Post-perfomance Blues

Subject: Post-perfomance blues
From: john c
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:16 AM

Was wondering if its just me or if others get the same feeling - I keep noticing more and more that the better the performance I give, the more down the feeling afterwards. Sort of empty and burnt out. Usually I just want to be left completely alone and try to forget about the whole thing.
Pretty strange, huh.............?
J.

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 03:43 AM

I understand john.We played a big party tonight.A string quartet opened the night from 8 to 9,then a jazz duo from 9 to 10:30,then my four piece blues band from 10:30 til midnight. Since we all had to set up prior to the party,we were there forever before we came on,and were boozy and tired throughout the set with the exception of the very first tune,when we were incredibly good.From there the whole set sort of wound down,and though the response was good,I'm a bit down about the whole thing,now,but still too full of nervous energy to sleep.Post-gig depression indeed.

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 03:51 AM

Been there, done that....

Picture a medieaval abbey, deep in the Dorset countryside (green rolling hills), in one of the sunniest Augusts we've had for years.

We sang the Mozart Coronation setting for a mass service, with the anthem being Let all mortal flesh keep silence, with a descant by (?)Holst.... When we finished the final amen, the conductor looked at us all, gently applauded us using two fingers instead of his whole hand. Made hardly any noise, but it made us all feel we were going to burst. It took me a fortnight to come down from that, but when I did, Whoooooaaah! Did I go DOWN or what! Listening to a recording of that performance is no help at all, because you just cannot recreate that sort of feeling. Took me almost as long to get out of that downer, as it did to come down off the high!

LTS

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 06:06 AM

Is it not the nature of the beast? For the music is only there at the moment you make it. If it goes well, that moment is simply the greatest.

Maybe the better that moment is, the more you miss it's absence?

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Mooh
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 06:34 AM

Join the club John. It's an occupational hazard for which the only remedy is to get back in the saddle as quickly as you can.

Peace. Mooh.

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 07:46 AM

I've had this happen many, probably every time. And I also get too wound up to sleep afterwards.

I've also found that a sure way to recreate those post-performance blues is to listen to a gig tape or watch a live video of the performance. The poor sound quality, complete with room noise and the cold, flat reality of the cheap recording medium do wonders to eliminate that ambience and dynamics during the performance.

It's probably natural to feel empty and burnt out after giving everything for a good performance. Try sitting around afterwards with a glass of wine and talking it to death. Or just roll with it.

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 07:58 AM

The recorded version can help. I was sent some tapes of an some informal session, recorded over a few days. I was listening to this and feel pretty much as Barbara describes, when I heard this solo instrument playing a tune that I was trying to place. I thought at first that is was a chap who I remember being there with a resonator guitar, but the point was that I thought it sounded great as I was really enjoying it. It took be right back and I had the 'shivers down the backbone'.

Then it slowly dawned on me that is was in fact me playing one of my own tunes on the bouzouki. I felt really great then.

If I had expected to hear myself, I would have probably heard all the bad bits and felt exactly as Barbara describes..... We are complicated are we not?

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: The Shambles
Date: 08 Nov 00 - 05:09 PM

Is there anyone who has it in reverse? Bad during and good after?

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: sophocleese
Date: 08 Nov 00 - 10:02 PM

I always come down after a performance. I want to have a drink with friends and talk about it, when I can't do that I go down further. The day after a performance I always feel flat and stale and face the awful reality that I need to learn three hundred new songs and become a virtuoso on every instrument before I can do it again.

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: ddw
Date: 08 Nov 00 - 10:27 PM

Shamb — think there might be. We have a woman at the folk society who is terrified on stage — shakes, can't talk well, sings long, boring things she's written herself and apologizes constantly on stage. But when she gets off she thinks it went really well and she's very pleased with herself.

Go figure.

david

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Callie
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 01:59 AM

Ah, I thought it was just me. I usually feel awful after a performance. Not IMMEDIATELY after, but maybe ten minutes or so after. Sometimes I have to leave the very fine company I might be in to be on my own and be down for a while. I also just don't know what to do with myself (with apologies to Bacharach). Pack up, fiddle with things, clean up - anything but sit back and relax.

What strange animals we are!

My partner swears he doesn't get nervous before a gig, but his face goes all dark and he kind of withdraws into himself. If anyone talks to him, he can be short, which he never is in 'non pre-gig' circumstances. After a gig he is ecstatic - laughing, happy, hugging, beer-drinking.

Bummer - that's just when I'm having a big downer!

Callie

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: Jim Krause
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 02:37 PM

Yep sounds pretty familiar. Last time when I came back from tour, all I did for two weeks was sit in front of the TV and watch old movies all day long. Didn't want to see anyone, didn't want to talk to anyone, and I think I hardly spoke more than monosyllables to Mrs. when she got home from work. She was pretty understanding, though. *BG* Funny thing though, as soon as the funk wore off, I wanted to go out again and do it all over. I just love this bidnez. :-)

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: MichaelAnthony
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 03:36 PM

Sophocleese,

I'm careful about giving in to such thoughts...I know in my heart a simple authentic performance is the best...

MA

Subject: RE: Post-perfomance Blues
From: GUEST,emily b
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 04:21 PM

I find that I anticipate a performance so much that I am amazed that life is still the same afterwards. For days, if not weeks, a performance date hangs over me, almost like a black cloud. I tell myself I can not get sick, I can not hurt myself, I must stay focused, etc. It's not necessarily nerves but just something looming ahead. A big thing. Then after the performance, all of life's normal problems are still there and the gig was just another moment in time to be remembered and cherished or not. My life has not changed, imagine that! When the performance is a show where the cast has bonded and will never be brought back together, the blues are that much worse.

Emily