I played my first live show of the year a couple of weeks ago. Fittingly, it happened on Friday the 13th at Verboden Festival, a 5-day goth bacchanal here in “Vancouver,” which so happened to culminate in a Scorpio eclipse. I played to a crowd of merry festivalgoers after 1am, opening up the witching hour festivities that went late into the night.
13 years ago, a much younger version of myself played a show at a friend’s apartment in what was formerly East Berlin. I don’t remember a lot of details. There was a small PA on the balcony, which I plugged my ipod and microphone into. I stood on some piece of furniture to raise myself a bit higher above the small crowd of friends who had gathered for the performance.
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how my approach to performance has evolved. I’m a self-taught musician. Although I was in the school orchestra for a few years and have taken classes here and there as an adult to brush up on specific skills, I didn’t have a formal or professional training in music.
