Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Encores

Performing in cafes you don't ever expect your audience to demand an encore, but last week at the Heartland Cafe I played for a fantastic crowd that wouldn't allow me to leave the stage. The first encore was quite a surprise, and after asking for a vote I played another song on the guitar in honor of my roommate--she's always asking me to play the "French song." Though now there are two. The second encore was on piano, at the request of the the lovely Annah Zaman, who played before me: "You have to play another one on the piano, because I wasn't in the room just now." After two additional songs, I thought the encores were getting a little ridiculous--not so much that people wanted me to play, but rather that I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so to speak--and I had to pay my food bill, since my server was leaving. Annah, however, volunteered to pay the bill if I played another song on piano. Realizing that she was serious, I played number three. Then I ran, because it would have been strange to become another Evgeny Kissin (if I had half his piano chops I'd be thrilled, but I was once at a concert where as an audience we kept clapping just to see if we could make him keep playing--he played six encores that night).

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the concert--you were a fabulous audience, and I hope to see you again soon!

Labels: performing

^ Top | 1:23 AM | | |

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Theo's Java Club

Thus began the tour: insanity in leaving Chicago in the middle of rush hour (my fault), an additional two hours of unrelated gridlock, a sturdy 1990 "truck" (closer to an SUV, really) named Bessie, two guitars (if we'd added mine it would have made three) and a keyboard, stories about raising children not yours, a Californian guitarist named Kim (also known as Monica's best friend), and three musicians left to their own devices for hours on the road with no radio. It was awesome.

Sometimes I'm ambivalent about touring before I actually get into the car--there's so much to take care of before leaving town for a few days or weeks that I wonder if it'd be better to just stay home. But once I get to the first venue, I often realize that I'm exactly where I need to be.

Friday was an excellent example of this. With everything that needed to be done, uncertainty about where we would spend the night (our housing plan had fallen through), and running behind schedule due to all the traffic, I was in an unusual mode of stress. But the people at Theo's Java Club were great, and I relaxed as soon as Monica started her set.

That night I asked for a title and some characters to appear in an improvised song, and one of the suggestions was Redbeard the Pirate--so in the middle of the song we had an audience full of people saying, "Grrrr!" in a very pirate-like manner. I took a photo from the stage that I'll post on Flickr when I get back to Chicago. And after the show, Joe offered us a place to stay.

Joe's an up-and-coming filmmaker who launched into two of my favorite subjects: aesthetics and theology. So it wasn't surprising that he and I talked until 6:00am, long after the rest had gone to bed. (Along those lines, Kim snores. Loudly. Though I hear she's not nearly as loud as she used to be.)

Labels: musicians, performing, touring

^ Top | 3:39 PM | | |

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Alvin Ailey, or Hearing Your Recorded Voice in a 4000-Seat Auditorium

Last Thursday I was privileged to see one of my favorite dance companies at the beginning of their Chicago residency--Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the best modern companies in the US and easily the world. They have a tendency to eschew sets for elegant lighting that puts the focus on their dancers, rather than on any technical aspects of production, and their pieces tend to be both artistic and accessible.

The night opened with "Grace" by Ronald K. Brown. I saw Brown's company, Evidence, years ago and thought the company was mediocre--but the choreography here was simply beautiful, and combined with Ailey dancers the result was, in a word, explosive. The piece started with the spotlight on a solo female dancer in white and moved to contrasts between red- and white-clad dancers. Lord, oh Lord above / God of heaven, Lord of love / Please look down and see my people through. Arrangements of Ellington's "Come Sunday" wove themselves through the work, and days later I still have the melody in my head. It's rare too when a piece of art moves me near to tears as I watch a concert; that night the dancers weren't just performing--they were expressing a deep part of themselves and their own struggles.

Carmen de Lavallade's "Sweet Bitter Love" focused entirely on another solo dancer--in this case Renee Robinson, who was celebrating the amazing feat of dancing with Ailey for 25 years--in a slim, formal gown, obviously longing for her lover. While it was an elegant piece, the movement here was nothing particularly special.

Uri Sands's "Existence Without Form" was where things got interesting for me on a personal level--I was admittedly rather distracted throughout the piece, focusing instead on the music and my own performance (a little silly perhaps, since it's far too late to change anything). Composer Christian Matjias recorded my vocal improvisations over his piano work last spring, and it was at once exciting and disconcerting to hear the vocalise filling the auditorium. Christian's music is gorgeous (and while I'm sure it would often fit the Oshkosh pastor's criteria for "good" music, it definitely does make the body "want to dance"). And I liked how my work turned out as well--he juxtaposed a take where I improvised with my lower range in a continuous stream with one where I sang in my upper range and darted in and out of the piano's notes; I was singing duets with myself in a bit of a call-and-response.

