Bohemian
Night open-mic hosted by Rob
Sowden
"Tipping Points"
It's an interesting phenomena that I've noticed recently. As soon as anyone says that they like one of my songs, my subsequent performances of it are always improved. It's as if there's a tipping point in my playing which takes the song from "No Man's Land" to something some of the audience might find interesting and like, and then after that, my confidence in the song and performance make significant leaps forward. The songs that immediately spring to mind where this has occurred are: Cold Heart; Silent Valley; The Things She Said. And to a lesser degree You've Got The Magic Back; Crackerjack; and Get Up!
I didn't ever think I'd play Love You To Death live. It's a very simple song, not particularly adventurous musically though I do like the lyrical content. I just thought it was the poor cousin that would always be ignored in the family of songs from At The Water's Edge. (It's also exactly the same music as Something Wild but that's another story.) So it was a bit of a surprise when out of the blue a friend said recently, having listened to the album, that she liked the song. That was the tipping point for me to think that maybe I could do it live. And actually do you know what? For a debut appearance last night, I don't think it did so bad. I think I've played it better in rehearsal but yeah, I think the song has some potential in a live environment. I find it particularly gratifying as for some time I'd felt that the song had "died".
Last night was a quieter Bohemian Night than recently but it didn't diminish the performances which I thought were all top notch - one of those nights where everyone hits their marks; it was just a shame there weren't more people to see them.
I just want to end by saying thanks to Rob Sowden for his generous praise of At The Water's Edge to the audience last night. That was another one of those tipping points.
