--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Friday - 5/12/06 
North Hollywood, CA
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Finale - Presto

"You 'bout ready to go on?" said the drummer with his short brimmed hat and rectangular glasses as he came out of the back door of the improv house. "More than" I replied. We walked back in and sat down to enjoy the second set of improvising music over the actors onstage in this vast new arena of random sonic and improvised possibilities.

I've decided to extend my 3 part "Improvivaldi" series into a fourth and final movement. Friday night I played at the Hothouse Theatre improv club. If you recall, I visited the theatre a couple weeks ago, which was mentioned during the second movement of the improv blog, to check it out and book a gig there. The music director Craig, who I met on craigslist coincidentally, met me outside just as I pulled my truck in. My roommate Zen was on his way to support my cause, and take movies of the event using my digital camera and it's short movie feature The movies are included below. As before, movie clips will have a blue outline and are .avi format. I loaded my gear and set it up in about 30 minutes give or take. As before, I drove right by the club and had to turn around. I arrived 6 minutes later than I had initially planned. This bore no consequence on the evening's outcome. The first set went well. I would have to say I was holding back throughout the performance in a BIG way. Though some of the incidental grooves and jams were rich, I was more the follower, which Craig indicated was really "Following the follower." The regular bass player was off celebrating his wedding anniversary, so Craig, who is a mulit-instrumentalist, took over on the bass much of the time. He told me that the band was normally a trio, with him on guitar and keys, the bass player who I saw the last time I was there, off for the night for his anniversary, and the drummer. Tonight I was the third in the trio, or 256th counting all my polyphony.

Craig the music director was poised on the riser behind the rest of the players.

This gave him a bird's eye view of the actors and musicians.

(or Pterodactyl's eye view judging from his savage musicianship)

The drummer was positioned in front of Craig

He is a very solid drummer, tastefully accenting the
performances with great dynamics and overall feel.

The VSO was in the front of the lineup, closest to the stage and actors.

(Don't worry, that bass drum isn't part of the VSO setup)
(yet)

As you can see, the monitor to the right of the bass drum, which was also the PA for the house, was angled away from me, and at times I had difficulty hearing myself,. This has prompted me to remember that I need to bring my own monitor or earphone. I had thought of this during my prior visit, but was the one thing I forgot to implement/pack for the gig.

Due mainly to space limitations, I managed to trim down
the VSO to it's bare minimum setup for the Hothouse gig.

 I took the A Box (The top 12 space rack with the synths and main processing gear), my guitar synth (taken from the B Box, which is the bottom 12 space rackbox in my normal setup), and I removed the PK-5 pedal from it's wooden housing to bring by itself to better accommodate the space limitations in the theatre. This setup worked out really well. I was able to place my various midi patch switching devices on top of the rackbox, and the pedal by itself took up far less room on the floor. I placed my guitar synth on the floor under the rack which was on my orange, or "B" wheeled dolly (if I could be so anal) as the guitar synth didn't need to be accessed during the show. All the cords that are set up for the normal configuration easily reached their inputs in this trimmed down version of VSO. The total footprint was about 5x4 feet which is much smaller than usual.

This setup also made it much easier to load in and out of my truck

Ahh, that's more like it.

Before rehearsal I went outside to meet Zen, and
took a couple pictures of the surrounding area.

I took a panoramic image of Lankershim Ave, the street in North Hollywood where
the Hothouse theatre is located, right  in the heart of the NoHo arts/theatre district.

(Click here or on image to view panoramic)

After meeting Zen, and going back inside, I watched the short
rehearsal which occurred at 7:30, a half hour before show time.

(click on above image to play movie clip)

The rehearsal basically involved the director suggesting techniques and movements to continue the flow of the performance. The scenes and skits were totally unrehearsed, and seemed to evolve magically, encompassing all types of styles and subjects from drama to comedy, which often switched back and forth moment to moment as the actors came up with ideas and fed off one another. There was usually one main act in the "spotlight" while the other actors in the clan would meander on the outskirts waiting for a skit to evolve, or jump into a scene, adding a character mid performance. The flow of all three troops that played that night was continuous and unstoppable, with no lags or breaks in the performance. I was really impressed by the wit, and abilities of all the actors I saw, not to mention the musicians I was playing with, who were quite prolific on their instruments. Below is a video clip of the band warming up the audience before the actors came out. Please excuse the poor lighting and sound of the movie. My digital camera's movie feature can only handle so much, but you'll get the general idea.

The director opened the show by addressing the audience briefly before the acts
started. He bopped and grooved to our jam before officially opening up the show.

After the introduction, the actors came out and started their routine of running around and feeling out possible motions and subject matter to work into the performance. The total improvisational atmosphere was quite compelling, both the acting and the music, which worked together to capture the essence of the mood onstage.

The previous movies, except for the rehearsal clip were taken by Zen

I took a movie after Zen left to show the actors at a closer range. The skits were
really funny, and sometimes I was laughing so hard it was difficult to perform.

Below are two short audio clips which I was allowed to record during the performance. My main focus was to get examples of the music interacting with the actors, creating a feel suitable for the various scenes. Audio files are MP3 format.

Demo 1 - My Dog Ran Away

Demo 2 - Formation

My experience at the Hothouse theatre was very enlightening, and a lot of fun. Craig said I was welcome to come back for some future shows. He said that he had about 10 people currently in the guest rotation, who cycled through to play with the usual full time trio. I anxiously await my next turn at bat. The next time my performance will be much more refined. I now know which patches and sounds are most suitable for this particular venue, and I will busy myself patching and programming accordingly.

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Lessons learned

1) Bring a monitor, or earphone to make sure I can hear myself adequately.

2) Never upstage other performers with the mighty VSO, be it the actors or the other musicians. Not that this happened at the Hothouse, but I will be sure and always try to compliment the performance at hand.

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Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
But just because a record has a groove
Don't make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter A
When the people start to move

They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people

Music knows it is and always will
Be one of the things that life just won't quit
But here are some of music's pioneers
That time will not allow us to forget
For there's Bessie, Miller, Sachimo
And the king of all Sir Duke
And with a voice like Ella's ringing out
There's no way the band can lose

You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people

You can feel it all over
I can feel it all over, all over now people

Can't you feel it all over
Come on let's feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
Everybody, all over people

I chose this song of the day mainly because Craig said he'd love to play it during one of the periods during the show spotlighting the band. That and it's a great tune. I'm sure can do that horn part no problem...

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Happy Birthday, Ms. Mystic storage!

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