LFTB #20: A Little Milestone I Didn't Know We'd Reach

The 20th episode of LIVE from The Basement was special for me, mainly because I didn't expect there would be a 20th episode when I started doing the show back in April of this year.  Back over a year and a half ago, I first found out about UStream, and realized my Apple iPhone4 could create a live broadcast with its tiny-yet-powerful video camera.  My first idea was to broadcast a live show of the band I was in at the time, Atomic Shotgun, from Fontana's in Lower Manhattan.  On my way home on the subway to go get ready to go to the show, my iPhone was stolen right out of my hands.  So there was no UStream broadcast for me that night.

Fast-forward to April 2012, I was performing solo only for the first time, and I suspected I would not be able to do a lot of live gigs for a while.  So I came back to the idea of playing live somewhere, maybe not in an actual public music venue, but broadcasting it out over the internet for anyone who wanted to watch.  

Show #1 (which you can also watch on my official YouTube channel HERE) was a nerve-racking whirlwind of fun, worry and uncertainty for me.  I had no idea if we would have massive technical glitches, or if people would be able to  hear the music well enough.  It turned out that on the live broadcast, I think we actually did go off the air a couple of times, because the Wi-Fi signal we were using to send the video feed to the internet wasn't consistently strong enough. 

But luckily, I didn't know this as it was happening, and I kept playing songs.  UStream kept recording, so I believe the recorded version of Show #1 has every minute of what transpired.  On top of that, and to my amazement, people let me know after the show that they had lost the feed on their computer, but had stayed online with us, and resumed watching the rest of the show once we were back up on their screen.

For Show #2, (which, YES, you can ALSO watch on my official YouTube channel HERE) we boosted the Wi-Fi so the video feed would not be interrupted, and used an Apple iPad instead of my humble little iPhone to shoot the video.  The picture quality improved dramatically, and we stayed up on the online airwaves with no interruption the whole time.  And it was even more fun than the first time.

I still wasn't sure, as the summer of 2012 progressed, how many more times and how often I should do the show.  But at some point, it became clear to me that for this period of my musical journey, LIVE from The Basement is my creative home.  And it's been pretty cool to have so many people come by to hang for an hour every week, so we can all jam out together across the Interwebs. 

I don't know where the show will go from here.  I'm just grateful and happy that it's here for me every Thursday night, and that so many of you seem to be having such a good time joining in on the fun.  

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