Playing on the Big Stage

One of the true joys of playing music is performing for an appreciative audience.   Over my short musical career I've enjoyed playing for all types of audiences, including those gigs where the music is just wallpaper for whatever event happens to be going on.    By far the most fun is when the crowd is actively involved.  

It happens a lot in smaller settings like coffeehouses, libraries, and house concerts where the folks are coming there just to listen.   But many other venues don't give a musician that type of feedback, and you tend to play for your own enjoyment.

Becky, Susan, me, Wayne - the Flophouse String Band

Last week, my good friends in the Flophouse String Band came to town to open for Rhonda Vincent at the Capitol Theater in Rome.    By far, our biggest gig ever, and a privilege to open for such a talented group.   The big stage!!!!    A great venue, a large crowd coming to listen, and the pressure to play well for the folks coming on  next.   All the things you hope for in a gig rolled into one incredible half hour.  

The Capitol is an old 20's moviehouse that has recently been undergoing restoration and now a lively and active community center for movies and the performing arts.   The director, Art Pierce, and his team have brought in a wide variety of local, regional, and National Acts as well as some pretty cool flicks.   The building is a perfect setting for a concert, with the original silent movie organ built in, it was made for sound.    It's become one of the best stages in the region to play.

The Flophouse String Band has been together since 2006, and we enjoy playing a gig every year.    The Band got together to play the Mohawk Valley Bluegrass Association Festival that year, and has been going since.   We've had a lot of fun and also some great experiences like recording our CD, release in 2010.   But we've never played a big stage.    The band consists of Becky and Wayne Kelly from Hattiesburg MS, and Susan Donohue from New Jersey respectively on Appalachian Dulcimer, Guitar and Mandolin and Fiddle.    I play a bit of mandolin and Guitar and we all help out with vocals.   The stuff we play is American Roots - Cajun, Old Time, Celtic,  and Country Blues, along with a few more modern songs in the genres.   Good stuff and a lot of fun to play.

Practicing for the show was fun, but it did carry a bit of an edge.   We knew we would all have to be at our best to show well.    And we did put in a lot of good practice hours honing the 6 songs and tunes we would play on stage.   My goal, when I hit that stage, was not to be thinking about what I was playing, but to be totally in the moment and to put out my best performance.   After 2 1/2 days of it I think we were ready to roll.

Leading up, and perhaps adding to the pressure, were the promos in the newspaper highlighting our group, and the countdown as we got closer to the show.   Now all the little things started to get bigger - what to wear, what to say, what if a string breaks, etc.   I usually don't get too anxious before a show but was feeling it for this one.

The day of the show went so fast it was a blur - I know we practiced, went for a walk to get some air, and maybe ate some food - but the minds were focused on what was coming.   Sound check at 4PM - performance at 7:30.    We got there in plenty of time for the sound check, and the volunteers from the Capitol, Ed and Ray were great.   We also have to thank Rhonda for letting us use her equipment, which was great.   As soon as we played our first song through the system into the empty theater I knew we would be fine - the band sounded great, and the sound team and system made it doubly so.   It felt really good to be up on that stage and playing music.   After a quick run through of our set, it was time to relax and get ready to for the show.

Can't say I really relaxed though, and I don't think the rest of the band was.   It was more like anticipation building and building.   It felt pretty good actually knowing what was coming.    We went out for a quick bite with our roadie, Miss Claire (my lovely bride), and got back to the theater to get ready to go on.  

Milling around backstage before a show is big fun - noodlin on the instruments, run through of the set,  tuning, talking to the folks - all the while knowing the clock is ticking.    A few minutes before goin on you get up in the wings and the emcee goes out to introduce you (the great Bill Knowlton) and its a blur as you walk out.

We knew our spots, but its different when the room is alive with people - you feel it!   The lights are blinding, but you can make out the shapes of people in the first few rows, and now it's time to deliver the first song as you settle into the stage.   It felt really good delivering it, the band was tight, but you don't know until you stop how it's going to be received.    Then the applause hits you like a wave and any anxiety that was left disappears.   The tightness goes away.    The hands move easily around the neck of the guitar.    Hey, this is fun!!!!

