Fellow musician Mark Davis and I had our debut as the Davis Leigh Duo last night at the College Hill Coffee Company. Mark plays guitar and does the other half of the lead singing in 99iQ, one of the two bands in which I play. Both Mark and I would like to play more than the others seem to care to play, so we've talked off and on about doing a semi-acoustic, quiet duo.
Last night, we gave it a shot.
It was definitely different. I'm used to playing in bands, where there are generally at least four people on stage and a moderate-to-large amount of volume produced. I'm certainly not used to latte machines that are as loud as us. I'm not used to the sparseness of the instrumentation (though Devon came by about halfway through the first set and brought a conga drum to give us some percussion accompaniment).
Rule One: the sparser and quieter the group, the more important all the individual parts are, and the more mistakes stick out. I was playing my fretless acoustic bass most of the time, and found that I really had to pay attention to my fingering. Being a little flat or a little sharp was far too noticeable.
But... overall, those who were listening said that it sounded good (and yes, those I asked would have told me if that wasn't the case, too -- at least most of them.) And we'll get better as we do this more often. Also, coordinating two people for practices, gig dates, and everything else is one hell of a lot easier than coordinating four or six.
So we'll see. Hey, if nothing else, it'll give me practice (and more material) for Mpls guitar circles.
Last night, we gave it a shot.
It was definitely different. I'm used to playing in bands, where there are generally at least four people on stage and a moderate-to-large amount of volume produced. I'm certainly not used to latte machines that are as loud as us. I'm not used to the sparseness of the instrumentation (though Devon came by about halfway through the first set and brought a conga drum to give us some percussion accompaniment).
Rule One: the sparser and quieter the group, the more important all the individual parts are, and the more mistakes stick out. I was playing my fretless acoustic bass most of the time, and found that I really had to pay attention to my fingering. Being a little flat or a little sharp was far too noticeable.
But... overall, those who were listening said that it sounded good (and yes, those I asked would have told me if that wasn't the case, too -- at least most of them.) And we'll get better as we do this more often. Also, coordinating two people for practices, gig dates, and everything else is one hell of a lot easier than coordinating four or six.
So we'll see. Hey, if nothing else, it'll give me practice (and more material) for Mpls guitar circles.
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Joel
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K.
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I suspect next time we play, there will be several different songs in the list...
Mark's leads:
Don’t Stand So Close To Me - Police
Brilliant Disguise - Springsteen
King of Pain - Police
Losing My Religion - REM
Refugee - Petty
I’m A Believer - Monkees
Key West Intermezzo - Mellencamp
So Lonely I Could Cry - WIlliams
Joy To The World - 3 Dog Night
Imagine - Lennon
Continental Spare - (original) Davis
After The Gold Rush - Young
Pop Song - (original) Davis
Dock of the Bay - Redding
Steve's leads:
Lawyers, Guns, & Money - Zevon
Roland The Thompson Gunner - Zevon
Hi-Tech Rich Guy Blues - (original) Leigh
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Galileo - Indigo Girls
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
Blackbird - Beatles
Dear Prudence - Beatles
Old Apartment - BNL
Consequence Free - Great Big Sea
Long Silken Hair - R. Thompson
Hallelujah - Cohen
Time of Your Life - Green Day
Last Dance - Petty
Behind Blue Eyes - Who
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Yeah, I know, not very witty or literate, but hey, there ya go.
I bet you had fun!
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set list...
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Re: set list...
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Loving...
Any chance the Davis Leigh Duo will be playing Chili Con?!
A.