Monday, January 30, 2012

1.29.2012, FTW

My rule of thumb is that if 50 people say they're coming to your Facebook event, 12 will show up, and none of them will be the same people who said they were coming. HIO had 30 people (including the musicians) respond affirmatively to our social networking schmatter for the first "Improvised Silence" at the Cellar, and we had an inordinate amount of press (Fort Worth Weekly, Dallas Observer _twice_, Star-Telegram).

Nevertheless, the band boys were laying bets on how many people would actually show. Hickey said one, I said three, and T. Horn said five, which wound up winning, based on our audience consisting of Cam Long from Merkin and four people that Darrin Kobetich brought. (Bar-sitters don't count; they would if there was a cover. My sweetie predicted ten, but she's an optimist and very kind.)

Still and all, it was a success, by HIO standards; Hickey even opines it was our best live performance ever. In Mark Kitchens -- Terry's Stone Machine Electric bandmate, now an "associate" member of HIO, along with Big Marcus -- we've finally found a sympathetic, _listening_ percussionist, who doubles on cigarbox guitars (he's another instrument builder) and electronics (which he didn't employ on this particular occasion). Our guest performers for the evening were Darrin Kobetich on sitar and cumbus and Giri Akkaraju on mrindingam and other hand drums; both were interactive and responsive in the best possible ways.

At different times, I was cuing off Mark and Darrin, playing a fretless Six Flags guitar Terry brought, which I tuned D-A-D-E-B-E and alternately fingerpicked and played with eBow and slide; the electric kalimba, broken autoharp, and plastic recorders; and a metal sculpture that was in the "stage" area, which I played with beaters after attaching a contact mic. Terry performed on turntables, laptop, and percussion, while Hickey functioned as "bassplayer" on electric gopichand. Our first set lasted an hour and 17 minutes; our second was 45 minutes, I think. Terry, Hickey, and Kitchens all documented at least portions of the evening. Film, as they say, at 11. And we made ten bucks at the end of the night. Hooray!

Next "Improvised Silence" will be February 26th with Dentonites Sarah Alexander and Julie McKendrick; it's always the last Sunday of the month at the Cellar, starting at 9pm. HIO is also tentatively booked to play at Oak Cliff printshop/gallery Incense & Peppermints on April 14th, and at Doc's Records on April 21st (Record Store Day) with Darrin Kobetich (CD release), Clint Niosi, The Panic Basket, and Kavin Allenson.

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