Goofy Concert Experiences?

Subject: Goofy Concert Experiences?
From: Deckman
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 03:30 PM

I was remembering a concert experience I had once, many years ago. In telling it to Bride Judy, I thought it might be a good thread: A group of us were invited to perform for an entire weekend at a small community college. Each evening, Friday through Sunday, was a concert. The daytimes were filled with various workshops. Great fun, great campus, great hosts! I did my share of singing and talking and trying to be polite and encouraging. But, Sunday morning I woke up and could NOT make a sound. My throat had closed up completey, and I was supposed to sing the big final concert that evening. What to do? I felt O.K., I just couldn't croak a sound. Well,I got REAL lucky.

I called a taxi and asked him to find me a pharmacy that would be open on Sunday morning. I had to write my request. He drove around and we found one that was open. It was in a very small, obscure neighborhood and was staffed by one aged pharmicist. He must have been 75 at least. I explained my delemma and asked for his help. This guy was a magician, I swear. He took me into his chemical mixing area, had me sit down, and he then took a mortar and pestle and started concocting something. I was just out of the Army, as a medic, so I was not completly ignorant as to what he was doing. He ground up a variety of stuff, and poured in the alchol, which made it an elixar. He bottled it up, told me to start sipping it, go to bed, and don't open my mouth until I walk on stage. That's excatly what I did. Came the night of the concert, I did NOT know what to expect. I hummed a fews notes and tried out a few things in my motel room, but my voice was very iffy.

That night, when I walked on stage, I was greeted with a huge audience. I didn't say a word of introduction, just started the guitar and opened my mouth, hoping something would come out. Well, let me tell you, it was GRAND!

I'd never been in such good voice before. I had full command. I could sing on pitch, loud to soft, diction perfect. Oh, it was SWELL! And the audience loved it. One of those rare moments that's etched in my pea brain.

A few days later, back home in Seattle, I received a note from one of the festival hosts. He included a newspaper review of my concert. It was from the Portland, Oregon newspaper, as we were perfoming just across the river in Vancouver, Washington. Here's the goofy part. The newspaper reviewer said I was "in complete command of the audience and had all the stage presence of Perry Como!"

The truth is, I was probably stoned out of my mind!!!!

I'm wondering if any catters out there have any other good concert stories to share?

CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Goofy Concert Experiences?
From: David Ingerson
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 04:04 PM

I once had a brief serendipitous moment flash by me on stage. I was singing Down by the Glenside and in the middle of one of the later verses I suddenly realized--while sustaining that beat-and-a-half note in the middle of a line--that I had just sung the wrong words. Then came the terrifying thought, Now what am I going to do? But by then the note was ending and I had to go on. I went on. Words came out of my mouth. They somehow made sense--matched what went before and also the rhythm and scanning of the music. I breathed an internal sigh of relief, picked up the normal words in the next line and went on to finish the song and the concert before I thought about it again. And danged if I couldn't remember what I sang. I'm not even sure it really did make as much sense as I thought at the time--like those "great ideas" we sometimes have in dreams. But it sure was an amazing feeling to be carried by some unseen force for those few moments.

David Ingerson

Subject: RE: Goofy Concert Experiences?
From: Deckman
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 04:14 PM

David, your story reminds me of a tale I read years ago. It was told by a rather famous opera singer, who's name I can't recall. When she was a young singer, and not performing in operas yet, she did perform on stage in a recital. She had a very limited repertoire and as the audience keep wanting more and more encores, she ran out out of material. Just before her final encore, she whispered something to her accompanist. Her final number brought the house down and the critics raved about it. They demamnded that she tell them what the piece was, as they had never heard it before. Years passed before she admitted that she had sung the Polish alphabet to a vocalizing excersise melody! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Goofy Concert Experiences?
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 04:50 PM

I posted my best concert screw-up stories here.

Subject: RE: Goofy Concert Experiences?
From: Padre
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 05:29 PM

One early Boarding Party experience: We were invited to sing at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival. When we got to the concert site, we found that our stage was at the end of a long extension cord from the main building, along which were the sites of various other performers and presentors. We set up and began to do a sound check to test the mikes. Everything sounded OK, so we started our set. After 10 minutes, the sound went dead, and the sound man fiddled with the controls, but nothing happened, so we sang unamplified for about 200 people during the next few minutes. The sound again came back on, and stayed on for about 5 more minutes, before going off once again. We finished our set, and went to talk to the site manager about the problem. As we walked back up the hill, we found out waht the problem was: A group of Welsh ladies were making pichabach (sp?) and every time they heated up the electric skillet, they drained all the power out of the extension cord. When they finished making a batch, they turned off the skillets, and the sound stage got its power back.