Gig 4: The Black Moon

Mission accomplished: played with my sister Lillian at the Black Moon in Belchertown, MA (www.myspace.com/blackmoonjazz).

I've played a few awkward nights there before--the place isn't conducive to small crowds. Fortunately, however, the place seems to be gaining in popularity, and we had a really nice audience last night. It's definitely a good place to look for gigs or to check out shows. Too bad there's virtually no foot traffic. Stupid main roads with no sidewalks.

4 gigs down, 196 to go.

Scotland: Some Gigs Were Played

This blog will serve a dual purpose: first, I will endeavor to provide regional information on good places to play for singer-songwriters and other (mainly acoustic) artists. Second, I'm on an epic quest. An indie record exec basically told me that no matter how good my music (www.myspace.com/franciejones) might be, I really need to play about two hundred gigs before talking to him again. So here I go. These are the gigs--all in Scotland so far.

1. Harley's in Bathgate; www.myspace.com/harleysbathgate; February 28, 2010. It's not an 18+ venue, which means there were a lot of 18- es there. This would have been all right, except it meant the bands with which I was sharing the night were really angry, angsty teen bands. I know when I was playing they were thinking, my gosh, how did it come to this. I was sort of thinking that too as, at 24, I felt ancient and decrepit playing for the proverbial spotty youths. They clapped but I think they also might have hated me.

2. The Liquid Ship in Glasgow; www.myspace.com/thefreecandysessions; March 2, 2010. What an awesome venue! The audience was small but the other musicians playing that night were quite fun (www.myspace.com/danluck; www.myspace.com/graham.robertson). The sound engineer Patrick was particularly thoughtful--the man supplied a guitar stand, just saying.

3. The Tron in Edinburgh; www.myspace.com/outofthebedroom; March 4, 2010. I featured at their originals-only open mic. It's been around forever, tons of variety in the music, Nicky Carder hosted (www.myspace.com/nickycarder). It's a slightly scary gig, to the extent that the audience is a bit captive. Being paranoid, I assume a default reception of hostility (probably should work on that). No, seriously, it was good times.


Next up: the Black Moon Music Lounge in Belchertown, Massachusetts.
Gig Count: 3 down, 197 to go.