SurrDave - Playing it with Moxie
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Playing it with Moxie
I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on the banquet at GaFilk. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ohiblather wrote an entry pretty much devoted to the band, and mysticfig has paid us some high praise.
Here I'll offer an overview of what goes into the performance.
Starting a few days after the banquet, we discuss via email tunes we'd like to do the next year. We send lyrics, trade mp3s, talk about arrangements, and do transcriptions. The list remains fluid.
Sometimes we have made recordings of the rehearsals and/or performances, and we listen to those and discuss the sound. We talk over what worked and what didn't, from arrangements to logistics.
It's pretty much impossible to get everyone together until right before the con, but subsets of the band do rehearse during the year, experimenting with songs and tightening pieces from years past.
Towards the end of the year, while quadrivium is finishing up the GaFilk songbook, I'm working out horn parts, various people transcribe chords, and we search the web for recordings, lyrics, chord charts, etc., sometimes contacting the composers or performers. We email sheet music and MIDI files. Meanwhile, members of the band are setting up a myspace page, updating a website, creating a logo, generating hype in LJ, hiring a soundman, taking inventory of equipment, plotting the logistics of the stage (who stands where so everyone has eye contact, who has to switch instruments and mics, etc), putting together the song list and rehearsal priorities (that'd be quadrivium), putting together the books (our individual folders of sheet music, lyrics, song lists, etc), and thinking about clothes. (Penguin suit or pinstripe with fedora? All black dresses or different colors and styles? Pageboy or Veronica Lake? Snake or no snake?)
The week of the con, we gradually coalesce. For example, jodimuse may fly in, then ride with quadrivium to weirdsister's house, where they do some pre-rehearsing. By Wednesday evening, we all were there. We started running through the song list, mixing new material with solidifying tunes from previous years. Several of us had homework; I brought in revised horn charts the next day. Early Thursday afternoon we broke into sectionals, vocals downstairs and horns upstairs, then got back together to run the production numbers before dinner. After that, some more woodshedding and trying out new material. It's during those two days or so that we actually create most of the arrangements. Some songs we hadn't even discussed before Wednesday; as we listened to the recording of "It Ain't Right", someone remarked that it sounded like "Hell" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The next day we had chord transcriptions and a horn chart, and we played it Saturday night. Also during these rehearsals we work out when there will be an instrumental break (after the second chorus? the second verse?), who will take it (sax, guitar, trumpet, piano, horn section?), and what to do for intro and ending. Although we come into the rehearsal with some fairly explicit arrangements, they often turn out to be a starting point for something more spontaneous. Even pieces we've done before can get a change-up. If not, we go with what we have prepared.
Friday doesn't leave us much time. We check into the hotel and convention registration, and pack and unpack equipment. Some of us are lucky to have small instruments and only a few accessories, so we help with the ones who drive vans. Again, I had updated horn charts, weirdsister gave out the finalized song list, and quadrivium had some updates etc. We spent some time talking through this and that Friday afternoon, and there was some focused rehearsing (quadrivium working with one person at a time to nail down a vocal, fix a transcription error, get a lick just right, clear up confusion on an intro or ending). spambrian was Toastmaster this year, a position held by several band members recently, and was thus occupied much of Friday and Saturday (leaving just enough time after the 2x10s to get dressed and catch the end of the sound check). Most of us pumpkined early Friday.
On Saturday we met the sound guy and began setting up the stage and sound system at about 4:00. The hotel staff--let's have a big hand for them--set up the stage and assembled the dance floor (held together very well, held down not so much), plus answered all our questions and were generally helpful. In fact, there was a guy pretty much dedicated to managing the banquet rooms; he gave us a tour and took our requirements Friday evening, he was there when they opened it for our setup and sound check and he was there when we left. We had enough stage space for our growing numbers; nobody fell off the risers or set up drums on the floor next to the stage or anything like that. We did a sound check from about 5:00-5:45. We staggered leaving to get dressed so that someone was always there to help the sound guy or work out logistics.
