Howdy Folks.
Our gig at the Jannali Inn brought to an end our residency there for the time being and we went out in style.
Last weekend's Bondi Royal set was a bit of a challenge as we have added 3 new songs into the set, so we went to some lengths to ease the stress this week, with the help of Nabil and Robert on Sound (thanks guys) and some work on the setlist.
In order to keep the guitar changes to a minimum we had to go through quite the mathematical calculation.
Top row is non standard songs, followed by Mandolin (2 tunings), Guitar 1 (6 possible tuning states), guitar 2 (2 tuning states) and Guitar 3, (3 more tuning states). Each change from state to state represents a potential interruption to the flow (ie: dancing) whilst re-tuning, capo-ing and/or amp changes are made. BTW those cards aren't singular, they're small stacks :-) After all, we've passed 5 albums and counting...
EDITORS NOTE: Massive props to Rosie for his DB of SC songs. Word to your data.
When a certain guitarist, who shall remain Mr Wizard, said 'isn't this all a bit complex' I pointed out the following:
1. I usually over engineer my solutions. It's part of my quirky charm.
2. Why do people question complex answers to complex problems (sigh...)...I mean, ever tried launching a Rocket? Now that'd be hard. We're just using an algorithm to manage guitar changes. Nothing to it.
So now that we've defined Guitar Change states, we can then factor in Key, Rhythm, style of song, tempo, feel, vibe, dance-ability and so on. A piece of cake.
How'd it work out? Well, during the first set, someone came and stuck $40 in the cup of peanuts I had on my harp case :-) That's a first. Where's my organ grinder?
Anyway, the upshot was that this method of set reorganisation totally worked. In fact, it worked too well. We started powering through the set so fast we had to stick additional songs in there.
The other result was that the dancing started early and went through the whole night. My favourite was the lass who is obviously a Kick boxer because some of those moves looked pretty darn deadly.
The three new songs we've brought into the set were once again, well received. In particular I am getting a kick out of Twice Shy Girl, but Travelling Song is going over well and Give me something I want has a sheer knuckleheaded infectiousness that's hard to pass up.
Thank you very much to the wonderful folks down South for hosting us for the past four months., we look forward to returning after football season :-)