Apparently when your weekends are actually free, interesting things happen. On Friday I got a text from a friend of mine telling me that there was a music festival in Jamaica Plains on Saturday. Rather than holing up in my apartment playing music or painting, I made the trek down to Jamaica Plains and enjoyed a day out in the sun listening to music. At first it was just me and the friend who invited me, although he was busy volunteering, but as the afternoon wore on a few people appeared.
One person, the most important to my current tale, was my friend Katie. Earlier this year, Katie and I spent a fair amount of time together, mostly playing music. However I hadn’t seen her in a while. We caught up and then, out of the blue, she asked if I would like to play at a gig with her the next day. See, her band members couldn’t come so she wasn’t sure what to do. Once again, I had the choice to tell her I was busy and go hole up in my room all day or to embrace my slight discomfort and see what happened.
The reason I have an interesting story to write for today is because I did the later.
I had never performed as a musician before. Recently I’ve been performing as a storyteller and as a dosen/art teacher in the MFA. This past year I’ve worked up the courage to play my music in front of people in jam sessions and even at an open mic, but I’ve only ever actually performed classical music and only ever in a school setting.
Today, I performed with Katie at a lesbian dating show. That’s right, my first ever performance as a musician outside of school was at a lesbian dating show playing music I had learned about three hours earlier. Suffice to say, it wasn’t the best I had ever played. But going into my first performance knowing it’s going to be a small crowd, that I’m not the main attraction, and with the excuse that I was only told about the show the day before meant that all I had to do was play hard.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t very nervous. Despite actual lights, sound equipment, and a stage, I managed to just enjoy myself playing music. I have a feeling that all my time storytelling this summer has helped me to develop the resolve necessary to perform. Katie and I had some good comments and I’m feeling a little better about performing music at the Medford Farmer’s Market.
All I could think once I was done performing was that if I ever become a serious musician, I’ll have a great story to tell at my shows. And if not, I’ll have a great story to tell wherever else I may end up.