singemonkey wrote:
This kind of experience is far from encouraging - especially when the person before me performed a spell-binding rendition of Richard Thompson's Vincent Black Lightning,
What? Who is this person? That's one of the secret weapons in my arsenal. How many Thompson fans are there in this country anyway?
I think it is tough if you're not used to performing, or if you're performing out of your comfort zone (which is a similar thing). I am far more chilled than I used to be when playing at TJs, and it's more fun for me now and thus more fun for the audience. But this weekend I play at the benefit gig that Keira is organising and .... ooohhh... I don't want to think about it (but at some point I will, probably about 5 minutes before my set starts) but this is foreign territory to me, out of the comfort zone.
I think you shouldn't be too disheartened by your experience, nor lower your sights too much.
I think everybody underperforms in a way, sticks to things that they know that they can do, avoids stretching themselves beyond their limits. There's a story about a champion dart player who popped up in some pub in England and, of course, was persuaded to put on an exhibition. Some old pensioner bet him a tenner that he couldn't hit 5 consecutive inner bulls (or something, I'm not a darts expert). In they went, no problem. The old guy said "but I watched that match on TV against so-and-so and you couldn't do that then."
The champion said "but there's no pressure on me now, so I can do those things. Please have your ten quid back."
As I saw it I screwed up hugely the first time I played solo in front of an audience. The only way I could make something good out of it wase to learn what I could from the experience (like if you're going to need a capo then have it with you, know where it is and know that you can get at it quickly) and to use that as a base line from which I had to improve next time I played.
I also had to learn that even if all I could remember was the balls ups it is quite possible that the listener may have genuinely enjoyed the performance and I have to accept that and take some value from it.
