In 1998, I did my first performance of live electronic music in San Francisco, CA.  We were “openers for the openers” for a remotely popular industrial band called Attrition; but being in SF there was a considerable crowd gathering.  I was nervous.

YOURS TRULY, PERFORMING IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1998

To make matters worse, the guy who was leading the band at the time decided we should NOT rehearse in the days leading up to the show.  ”Let’s watch TV and redo our hair” was the decision instead.

Since I was appearing as a guest keyboardist, I didn’t have much say in the matter, so I just went with it.  Our set was to be about 30 minutes, and my role was as undefined as it could possibly be:  add cool stuff at certain moments.

Despite the lack of a game plan, rehearsal, or clue, my good friend and musician savant Mark Townsend was there and pep-talked me right before the show began.

“Are you ready?”  he asked.

“No,” I said, drinking my 5th beer in as many minutes.

“Just go have fun with it.”

I remember as I walked on stage how badly my hands were trembling.  The good news was that, like most live performances of electronic music, 85% of what the audience heard was pre-recorded onto a DAT (Digital Audio Tape).  The bad news was that I couldn’t hit buttons on my ASR-10 without double clicking or completely missing.  Even worse, I was having massive volume wars with the sound guy and couldn’t tell if I was going on zero or 10 with my output to the mains.  I would eventually win this battle but lose the war.

Like a blur, the first 20 minutes were gone.  The music was mostly dreadful, spoof-scary gothic – kind of like Skinny Puppy on major suck pills - which did little for the audience.  Nonetheless, I’d managed to add some ambient whirrs, slowed down drum loops, and melodic sequences in the mix.  I had a little confidence going.

Thinking I was safe, I dialed up ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT and turned my manual volume up to MAX on the keyboard.  Next I started punching keys on the lowest octave.  Randomly.  <punch>  <Punch Punch> < PUNCH> Dammit!  Gotta be something cool there, right? <PUNCH PUNCH> Can’t hear anything.  Did I get muted again?  <PUNCH!!> It was like Wile E. Coyote getting mad at his own failed contraption and mashing its buttons harder and harder.  Suddenly . . .

POWP! went the cute little SNARE drum I found.

OHHHH! went the crowd.

SPILLLLL! went their drinks.

CRACK!! went their poor eardrums.

It really was like dynamite.  Had I been looking out at the crowd, I am confident that everyone in the place must have jumped about three feet into the air.  This wasn’t just because I’d outcranked the sound guy with my volume, but it was smack in the middle of a quiet lull.  It scared the shit out of everyone, including me, the sound guy, and my wide-eyed bandmates, who glared at me as if to say, “What the HELL WAS THAT?”

I turned the color of a ripe turnip and had nowhere to hide.

POST MORTEM

“You went fishin’ didn’t you?” asked Mark.

“Yayup.”

“Dude.  Never go fishin’.”

“NOW you tell me?”

Despite Mark’s minor omission, I survived it.  After sneaking out of the club with my keyboard between my legs, I managed to drink a lot more and remember the thing with a bit of a smile.  After it all, my Snare Explosion Moment was nothing more than a pebble tossed aside in a massive train wreck.

Happily, years later, Mark helped me to produce two full length projects of my own called Skandalon (2003 & 2007).  I even enjoy the sun-beaming fame of being one of 278,340,923,809,498 electronic acts on I-Tunes.

GOING FISHIN’ AGAIN

All that to say I’m going fishin’ again.

As many of you may have noticed, for the past two years or so, my blog has appeared at Oberata Consulting.  Yet you may have also noticed that the consulting content has yielded to other content, like pain & suffering, sarcasm, relationships, tacos, and my steroidal quest to become a living David Banner over the Christmas holiday.  While many of these are indeed related (probably inherent) in small business consulting, I think I’ve found a groove as a “Friction Writer” – a term I might have just made up – more than as a consultant.

It’s also a more sensible track as I continue my sabbatical.  In that sense, I guess it’s less like fishin’ for sounds, and more like following a hunch for my real passion:  writing.

Some of you know I had an intriguing, wild stint as Oberata Consulting.  Since 2005, and as a follower of the amazing Eric Beck I feel like I helped a lot of people.  I can be proud of what I did and how I did it.  I learned a ton.

Yet, as for pure web presence since 2007, the biggest stats show up when I write about getting my arse kicked.  What’s more, I’m satisfied.  By contrast, the written/instructional stuff (e.g. on Time Management) is like broccoli; good for you but no one’s eating it .  The volume of YOUR comments has shown this to be true.

So there are going to be changes.  I will be keeping this blog active, though it will undergo a face-lift, details TBA.  My trust is that you’ll continue reading and enjoying and commenting because it inspires me, and helps to grapple with life’s bombs detonating around me (it’s all grenadey around here lately).

So, THANK YOU for your readership.  THANK YOU for putting up with more than your share of my negativity.  THANKS for finding the life in it.

In return, I’ll try not to shatter your eardrums by fishin’ too hard.