Tag: music

Just some notes for me, how I can incorporate what I saw into my own stage performances.

Background info: 6 of us went out to Salt Lake City, Utah last week for the Kilby Block Party, an all ages music festival. Time of my life! 4 days of music is a lot for a current office worker but it was worth it. Financially, my friends and I must’ve seen well over $1k worth of shows for like half that price. We stayed at an airbnb and rented a car, we flew out from MSP to SLC. Flights were fine, SLC is a geologically awesome place, we love mountains and dinosaurs, etc.

NOTES:

First of all, I noticed how many women and femmes were on stage. I was looking forward to seeing Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley on drums as it’s always cool and rare to see a fellow woman drummer. Thought she would be the last one, but I lost count! Not rare at all, it turns out. So many musicians like me were there and it was – dare I say – liberating. It’s not a boy’s club like it used to be.

Highlights –

1. Seeing Weezer play Only in Dreams as their final song of the night. That was my DREAM Weezer ending, and my first time seeing them. High School Eva was THRILLED.
2. The Justice set was absolutely awesome. As the final set on the final day, I was wiped out. Knew I had no more dance in me. Then Justice went on, and I danced the entire set.
3. Geese. What a VOICE.
4. DEVO in general. The presence!
5. St. Vincent stepping in someone’s nachos
6. Beach House’s dreamy light show
7. The sets weren’t too long (it’s a festival so they’re all limited on time)

Lowlights

1. A band I was excited to see didn’t play any songs I knew
2. Saturday was way too long for me (but that’s our fault). We got there at noon, and went to the Tennis after party after Weezer’s headliner act. So it was 12 hours of music. Tennis was outstanding (Alaina Moore’s vocals are unreal. Even better live.) but I think we were all falling asleep while standing at that point.

What I can bring home to my band:

1. A band with good rapport between them makes for a fun show to watch. People can make mistakes on stage but they come across as funny if the band is goofy/lighthearted about it. Source: 2 of Peter McPoland’s guitar strings broke while on stage and they didn’t have a replacement for him so he had to keep going – Paganini style. It was super fun to watch them all improvise & you could feel their friendship from the audience. Seeing rapport like that makes me feel like I’m part of a big friend group that’s all hanging out together.
2. Stage banter isn’t required for a good show. If I’m remembering correctly, Justice didn’t say a word to the audience. It was still one of my favorite sets though because it brought everyone together to dance, and I felt like I was safe to do as many of my kitchen dances as I wanted to. In my band, I’m the one that’s been delegated to the stage banter, and I’m honestly awkward AF. It might be time for me to re-adjust my method of just babbling about whatever I feel like and hope someone can hear me.
3. Put the hits in the set. Obviously. This is more for festivals though, since there’s a higher percentage of people who haven’t even heard of you than there are at one of your own shows. Hits are fun plain and simple. A whole audience singing one song will grab people’s attention who are simply walking by. We don’t really have “hits” yet, or at least idk which songs are most popular. Rant: there’s one song we get requested, and it’s the only one I wrote. However, my band never seems all that interested in playing it. I hope they’ll agree to at least record it officially, put it on our album, and then we can see.
4. I simply do not like audience participation requests from the stage. Personal preference, but I am uncomfortable when the band wants me to clap or sing a part. I’ve never liked that in any show I’ve been to, and already told my band long ago I’m not doing any of that. This just confirmed it. It’s not awkward for people in the tight crowds at the front, but it’s strange for people in the back who are spread out.
5. Most of the musicians wore simple outfits. T-shirt and jeans basically. Again, festival attire. But they were still able to bring the vibes without any kind of special outfits. DEVO is an exception, but they’re DEVO. They can do whatever they want and it’s fun. In short, it’s fine if I just wear a basic outfit without becoming all cute and feminine. Other examples: Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring dressed simply, but his passionate expressive energy kept my full attention. SASAMI wore a cool flashy outfit but I remember her wild chaos more than anything else!
6. Full band coordination is cute AF – yeah I just talked about simple outfits. However. Peter McPoland’s band all wore 3 piece black and white suits. DEVO wore the same outfits on occasion (they somehow managed wardrobe changes within the time constraints, idk how they pulled it off…). Super cute. They even had choreography.
7. Opinion – bad lyrics can’t be fixed by a beautiful voice or cool music. I’ll get some arguments on this. For me, unless you’re an instrumental band, lyrics have to be top priority. I crave your words and ideas! And I want those words and ideas to be well done! Yeah it’s subjective what constitutes “bad” lyrics. But if it’s just a boring story like “I called but you didn’t pick up, we keep doing this, what are we to each other” I can’t feel anything. I want the drama.

All in all, the Kilby Block Party was a great time, and I hope I can make it to next year’s festival! The inspiration gained is already helping me level up.