Fringe Journal 2004, Part I

First off, sorry to those people who came expecting to see a concert at 10:30 last night.

Yesterday, we found out that the City of Edmonton has a noise bylaw that kills any amplified music after the hours of 11 p.m. So, any outdoor stage that would have gone past 11 was cancelled.

We're trying to get shows to replace the ones we lost. (Yesterday's and Sunday evening's)

* * *

The first show was okay. Not the greatest.

We were trying to get used to performing outside again, and forgot about connecting with each other, connecting with the audience, and a few other key points.

Plus, we've got the jackass tech again who thought he'd try experimenting during our concert.

The noteworthy thing was my "little" adlib that apparently brought the crowd to a horrified standstill.

We were doing our voteoff where we asked the audience if they wanted song 1 or song 2. For some reason, they usually go with song 2, no matter what the choices are.

So I said over the mic, "Yeah, really you can put ANYTHING in the second slot and people will cheer for it. You could put in, oh, I dunno...dead babies in the first slot-"

Dev said that's when the rest of Kow almost seized up and same with the audience. I wasn't paying attention, due to the thought process that has just taken over my mind:

Holy crap! Did I just say "dead babies" as my first choice? How the hell am I going to top that?

Yeah, that's right. No problems with why I said "dead babies." Just 'what's WORSE than dead babies?'

Which led to what the audience heard over the mic:

"You could put, oh, I dunno...dead babies in the first slot-- and pit them against...dead-er babies?"

At which point I tried to shut up for the rest of the show.

(D! said it would have been a lot funnier if I hadn't come up with a second option. "I dunno...dead babies in the first slot against...You know, you can't get much worse than dead babies...")

After regrouping at the house, we decided to really try to connect with each other, bring the banter back that was missing the first time around. And to connect with our audience again. And bring back the mic check song.

So we started with the mic check song, So Much in Love, but only with improvised lyrics, like we usually do.

So everyone's checking their mics, and I'm noticing mine's not on. Which is all cool, I guess. I've got the last verse in the song, so there's plenty of time for it to be turned on.

When it gets to my verse, I start singing and sure enough, no mic. I'm trying everything I can: yelling, checking the mic cord, all while letting the guys vamp the song until it's fixed. It took about three minutes before anything happened.

And then during the show itself, it was really hard to hear myself the entire concert.

Otherwise, we clicked, made the connection with the audience, argued with a man in the audience about when to give Stan his solo. It was a good show with a nice turnout.

During Spider-Man, in my ranty part, I talked about how we were Apocalypse Kow and that we were from Edmonton.

"In fact, most of us live in that house right over there. No! Don't look! If I show you, then you're going to want to come over. Believe me, it's kind of a mess. And although I DID clean the bathroom today (I really did), I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be the greatest of places for a party after the show. So please, don't visit."

Today, I start the Hoja callout.

* * *

Last night, Stan and I went to see the Scorpio show, Heracles: The Mythologically Accurate Adventures.


Last year, we saw The Curse of the Jade Monkey, but we thought this script was a LOT tighter. It pretty much went on at a running pace, not stopping for anything in particular.

Some very funny moments in this one, mostly due to the bald guy who's name I don't know. With the interaction we have with A-Lo, though, I'm sure I'll know his name by the end of Fringe.

* * *

So, two shows today, and I'll try to see someone's play tonight. Probably Morgan and Ryan's Breaking Face at 10:15 p.m.