Assembly, Practice, & Alignment
Assembly
The core members I felt called to bring together were: Oliver on electric Bass guitar/vocal harmonies, Blake on Lead Electric guitar, Kevin on full drum kit, Jacob on percussion/harmony vocals, and myself on acoustic-electric guitar & lead vocals. Some unexpected and wonderfully beneficial additions to the group were Jesse Thomson on sweet-soul harmony vocals (Oliver's partner at the time), and a dear friend Patrick who happened to show up at our practice the night before our performance. He played trumpet and we invited him to play our whole set the next day. He said yes, bringing an awesome funky brass element to the band.
Set up & Arrangment
Due to various scheduling agendas within the group, we had only two full days to arrange our set and practice as a full band before the performance. Kevin arrived from Boulder the day before our two days began, we set up all of our equipment in the living room of the Ark (Birthplace of SunDog), and began to organize a workable schedule for the next two full days of practice. The music set up consisted of: three electric guitar amplifiers, one for electric (Blake), one for acoustic/electric (me), and one for bass (Oliver). A PA system in which 4 vocal microphones were routed for me, Oliver, Jesse, and Jacob. Jacob's hand percussion station consisted of two congas and a djembe drum. Kevin set up the drum kit.
Practice, Scheduling, & Sound Evolution
After everyone had assembled at the Ark, we plugged in, fired up the amps, and began to jam. After around 10 minutes of sinking into the group energy, adjusting guitar amplifier and PA mic volumes, we began to sound like a coherent sonic organism. We arranged a set list based on SunDog songs, a couple new ones I had written, and room for one or two new songs that were being birthed from the group. Most everyone in the group, except for Jacob, had been consistently listening to my record so were already quite acquainted with the flow, feel, and structure the songs. The set list included.
1. Leave Your Light On
2. Shine
3. Gardener of the Universe
4. Pachamama
5. All The Way
6. Misty Mountain
7. Painted Gardian
8. Change Has Come
9. Lantern Heart
10. Turn on The Light
To really do justice for all of these songs we had to practice constantly. Rehearsing the individual songs that needed work repeatedly, and the set as a whole. We worked for around two to three hours at a time and would then break for food, self care, and improvisational jams.
Progress & Inspiration
By the middle of the second day we begun to fine tune our sound as a group and the songs were beginning to sound great. Everyone was solid in their musical roles and sonic delivery, nailing their parts with percission and grace. We received praise from our neighbors even when they had knocked on the door asking us to close a window due to a dinner party they were having next door, while still insiting that we sounded wonderful. A small group of friends joined us later in the evening and we played our whole set for them. They were impressed and we felt amazing to be playing so coherently as a full band. The improvisational jams that were developed during those few days were some of the most high energy, potently charged, joyful moments and melodies I have participated in creating with a group of musicians in a long time. We all loved each others' sonic contributions and soon enough, numerous song ideas were spontaneously pouring forth from our souls, from what seemed to be a vast and inexahstible well of pure creative energy. We were being blessed by the spirit music herself, filled with wonder and inspiration at the wide array of possibilities for us to improve and expand as a band of musical commrades.
Playing Elements
Stage Set-up, Sound Check & Prayerformance
The Elements gathering was held at a beautiful piece of land in Brea, California. We arrived to a beautiful arrangment of sacred space, consisting of teepees, gathering spaces, a beautifully painted caravan bus, vendors, community drumming, lovely people, and smiling children. The stage set-up was interesting becasue the 'stage' was actually a trailer bed, which was being prepared for a performance that was arranged to take place after our set. This performance was with William Close & the Earth Harp, in which long wires are attatched to one supporting structure (in this case, the caravan bus) and strung back to the harp which is played by pulling the strings while wearing specialized gloves to create tension and produce tone. Because the Earth Harp needed to be set up before our set, there was no more room for us to set up on the stage. We faced this challenge by only setting up the drumkit on stage, where Kevin would play, along with the bass amp next to him. We then commenced to set-up the rest of the amplifiers below the trailer bed onto our own 'cozy bed stage', assembled by laying blankets, sheepskins, and tapestries onto the ground in front of the raised platform. The sound guy was alright with this and cooperated well, helping us to adjust the PA monitor speakers and microphones into proper placement.
Sound Check
The sound check was challenging and after speaking with others who have experience around the subject agree; if you don't have a good (cooperative, patient, and well versed) sound guy, the whole show can become a flop. Our sound guy, Bob, was a sweet man but after working with the initial set-up for our sound, we were beginning to question his abilities. The levels didn't sound very equalized and there was a mix up about my guitar being hooked up through a 'direct in' input, which makes it near to impossible to manipulate the sound/tone/texture of the instrument other than volume & treble/bass adjustment. In order to get the sound I wanted from my guitar, I wanted to play through my amplifier. Bob disagreed initially but I was persistent. Despite the minor communcation challenges and arrangement difficulties (Blake's head and guitar neck were almost in direct contact with one of the earth harp strings) we were fired up and ready to play.
Prayerformance
We circled up in prayer before playing, with gratitude and love for all that we had shared and what was about to be expressed. I lit sage and insence and placed it in a small clay vessel on top of my amplifier to set the space with a tone of ceremony and celebration. The woman organizing the festival stood to the microphone and introduced us. After she finished, we looked to each other with confidence, Kevin gave the count from behind the drum kit, and we began to play. As a whole, the set flowed very well. Everyone stuck to their parts with great integrity and we really sounded like a solid band. This was a great feat seeing that we had only practiced for two days. Though this was an overall positive experience, there were some definite challenges, learning curves, and insightful observations I pulled from this experience. These included the following:
1. I had strained my voice so much from the previous two full days of singing non-spot and at full volume that I could barley speak. This made for quite a humbling live performance because my voice cracked multipule times throughout the set. It was very embarrasing but completely humbling. I learned that there truly is a proper way to utilize the power of my voice. It is a gift and must be treated/utilized with love, gentleness, respect, and proper understanding.
2. Our set time was not at an ideal hour of the day. It was not yet sunset but well after midday. The festival had group meal times and dinner happened to be right when our set began so most of the crowd were participants of the festival either relaxing after their meal or eating during our performance. Of course there is nothing wrong with this occurrence, its just that the music and energy we were bringing forth was mostly for dancing. It wasn't until the end of our set, when the sun began to pass behind the mountain, that the crowd developed enough comfort to begin to groove with us.
3. Playing outside in an open field is a challenge in of itself. We were so used to hearing ourselves within the contained space of the Ark living room that all of our sound melded together into a wonderful soup of sound. Now, as the sound spread forth across the open medow before us, I became acutely aware of our vocal harmonies and how much they needed work. This was a challenge to accept throughout the set, especially with my ruptured voice, though I understood within my heart that it is all a greater lesson and that I could only grow from the experience.