Avant Grande – Round 2

I just got the word yesterday, right before heading out to work, that I made it to the finals of the Avant Grande music competition.

What this means is that on Tuesday, June 19, I am to play a quick ten minute set in front of a live audience. There will be four other acts there to compete, also each playing a ten minute set. Out of the five of us, two will be selected. One of those two will be playing the Central Park Summer Stage, the other Celebrate! Brooklyn, and both will receive a one-year endorsement deal with Gibson.

I am so nervous and excited about this opportunity, I can’t even sleep tonight. I’m in the process of throwing together an impromptu band so that I can play my tunes without the use of a cheesy looper pedal. We’ll have about a day and a half to rehearse and get the ten minute set tight once my friend Jake gets down here (he is coming all the way from Maine to play drums for me- whutta guy!).

This could be my ticket to ride, and I’m on pins and needles, man. Pins and needles.

Where’s the conviction?

Can I be a realist and still have the vivid imagination I so cherish? If that imagination attacks me, subversively eating the foundation out from under me, is it honorable to turn from it and use a different lens?

I played a show (really, an open mic) tonight at a local cafe called Waltz, and hmm.. wasn’t my worst performance there, but if I were to map my satisfaction, graft it onto my feelings both during and after the set, I would clearly stamp it as a one.

Where’s my conviction? Every time I feel this way after a set, I make pacts with myself to brush up on my guitar-playing chops, my music theory knowledge, and work on my songs as if they were my own child’s mind. But the next day, I wake up at 2pm and find just enough time to wash a few dishes before heading off to work, whereupon after I get out I come home and surf the internet in some random manner. This is saying one thing and meaning another. Where’s my meaning?

This post contains no news, no updates, no worthwhile advance in my music at all. It will just simply serve as a reminder to myself.