San Diego Debut Tonight at Lestat's on Park

First I want to thank everyone who reads my blog here. I just found out that I have passed 9,000 all-time views, which is absolutely amazing to me.  So thank you, thank you, thank you, for coming here again and again, and reading what I have to share about my journey as a musician.  

Tonight I will be playing the Open Mic Night at Lestat's on Park, at 4496 Park Boulevard, a coffee shop in the University Heights/Normal Heights part of San Diego.  I will attempt to send out a Facebook post (my page is at facebook.com/collindanielsfanpage) and a Tweet (my Twitter account is @collindaniels) letting people what time I end up being scheduled to go on.  The first performer is slated to start at 7:00pm PT, but there is supposed to be a drawing at 6:30pm to determine the order of performers, so it seems I will not know until then.

This will be the first time I play live in my new home of San Diego, the first time I have played live anywhere in 4 months, and the first live venue appearance since May of 2012, when I played a full set at Geno's Rock Club in Portland, Maine. 

Someone asked me yesterday if I was nervous, and a friend today asked me if I was excited.  My answer is yes to both.  I've done so much live performing over my history, that I feel like there is definitely a muscle-memory-kind-of-thing that thankfully has not left me.  But certainly performing in front of a real audience for the first time in a while, combined with playing in a city I've never played before, and at a venue I've never played before, brings some apprehension for me.

According to the information I have at present, each performer is allowed to play 2 songs, not to exceed 10 minutes combined.  I've chosen one brand-new song, "Fly, Baby, Fly," which I posted a live home video of here last Tuesday, and one relatively-new song I wrote before my move to California, "Pretty Blade Trickster."  You can see and hear that one in some of the later episodes of LIVE from The Basement, and also as a one-off on my official YouTube Channel.  So I guess I have some concern about remembering all the words and everything.  But I really love both those tunes, so I'm pretty stoked to play them tonight.

I am getting more and more excited as the start time of tonight's music approaches.  I've really missed playing for people, and it feels incredibly good not just to get back to it tonight, but also to know that this is the start of what I hope will be many live performances to come in the near future.
Share |