the choir. In the second half we made a conscious effort to play quieter, but as soon as you find yourself feeling restricted it does lose something at times. But as I say - it can't be helped, it's a difficult job to control the sound of so many people, it's a miracle it happens at all. Other things could have been helped, I mean (and sorry for swearing...) what the fuck was I doing in 'Keep The Car Running?' It's not called 'Keep The Drum Beat Going' for Christs sake, can't believe I missed that stop...but it's a credit to everyone else on stage that we stumbled through it and a majority of those listening would be none the wiser. Until after the gig, if they're reading this blog, of course. And the bit where I really get to let fly in Take Your Mama was just messy, but I put that down to over-excitement. The second half was much better though, possibly because I gave myself a little pep talk.
But then of course I have to remember; it's not all about me. And everyone else is completely awesome - and I mean that from the heart. It's so easy to get wrapped up in ones own minor mistakes (the fact that I am though is only because I care, so very much, about this project), and not see the beauty of what's going on around you. I still don't know how Andrea does it - I don't understand how her head works, how is it possible to be in control of everything that's going on - the choir, the band, the piano, keeping the audience happy? Remarkable, absolutely remarkable. Nicky excelled herself on violin - during the start of the second half with her solo I could just see the mouths of audience members dropping open at just how brilliant this girl is, Sammy had amp issues but still remained the ultimate professional throughout and didn't put a foot wrong, Richard's artistic flourishes on trumpet and percussion added a whole new dimension to the show - it's what defines us from being a regular backing band to something all the more exciting, and Gav on bass - well, without him I don't think any of this would work, not only is he the most positive man in the whole building but his playing is also ridiculously tight and it's a constant relief to me as the drummer to know that whenever I go off on an erratic drum fill I can lock back into his grooves with relative comfort, above anything else he's an intelligent musician. And there's the choir...this is their show at the end of the day, and they made it into a show. The most obvious joy in watching them is that they all just love singing - they put every ounce of their soul into the songs, smiling, relishing every second of it up there. Yet musically they are outstanding too, they seem to perform as a team, they support each other, I defy anybody to not feel something during their version of 'Illumunated' - on a personal level my legs trembled a bit, it was that beautiful. And the whole concert was littered with these moments, and whenever there was a technical hitch, or something didn't seem to be going to plan, their positivity never seemed to wain. There isn't a bunch of people like those Dowsing choir types, anywhere else, I'm certain of this.
I've been listening to the recordings this evening and suddenly it all makes sense, I'm starting to understand the relentless feeling from everybody else that this was a total success. Because it was. Completely. Putting on a show of this scale, of this quality, in a relatively short space of time...on paper it probably shouldn't have worked. Anyone can stick a few singers together and put together a band to gently play along, but where's the excitement in that? Dowsing For Sound is ambitious; it's ambitious in the choice of material and the choice of arrangements for them, it's ambitious in the choice of venue and the way the whole show looks, and feels, and sounds, yet never strays from the simple value of entertainment. Andrea is ambitious - and everyone on that stage shares her ambition, completely, and as a result everyone in the entire venue feels more than a little bit inspired by it all. Just look at those songs - seriously, look at that choice of tunes...nobody is going to beat that.
Everybody seems to be on a bit of a Dowsing comedown after the highs of Saturday evening, I am too. Even if I'm still analysing every single drum beat, I haven't stopped thinking about the show. Which makes it difficult because I'm really needing to get my head around some new projects, there's a lot I want to do and there's some really exciting stuff in the pipeline over the next few months. But it's gigs like the one on Saturday that every musician wants to play, the kind of show that sticks with you life. I feel privileged.
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