Making Music on the Longest Day of the Year
I haven’t written much about the band that my brother Eric and I had for several years. We called ourselves The Shockwaves and we played rock and blues mostly - think, The Black Keys or The White Stripes. Over the eight years or so when we were actively gigging we played a variety of venues and events - bars, buffets, backyard parties, food truck derbies & more. Eric and I still play music together - jamming, writing and recording songs - but we’ve moved passed the rock trio format of The Shockwaves and onto new things.
Today, on the first day of summer and the longest day of the year, I’m reminded of our experience playing for a group of children at a community garden in Park Slope some years ago. The gig was part of Make Music New York - a musical holiday which takes place across the city where anyone can sign up to perform in public spaces. We liked to look for new and varied events to play, outside of our usual bar gigs, and decided to give this one a shot. Eric signed us up and the Make Music NY organization scheduled us to play at 6pm at the Warren St. Marks Community Garden in Park Slope.
Warren St. Mark’s Community Garden, 6.21.16
At the time, I wasn’t living in Brooklyn and wasn’t familiar with the Park Slope neighborhood. We arrived about an hour early and checked out our performance space - a large, well kept community garden with a chicken coop. We joked that probably nobody would show up and we’d be stuck playing to a bunch of chickens. We set up our equipment, two acoustic guitars and a small drum set, and waited.
As 6pm neared, people began entering and taking their seats. We realized that the audience was entirely made up of young children and their parents. We knew our usual setlist of original rock tunes which we played in the late-night bar scene wouldn’t do well in this environment. We had to change it up.
In some respects, the low-key environment of the garden and welcoming energy of the community members mirrored our own childhood - playing around the campfire or at family parties with Dad when Eric and I were kids. So we jammed on some blues tunes, played a few Beatles covers we thought people might know and tried to adapt what we knew to make the performance engaging. Fortunately, Eric and our friend Jeremy, who joined us on guitar, made it work and I followed along. The result was a great example of how as musicians and performers we learn to read the room and play to the audience. The kids sang and clapped along and we managed to have a lot of fun.
So today, on this first day of summer and longest day of the year, get out there and have some fun - enjoy music from local bands, artists, and singers, and celebrate this special day!
Until next time,
KW
