Thanks to Rick and Laurent for organizing. Kudos. The evening was uber cool as usual ... great music, great musicians (both the new the old and the 'vergins') ...
great atmosphere ..and I even had 1 song in Italian!!! (homesickness rising)... and performed by someone I saw performing alreayd when I was at university!! (the world is too small .. right Andrea ??) ...
Had a great time singing along on Hotel California (sorry Andre we made kind of a mess of that one :) ) ... and the other songs ... and I came back home happy, relaxed and with my 2 new favourite bands: the Law of Silence (hope I got the name right) ... that I can't even comment beyond a WOW!! and .. when can I find a CD???.... .and Larent ones (yeah GOL Laurent, your demo ROCKS!) ...

Can't wait for the Next one.

Vale - I don't sing but I am a groupie!!
Hoiling, Oct 26, 2006 @ 13:37

Wasn't that your favorite? I have to give my vote to this budding group...Loved the violin. It was a nice touch. Will be nice to see what this quartet comes up with next...

pntbreakrick, Oct 26, 2006 @ 13:43

Thanks all for watching and participating in this event! Special thanks to Laurent who is the musician of sound! Will try to get some pics posted in a few days!

Ciao,
Rick
pntbreakrick, Oct 26, 2006 @ 13:45

A big big "Big up !" to Laurent and Rick for organising those nights ! Just look at it for a split second. Those guys book a place, get the night organised smoothly, help people set up duos, carry quite a heavy amount of personal audio gear, come early to set it up, spend the evening providing the best sound for everyone, leave late to carry the gear back. And all that for free, with a bright smile on their faces, out of friendship and passion for music. You guys rock ! Thank you so much !

The night was a bit too hectic for me to really appreciate the music played at his best. Moments to remember include calling a friend at 10 in the evening to write down missing Hotel California lyrics, Law of Silence (quoting on Hoiling here) performance, amazing as usual, Rick's version of let it be, and seing my guitar enjoying herself being played by decent musicians... for a change ;-)
Hobbes, Oct 26, 2006 @ 13:58

Hi-ha !... I'm not a virgin anymore. I mean, not a stage virgin anymore ;-)

Many friends asked me this morning "how was your first time then ?" What can I say ? It was a real challenge for me to come and play for the first time some guitar in front of an audience, and sing at the same time. Rick had encouraged me (not to say forced ;-)) to do it for quite a while now, and I'm grateful he did.

The result wasn't as good as I hoped it to be. But the live performance is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest is a nice story amongst friends I'd like to share with you. Everything started with the first Open Mike Night, some months ago. As part of the audience, I loved the concept, the tunes and the atmosphere, and spent the night singing, shouting, jumping and clapping hands. But when I saw those guys on stage, I knew that it's what I wanted to do too. Badly. TomLuck organised short after some music nights at his place. I was a total beginner at the guitar, but the participants very kindly accepted me in, and gave me the opportunity to discover how extraordinary it is to play with other people. The mix of a piano, 2 violins, 2 guitars, 1 bass and many voices with few shared songs and very different skills levels was sometimes a bit chaotic. But there were moments too where all instruments and voices would smoothly come together for some moments of very enjoyable improvisation. And, at all times, a very friendly atmosphere enveloped us, topped with nice wine, tasty snacks and lots of laugh. All that boosted me to carry on with music.

Life is hectic, and getting many working adults together on a regular basis is virtually impossible. So TomLuck nights sadly stopped pretty soon. But some didn't want to let go. Jane, Vinnie and I where amongst those. We met a few times at Jane's place. Claudi and Andrew joined us for some enjoyable sessions, but sadly couldn't commit themselves on a regular basis. I managed to convince Gonzalo - an incredibly sensitive guitar player you might have heard playing bossa nova during former OMNs - to join us and get a song on for the next OMN. Several weeks later, because of business trips, personal appointments, holidays and many more, we finally ended up Jane, Nikola and I to sign up for yesterday OMN.

My main goal in finding a proper guitar player was to avoid to play it myself. So I was really happy to find Niko on the last minute, another stage virgin but good player. I got trapped without noticing it when I took my guitar to show him the chords pattern on our first meeting. His opinion was that the result would be far better with two guitars than one. I was about to tell him "whatever, I'm not playing". But when Jane told me "he's right"… I knew the emergency exit door had just slammed shut ;-)

Arranging 3 instruments and a voice was another first for me. But how enjoyable it is ! It's a bit like friendly cooking. A tiny bit less guitar here maybe? Would you add a pinch of violin there ? Should we give it another try with voice only here? I just loved those moments of group creativity. We played the song a countless number of time, but it was never boring. And we managed the nicest version of the selected tunes in those conditions for sure.

Going live is another story. Stress, fear, timing, plugging & co to start with. But the main difference is the sound environment. Playing acoustic in a living room allows you to master volumes easily. Silence is available at will. Everybody in the room loves the song you're playing and wants to get the most of it. Playing in a bar changes that dramatically. Having a sound system shouting back your own voice at you definitely makes a big change too. First, the sound is not the same. Second, the volume is higher. Third, you don't hear the other instruments as well as you did before, and tend to get out of tune. For all that, you unconsciously tend to get away from the microphone to get back to what you feel is normal, which drives the poor sound manager crazy (sorry Laurent). So, the live performance, as I heard it, wasn't as good as I expected it to be. But I've been told it was okay for the audience. I hope it was really the case.


For all that, this was a brilliant experience. I would like to thank all the people that have made this possible. Rick and Laurent to start with (cf. above). Andrew and all the "Andrew Nights" members. Claudi, Gonzallo, Vinnie, Nikola, Jane - thank you so much for welcoming us at your place and being so sweet ! – Jane's neighbours and my guitar teacher. Thanks to all my friends that encouraged me, and thanks to the audience.

I whish this feedback might help other stage virgins to try the experience. It's worth it guys ! Put your shyness away and give yourself some really enjoyable moments !



PS: the title "Hobbes & the Virgins" was an on the spot creation, I hope Jane and Niko won't kill me for that ! ;-P
Hobbes, Oct 26, 2006 @ 14:13

and I loved the Violin ... but ... they lost major point because of the name (come on man, be original!!) .. and ... sorry but Yann group was just TOOOO good!!

Vale :)
Hoiling, Oct 26, 2006 @ 14:51

We had to run away before the end of the night, but thoroughly enjoyed all the acts that we saw brave the stage.

Special mention to the Laws of Silence guys and the guy who did the incredible medly weaving together everything from James Blunt (his version was better than the original) and U2. I liked Hobbes' amour tune too!

Kudos!!!


theblakes, Oct 26, 2006 @ 16:30

Hey Xavier, it was good fun and am cheering you on for the next one. One thing about performing is that it never goes as good as you hope. The trick is forgetting (quickly) about anything that goes wrong and keep going (as evidenced by how I started the show without plugging in my guitar and forgetting the words to the first song right away :-))

Maybe next time you'll think more carefully about the band name when I ask :-) Will give you another chance at the next one, but I'm kind of in love with this one.

Cheers!
Rick
pntbreakrick, Oct 26, 2006 @ 22:06

First, thanks to Rick and Laurent, these Open Mic Nights were missing in Geneva before you decided to do some.
We only hope that you could do it more often, (once a month would be great!)

Thanks to everyone who comes to see all the musicians doing their passion, it's a pleasure to play in front of people who appreciate.

And finally, thanks to everyone on GOL who support us.
See you on the next OMN...

Yann and Law of Silence
Lynn0ne, Oct 27, 2006 @ 16:17