Where Will the Youngins Learn?
I recently found out a cafe I have played approximately nine million shows at is closing. Nine million is more representative of the importance of those shows, as opposed to the actual number of times I stood on the stage (although it was many). It feels like nine million. That's how much I learned.
I learned how to sing my heart out to a noisy room where no one is
listening. I learned how to talk to a quiet, attentive room. I
learned when to check my tuning. I learned to play through sore throats
and stomach aches. I learned that if you wear red lip stick while
performing, it will end up all over the microphone and your face. And I learned
that if my whole life looked like it did each of those nights, I'd be a pretty
lucky girl.
I think sometimes there is a romantic fantasy in the arts where
someone has a raw talent and then can be plucked right from their bedroom and
dropped onto a stadium stage. They can’t. There is no other industry I can
think of that entertains such a notion. Football players play on the
JV team before playing in the Super Bowl. Lawyers go to law school and then
work their way up through a firm. Performers need to play for soup before
they charge $60 for a ticket. They just do. Because if you're charging
big bucks, you need to put on a killer show. And I don’t know how you
learn to do that before you’ve learned what not to do at 9 million (ish)
previous shows.
I needed those nights when the audience was so oblivious to my
existence (let alone my performance) that I might as well have turned the mic
off and taken a nap on stage, because I learned I needed to fight to win
them over. A rapt audience is not a right. You have to earn that. Every
single show is different and you have to adapt to each one. I learned that in a
cafe, and I put it into practice at every venue I play now.
Sadly, this is not the only venue I frequented those first three
years here that has since closed. I spent nearly every weeknight at an
open mic during that time, and only one of them is still open. Which
makes me wonder, where will the youngins learn??
I hope each of these venues rests in peace and that the surviving
few live long and healthy lives. I know that people still want live music; they
still want that human connection captured during a beautiful performance. They
just want it less often thanks to things like Netflix and Facebook and rain.
I'm with them... not going to lie. But I'm going to try to stop basing my plans
entirely on the weather and go out to see live music! Because kids aren’t
going to stop showing up to NYC with guitars on their backs. And we won’t
get the great shows without the training shows, so let's support these
businesses... and our own well-beings and go out :)
Love Love Love,
Kat
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