It was during this time that the one real crisis of this year occurred, which was the damage to the upright bass. Therefore, during the soundcheck, weirdsister and kiltedwitch had to relearn all the songs on bass guitar. You'd never know it to hear them, though.
Here's where the sound guy really shines. The first thing he did was set up monitors for the singers, then for everyone else; only then did he worry about the house speakers. As a result, we could hear ourselves and each other, which makes all the difference in a band performance. We kept him busy, with ever-changing vocalists and a wide range of arrangements (from the full horn sections of "Skeletons in My Closet" and the Cat medley to the soulful rendition of "My Funny Valentine" with solo piano and one voice). He also recorded the concert and even got up on stage to do the introduction for the recording ("Ladies and gentlemen... Play It With Moxie! Yaaaaaay!") (It will be a while before postprod is done and we hear the recording. We haven't heard any samples, but the guy's really good--he's the one who engineered the Three Weird Sisters CDs and quadrivium's "Courting My Muse".)
The banquet ended somewhere around 8:30, I think. We packed up the wind instruments and other fragile stuff, then sat down to eat--we got the same dinner the banquet attendees did. Then we packed up music stands, instruments, instrument stands, music books, and whatever else. Then we pulled cords and took down mic stands under the soundman's direction. We then carried the two piles of amps, stands, soundboard, cords, etc. to his van and to weirdsister's van.
By this time, the GOH concert was over, and frankly so were we. The truth is, most of us weren't very active in the programming or the open circles, at least not until Sunday. I did get to hear the Bonhoffs in the dead dog. And I'd heard them at Consonance, which was a consolation.
But man, those two hours (2:20, I'm informed) are glorious. I look forward to it all year.
The real hero, however, is Wesley, who took care of literally everything that was needed, this year like last year and years past. Whatever it was--food, batteries, taxi service, mysterious phone calls--he was always right outside the room, listening and at the ready. And while the rest of us are taking on more tasks, quadrivium still has the lion's share, so all you Moxketeers give it up for our fearless leader!
Current Mood: accomplished
Tags: play it with moxie
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![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/55567808/632913) | | From: | kitanzi |
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| Date: | January 22nd, 2008 11:28 am (UTC) |
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The band, as always, absolutely rocked. I said so to as many of the band members as I happened to see afterwards, but in case I didn't tell you, you guys were incredible. :)
You did tell one, some, or all of us (hard to remember exactly who spoke to whom when). Many, many people did. If it wasn't so darn much fun, I'd say that's the main reason we do it--we do get appreciated by the audience.
Oh, no, bass damage? I'm so sorry to hear that!
I obviously wasn't there this year, but I really enjoyed the band the year I was there, so thank you again!
Thanks for the insight into the process! And I'm so sorry to hear about weirdsister's bass. :-( I wasn't sure if you guys wanted that mentioned, so I left it out of my Blatherings post. I'm going to link to this post from mine, if that's ok!
Hm. I didn't think to ask anyone if I should mention the bass, or for that matter anything else I posted; I just tried to leave personal information out of it. I don't know the details anyway, just that it was a last-minute change. So it's okay with me to link from your post. I imagine autographedcat will link from this message. But if any of the band asks for redaction, I'll do that.
I SO love doing this every year, Dave. It's something I definitely look forward to - no matter the challenges. And you certainly make it look pretty effortless! GREAT horns this year! You, George and Andrew ROCK. ;) It does take a lot out of us all - but it's so totally worth it. :D
Absolutely beautiful, as always...
Thanks for the insight. You guys are excellent. Make me proud to call myslef a filker. And, I might add, you are the only band to move me to dance. Ever. In all my 47 years.
We are honored to hear that. Would it be all right to quote you as a testimonial on a website or similar media?
It was, as always, good to see you, and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the con as well. |
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