GrooveLily

I have to say, I feel rather triumphant, after my first-ever totally solo gig, doing a 25-minute presentation of ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME at Joe’s Pub as part of the Public Theater’s Music Theater Initiative.

My trip started out pretty ignominiously, as I arrived at the airport in St. Louis without my driver’s license…apparently I had left it in my little fanny pack that I take with me when going running, but I didn’t realize this at the time; I was just panicked that it was gone. My only photo ID at that moment was my 24-Hour Fitness gym card, which I sheepishly presented to the woman at the counter; she smiled kindly and said “well, you’ll still be able to fly…but it might take you a while to get through security.”

I was 90 minutes early, but then barely made my flight. The security folks marked my boarding pass with red “S”s all over – the aviation industry’s version of a scarlet letter – to indicate that I was a “selectee.” Because in addition to having no proper ID, I was also carrying a ton of electronics – laptop, MOTU interface, 2-octave keyboard, violin wireless system, ear monitors, 2 different sound processors (graciously on loan from TC Electronic), and several dozen cables in addition to my violin itself – the people who had to check out every millimeter of my voluminous carry-on luggage were none too pleased.

I was immensely relieved to get on the flight unscathed…and then proceeded to have an amazing time, experiencing New York the way I never have before: fly in, stay at a nice hotel in Manhattan, hang out with friends, take a taxi to play a great sold-out gig at a nice venue, and then fly home.

I must admit I’ve become more than a little co-dependent during my years of playing in GrooveLily, in terms of tech/gear proficiency. Both my bandmates LOVE geeking out about equipment, and we’ve gotten used to traveling with sound engineers whose knowledge of gear is their professional currency…even our amazing Petal Pusher Pete Mickelsen, in true masculine fashion, enjoys plugging in and powering up machines…so as a general rule, I’ve become quite happy to warm up my voice and violin in the dressing room while equipment is being set up for me by some subset of “my guys.”

Therefore, I traveled with this diagram to assist with soundcheck:

Shack Gig Audio Flowchart

And I practiced setting up everything on the bed in the hotel, with Brendan on the phone for “tech support.” Very glad I did, too – there were strange glitchy issues to deal with, like the fact that if you turn on the computer before the MOTU interface, Ableton Live won’t recognize the MOTU box and nothing will work. That particular fact is not written in any manual – it’s just a thing you learn by trial and error. There would be no time for trial and error at the gig.

I got everything working, packed it up again and headed off for soundcheck. With the help of tech-savvy friend Sean Flahaven, I set up everything in record time, and soundcheck went smooth as silk. Thanks to Jon and Jeff at Joe’s Pub for all their assistance, and to Curtis Moore for eradicating all ghosts in the machine by his sheer presence.

At 7:01 PM, I went out on stage with Ted Sperling, who runs the MTI program and is our dear friend and STRIKING 12 director. We talked a little about the history of how we met (on the very same stage at Joe’s Pub 7 years ago!), and about the heroic story of Ernest Shackleton which inspired us to want to write the piece. Our bookwriter Joe DiPietro, taking a day off from MEMPHIS previews, was there cheering me on, and the energy in the room was wonderful. All the equipment worked perfectly YAHOO – and the great thing about SHACKLETON is that it’s *already* an inherently riveting story, so that as long as the music and book are good, people get really excited about the piece, even with just the short “teaser” program I played. It was triumphant and incredibly fun – and because I was first on the program, I then got to relax and listen to the terrific music of Gabe Kahane and Pasek & Paul.

Gabe’s set of songs from his new show FEBRUARY HOUSE included a hilarious tune about bedbugs, as well as some odd diva behavior by guest singer Nellie McKay (after being 2 1/2 hours late to soundcheck, she then was late to arrive onstage to perform because she was curling her hair in the dressing room! Gabe was clearly, understandably irked – but he pulled it off anyway; his unique, beautiful sound was not hindered by the stage dynamics. Although he and Nellie didn’t look like the best of friends onstage, they sang in gorgeous unison nonetheless. I love Gabe’s music and have been listening obsessively to his great CD)…and Pasek & Paul’s set was full of high-energy fun, featuring a terrific 5-part ensemble of male singers as Marines to begin and end their program of songs from their upcoming Lincoln Center-commissioned show DOGFIGHT. (I hadn’t gotten to hear Benj Pasek’s glorious voice since our 2008 workshop of LONG STORY SHORT, in which he was our Charles!) A fantastic night, all told, and I was proud to be part of it.

I’m now convinced that, armed with gear, diagrams, and proper ID, I could do anything.