Live at the Bearspace Nov 24th..

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Ultra Magnus
Member Since: Nov 13, 2004

I've not played a gig since january but i've been offered a few things lately which is really nice, so i took this one:

Live at Bearspace Thursday 24th November:

Rigsby Smith
Rob Smoughton's Introduction To Brazillian Music
Gypsiesdog
DJ tendraw
+ another act tbc


BEARSPACE• 154 Deptford High Street London SE8 9PQ

9pm/ £3


..i'll be improvising for six minutes, recording that (audio and visual) and playing it back while improvising over the top for six minutes, recording that and playing it back and imrpovising over the top.. and so on until there are three or four of me on the screen and one 'me' live on the stage. Any Englanders please drop by and say hello, shoudl be an interesting night.

Rigs.

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Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 17, 2005 08:26 pm

heres to wishing I was in London to come see it. Sounds very interesting.

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Nov 18, 2005 03:42 am

If the film's not too big MB-wise i'll ftp it up and post a link for you to check out.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 18, 2005 02:36 pm

Ya, that would be interesting to see for sure.

Good luck with it by the way..

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Nov 19, 2005 03:03 am

Cheers fella.

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Nov 27, 2005 12:08 pm

So, yeah, it went pretty well, though we had some technical issues. The soundguy was an bit of an idiot and certainly didn't get the idea (mainly as he couldn't really be bothered to listen, he was too busy telling me that:

1) He too used to play clarinet - fascinating!

2) He wasn't usually the sound engineer, he was actually the licensee - wow!

3) He was also a musician - zow!

4) My soundcheck was over - pretty much before it started, and i was the only one that got one. He was at the bar or talking to someone for most of the gig.

So yeah, i started playing and was really into it, i was on a roll, no nerves and feeling pretty good about it all, played some bowed cymbal and metal eggcup stuff into a 57 through a delay and wah into my amp for some background ambience, then some increasingly aggressive kazoo with plenty of verb on the amp, that took up most of the first 5 minute improv, and it was going great and i saw Mrs Rigs head off to give steve the camera to DL to playback behind me, watched the progress bar (christ that took a long time) as i switched to bowed berimbau and my roberts radio (the radio outshone itself, did a fantastic job), but then steve and Mrs Rigs couldn't find the file on the laptop so there was this big gap i had to fill.

Obviously waiting on stage feels like a lifetime and just when i thought '****, i might have to fill this whole 40 mins without the playback' there i was onscreen doig the bowed cymbal stuff, by which time i'd set some more feedback and droning delay and was improvising in D minor on the clarinet into the PA mic (not the one going into the amp), fairly bluesy stuff with some off-key upper register stuff thrown in on the amp mic that delayed around. Had the change been quicker i would've still been on the berimbau which is what i wanted but i had gotten bored with it by then so i moved on.

The next change was pretty quick camera to laptop-wise and soon there were three of me as i went back to the cymbal bowing (which sounded so awesome). I watched some of the clarinet stuff with the kazoo for maybe 30 seconds while i drank some tea and lit my cigarette and then dueted with myself on the clarinet which took me to the end of the set, playing this tune called 'Brother Mastiff' i wrote for the first draft of my record (the one i scrapped, i really like that tune, it just needs a live group to do it real justice). The last minute i started packing up while the two screen mes finished what they were doing. The applause was pretty thick, i said 'thank you' and headed off.

I don't think i've ever remembered so much about a gig and i think that was because i simply wasn't nervous, not a single nerve in sight. Usually i shake midly for at least the first ten minutes, but nothing at all on thursday night. It was pretty freeing actually, the whole thing, and i felt really confident for some reason, i've been wondering what the set meant and stuff since then, and i'm still not sure i have an answer, but i really enjoyed it. I might try it again at some point, Mrs Rigs and i have been talking about how we can get it to be more seamless next time without that first long break, there are going to be DLing time breaks so maybe i should use those, either to take a short break and play a record or a film or something or to treat each break as a different section and have something pre-prepared to fill it, not quite sure yet.

As i thought, the movies were a little too large too upload.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 27, 2005 05:17 pm

Glad to hear it went fairly well then, a few hicup's are always going to be hiding to get you when you least expect it. But it sounds like you made do and got around them without much ado.

To bad on the movie's being to big, maybe they'll be included on a future Cd release???

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Nov 28, 2005 02:51 am

That's not a bad idea, the CD thing, yeah, maybe. There are a couple of pics up at rigsbysmith.blogspot.com if you fancy checking them out.

Member
Since: Aug 13, 2005


Nov 28, 2005 03:26 pm

Nerves of steel to pull through the hitches and still create a show ,well done.

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Nov 28, 2005 03:35 pm

Cheers fella. Once you're there you can't really back out though can you?

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 28, 2005 07:00 pm

Nice pix Rigsby, and now you cant back down once your up on that stage.

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