As I mentioned last week, JPKALLIO.COM will be performing this Thursday the 14th of July in the Pint on Eden Quay. It is the Live and Unsigned night and they are always great nights, but this also is the 10th concert of our 100 concert challenge. Still a long way ahead of us, but definitely a milestone, so party is in order me thinks and the place will be the Pint on Thursday night.
I thought to challenge our selves once again, like we don’t do it enough already ;-). I wrote a new song that was finished on Friday morning, so I thought it would be cool to play it at next concert. So the challenge was to arrange and rehearse it in time for the gig. We went through it on Friday’s rehearsal, now the setback was Monday, as Sebastian migraine got the worst of him (the boor guy suffers badly from time to time) so we had to cancel it. Now we are left with all of us practising on our own, and then we have long rehearsal on Wednesday (The day this blog comes out, so probably while you read this, we are slaving our back sides off to get the song ready), so this really could go either way. The song is fast and energetic, for me the challenge is the rhythm of the vocals; lots of words that won’t make any sense unless you get the rhythm right and you have just enough room to articulate every word. Also there is a bit tricky guitar solo due to the speed of the song. For both Sebastian and Qra there are equally tricky bits that involve much muscle work. For Qra the forearm strength and endurance is a required, good bass player tend to be great arm wrestlers ;-) and Sebastian... well... he probably lost few kilos already in Friday’s rehearsals:-D. As I said this could go either way. We are professionals and if we think the song is not ready, it won’t make the set list. Also you need to find a balance between rehearsing new material and working the older stuff for the set list. But if all goes well, we'll play the new song Thursday night in the Pint :-)
Also preparing for any show is busy time. We do spend time on our set lists, tweaking them until we are happy that the songs flow together. While preparing for this one I was looking some videos on YouTube of bands that I respect and think do great live shows and it got me thinking. You should give last bit of you to every performance, but where does the line between pouring your soul into a performance and turning it in to a gimmick lay? I'm sure most of you remember the RHCP legendary entrance in the Woodstock 1994 with the Light bulb costumes? Great idea at the time, I’m sure, but when one of the wildest live bands come on the stage looking like they have broom sticks stuck up their back side playing one of their biggest hits, it just does not work. But at the same time, at least they gave it a go... It is a fine line. Like The Rolling Stones, their shows have grown bigger and bigger, bit like a circus, but when they did the concerts for the Shine alight documentary in a small theatre, they rocked the socks off it. Now back to the real world, both of those examples are of course massive bands. But even on a grass root level, if you are playing at a club, do give it all you got, but don't think that its cool to trash the backline of the venue just because you've seen it doe by some one famous. Do it and I'll bet its the last time you'll play in the venue or any other venue that hears about it. Also it does not look good if you're having a private party on the stage. Lots of jokes between the bands that no one else gets are sign of an amateur and boring. You are there to entertain. I know some of you think that you're not, that you're there just to play music. If I want to hear some music, I listen to my records. When I go out, I want to see a live SHOW! Music is important, and it should come first, but it won’t make your gig amazing on its own. So if you are a musician and next time you have a gig coming up, think about the show a bit. For example, think about what you are going to say between the songs. And make mental notes after the show what worked and what didn't. Learn and develop.
So there you go, and now back to some updates :-) JPKALLIO.COM featured on a punk rock blog in Brazil called Punks do Mundo todo Also we working on booking some dates for September and October, so more on them soon. Might even have a Friday night coming up ;-)
For now, hope all has a rocking week and I know we will, especially in the Pint on Thursday night ;-)
J.P.
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