The set was short, and was over before we knew it.   Got a lot of nice applause, and it was cool to have Rhonda's Band in the wings telling us how they enjoyed our set and naming some of the stuff they liked.    Talk about feeling and being alive and in the moment - this is it - it doesn't get an better than this.

We then got to watch Rhonda and her band perform - what pro's - you know there is still another level or two or three to get where they are musically, but that's cool.   I may never get there, but at least I know we can stand up and deliver on the big stage when the time comes.  

And to put a cap on  a great evening we got to spend some time with Rhonda and her band - I guess it can always get a little better......

An Evening with Groucho

I was surprised to see a few weeks back that the Capitol Theatre was hosting an "Evening with Groucho" - a one man show by Frank Ferrante who has made a living impersonating Groucho Marx.    Groucho has been at the top of my list since about 1971 when I first saw "Night at the Opera" on the big screen my freshman year at the University of Buffalo.    Over the last 40 years I've seem all the Marx Brothers movies many times and most of them on the big screen as well as on the tube.    There are many imitators (most notably Alan Alda doing Groucho for years on MASH), but only one original, so I wasn't expecting much, but even bad Marx Brothers (At the Circus, Love Happy, The Big Store)  is better than no Marx Brothers so I wasn't going to miss this one.

First, Ferrante nails it!!!!    Second, the music was excellent - yes, excellent.   In fact the music really made the show.   Not that the one liners and ad libs were bad (I haven't laughed that much in a long time)) but more that the music was performed much like it must have been on stage back in the Vaudeville days.    Live music and dance - what a novelty in these times.

We got there about 40 minutes before the start of the show, so I could get the best seat in the house (think front row aisle) and it was not taken.   Clarie couldn't see over the front of the stage so we moved back one row, but still right on top of the action.   Ferrante actually sat a few rows behind us while Art Pierce was doing the into.   Then Ferrante starts yelling to the crowd to move down front -  interrupting Art.   I knew this was gonna be different - and good.   He then comes out of the crowd, goes on stage, and puts on the Groucho grease paint -  back to the audience - way cool to see the transformation!!!!   Then,  piano player Jim Furmston starts playing an overture of many of  the Marx Brothers tunes I was familiar with from the movies - had my foot tappin right at the start.    Right into "Captain Spaulding" which Ferrante went into with the pith helmet and did the dance routine (which was way more physical than I remember for the movie) all over the stage.    I was hooked - he was Groucho!!

Ferrante also spent a lot of time in the audience.   He came down several times to ad lib with folks, made passes at several ladies, and the poor guy in front of me was the butt of a lot of jokes (like calling for an usher to bring him coffee to keep him awake) He landed in our laps while he was harassing the spotlight crew for not keeping the light on him.    He even used Stittville, Boonville, and Marcy in his ad-libs, and had some good ones about the Rome crowd on a Sunday night.   All night long it was like that - you felt like you were part of the show with him.   It's a rare gift.

The jokes were perfect, many of the classics from the movies, and  the ad libs spot on Groucho, and the songs - wow!!!   Spaulding was good, but "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" was a show stopper.   The energy he puts out is amazing, and his eyes always seemed focus on the audience.   He dances all over the stage - hopping on and off the couch that was there as a prop.   

He also did a number I'd never seen or even heard of "A Doctor is a Mans Best Friend" that was cut from A Day at the Races.   Good, but I can see why it hit the cutting floor - it really did not fit the examination scene with Margaret Dumont.    

My favorite song from all the Marx movies is "Everyone Says I Love You" from Horse Feathers, and that came later in the first set.   He was perfect on that, and flirted with several ladies he had met in the audience while performing it.   

He and Furmston ended the first set with Furmston playing Chico's endless piano riff from  Horsefeathers, and they traded the one liners almost exactly like the movie scene. 

In the second set, Ferrante told some of the stories behind the Marx brothers - how they got their names, a little personal stuff on each, Margart Dumont, and some musical stuff - like how Harpo started playing the harp.   They were mixed in between the songs, gags, and ad-libs and the timing was perfect.  Laughed my ass off.  

Yeah, for one night I really felt like I had spent and evening with Groucho - and hated to see it end - thanks Frank!!!