There's little need to comment on "Revelations," a beautiful work which has been the company's signature piece for years. When I saw Ailey last perform in the 2000/2001 season, I was privileged to see the piece combined with a live gospel choir, but only the final section missed that energy.

I left the theatre thinking that I miss collaborating with artists from different disciplines, something I did more often in college--it's nice to take a break from the singer-songwriter, folk-pop sound once in a while.

Labels: concerts, dance, musicians, performing

^ Top | 11:22 PM | | |

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Chicago Acoustic Underground (Again!)

Get some free music! The podcast I taped with Chicago Acoustic Underground is now online. There's almost a half hour's worth of live performance, interview, and my laughter (do I normally laugh that much? I think so).

If you're in Michigan, stop by at a concert--I'm playing in both Ann Arbor and Lansing this week.

Labels: free MP3, performing

^ Top | 5:33 AM | | |

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Red Line Tap

Between songs during Sunday's performance, an audience member ran up to the stage and handed me a note. "Hey, you sound really good but I can't stay. I do booking and recording, so here's my info--drop me an email or give me a call and we'll get you hooked up!"

It's not the first time someone's "interrupted" a performance for business-ish reasons--back in December, a couple of people bought a CD in the middle of a show because they too had to leave the venue before the set was done. I love it. One of the reasons that playing intimate venues is so great is that you get a level of audience interaction that can't occur in a larger space.

I was privileged to play that night with Michael Shoup, Heidi Schwartz, and Paul Shearer, three fun musicians from Nashville. I've been listening to Michael's EP for the last day or two, and it's poppy goodness. His vocals remind me of someone, but I haven't yet been able to put my finger on which singer he sounds like.

Labels: performing

^ Top | 4:29 PM | | |

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Chicago Acoustic Underground

In just six months, they've garnered thousands of listeners from all over the world, including around 50 in Singapore. And it's no wonder: the Chicago Acoustic Underground is a fun podcast featuring live performances from some of the Chicago area's best.

As much as I hate Myspace, I have to admit that it's been a useful tool. When it's not giving me "unexpected technical error[s]," I've found some amazing musicians--and some pretty cool people have found me as well. Michael Teach, who runs CAU, asked me to appear on the show a few weeks ago, so last night I brought my guitar over to their space in Lincoln Park. Let me tell you, the space is amazing--I've never seen so many musical instruments and amps in one person's apartment before. There were something like 10 guitars, a saxophone, a mandolin, a full-length keyboard, a drum kit, and not a few microphones. And I'm probably forgetting some instruments.

The mixing engineer's name is also Michael, and both of them were a blast to work with. (Actually, "work" is a bad word--it was really fun.) I planned to do three songs, which seemed standard from what I'd heard on the show, but after playing one on piano and two on guitar, both Michaels convinced me to play another song--which, admittedly, wasn't very difficult to do. So sometime in March you'll get to hear a bunch of the newer material live on the internet. In the meantime, stop by and check out what they do.

Labels: performing

^ Top | 1:26 AM | | |

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Uncommon Ground

Thanks to everyone who came to Uncommon Ground on Friday night! Probably the most amusing part of the night--for me, anyway--was getting to combine Battlestar Galactica and a birthday into an improvised song under the title "A Perfect Crisis."

Unfortunately the video taping was canceled at the last minute, but if you go to the Listen page you can get free MP3s from the concert. Let me know what you think of "Emigration," the first song I've ever written in Chinese (well, the chorus is in Mandarin anyway). So I'm taking a poll: does anyone want the improv song to be available as well? It's not much on its own, but if you were there it would probably be good for a laugh.

Labels: performing

^ Top | 4:37 PM | | |

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Pint

I played for the most amazing audience last night. Pint, a cozy bar in the middle of the hipster Wicker Park area, was host to a showcase by GoJangle--I opened up the night and was followed by Underground Aviator, Adam Stahlberg (a slight change from the show where none of the other musicians could remember his name), and various open mic performers.

First of all, Pint is beautiful: with its bookcases, brick walls, wood floors, and a whole room full of couches, I may have discovered a new place to hang out. Second, I discovered some other fantastic Chicago area singer-songwriters, even though a number of them haven't quite hit the point of gigging regularly yet. Third, I played for an audience that really listened--and kept asking for more songs, though I had to stop since I didn't want to run over my set time. Fourth, Michael, an artist and graphic designer that I'd met the night before at Monica Del Castillo's concert, came to the show and drew a picture of me while I was performing. Watch for that in the photos section in the next few days.

Labels: performing

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