March 21 @ The Lighthouse in Chapel Hill, NC

Stefan and I leave DC planning to arrive at Chapel Hill in time to have a leisurely dinner with my friends before the 9:30pm show...in theory. The catch here is that we both forget it is Easter weekend. Do you know what that means? It means that we were horrendous traffic for three hours.... until we were about an hour away from Richmond, I was never going above 35mph. It took us almost seven hours to get to Chapel Hill.

It looks like we will be arriving when the gig is supposed to start. I didn't think I was the first one to go on... but I'm freaking out a little in any case. I call the venue several times. No one answers. In a panic, I call Gennette and get her to go to the club to tell them we were gonna be late. Luckily, this is one of the two places on my tour where I had this kind of option. She calls me back.

No one is at the club. Not even the owner or the manager. None of the other musicians. Just some girls that always hang there. It is, at this point, around 8:45pm.

I forgot about living in the South. Then, Gennette tells me the game went over and that's probably why. She doesn't know which game, although we assume it is basketball or something. Its very big there.

We arrive at 9:30pm exactly. No one is playing. They tell me I'm second and I don't have to set-up until right before. In fact, they don't want me to set-up until the first act tears down. My friends are already there and we run into more on the way. We decide to leave and get a drink at the Lantern. We need to unwind post stressful trip. I say I will be back in 20. When we get back, which is roughly within that time frame, the previous set just finishes. I feel pretty terrible since I usually try to watch all the other shows. Meanwhile, all my friends show up, and I'm very touched by how many people came. I got to see a ton of people that I hadn't seen since I'd left for Dartmouth and even before.

Then, I set up. They actually have a feedback monitor and a stage, which is great. Everything is in the opposite part of the room from the last time I played there... which admittedly was a few years ago. The only problem is this crazy hum that won't go away. Someone jokes about seeing if there is a Computer Scientist in the room to help me... which is funny because a plurality of my friends are CS grad students.

We all think its ground hum but we can't find another outlet. Some other musician tells me he restarted his powermac and that worked for him, once. So... I do that, even though it seems unlikely. Time is passing by. The Nightlight people are completely unhelpful... until someone that played there before tells us about the outlet in the kitchen. Stefan is running around with wires trying to find an outlet himself. Thankfully, I brought a crazy long extension cord just in case.

Yes, it was ground hum. Everything is fixed. Only it took us over an hour to get them to tell us where the other outlet was. !!! Most of wiring in the Nightlight is ungrounded. At this point, a Nightlight person shows up and says I have to go on...now and could I please limit my set to fifteen minutes? Jeez. I just start with better in the dark since its the oldest and I can do it in my sleep. I feel catastrophic, which with my set... works well. In the middle of songs, I go and initialize songs in SC for the next thing. I set up completely for Error of my Ways... even introduce it when I realize (using NetAddr.langPort) that the port number has incremented. The one damn thing I forgot to create a failsafe for between the Baltimore & DC shows. I say, just kidding! and do an accordion number right away. