Elissabeth, The Trumpet Lady, hit me up and was like, “yo, you want to come rap, at this city thing”?
This show was at 1:00 PM today, July 23rd, in Lennoxville (Sherbrooke), Quebec. This was about 164 KM from my apartment. Without traffic it would take me 1 hour and 45 minutes to arrive.
There was virtually no traffic in either direction, blessings.
In the past this kind of gig would require me to beg for a lift from someone. Now I can just hop in the car and drive down. I spent like half the trip down just listening to the song I wrote with Plomberie on repeat so I can try and remember it.
It was a semi-adventure on a Tuesday to go perform with my favourite brass band.
I performed on four songs in the set
Recently I recorded this song “Supersnake” with Plomberie.
The song is about a snake in the city who ends up getting powers from a mad scientist. It was really fun and silly. Then it clicked I had to memorize this song. I’m pretty sure the only verse is like 32 bars of me storytelling. Suffice it to say I made it through the performance of that song, and it was my strongest Plomberie performance of the day.
The other three songs I got up and freestyled over them. I am fairly comfortable with most of Plomberie’s catalogue, but since the last time I feel I’ve learned more about jamming with bands. I didn’t dominate the songs as much, I just tried to play my part when it made sense.
The crowd seemed to respond well and I was grateful for the opportunity to be able to perform something I’d written.
The writtens are a different calibre of performance for me.
It’s okay to let the music breathe, but you got to dance
If I were to criticize myself at all, it was being a little too stand still-y when I wasn’t rapping.
What I should have done was danced, turned up, done something that visibly showed me vibing. But today I let the music breathe between raps and just enjoyed the sounds of the brass around me. I still dropped a solid verse on every song, with some hook elements, but I was more interested in hyping up the band, than rapping.
Or at least in the moment that was the vibe in the moment, I played more with repetition and hooks than I’ve ever done with them before.
Still there were a few parts where I just had nothing to say, the music was talking perfectly fine on its own.
Always be ready with that merchandise
Granted I don’t have as many shirts and sweaters ready to go (it all needs to be ironed), I did realize I forgot my backpack with most of my small merch at home.
There should always be a few goodies ready to go.
Forgetting my bag at home was a blunder stills. Maybe I wouldn’t have sold a lot, but having it on me would have been better. Also, it’s good to invest in portable racks that can be used to visibly indicate there is merch for sale. It looks like I’ve got some research to do so I can set up a bootleg store at my next performance.
A proper day with merch can really add some dollars into your account.I need to get a bunch of shirts and hoodies ready for sale so I can get the pickle money coming back in.
Anyway it was a fun day of performing to a lovely little Lennoxville crowd.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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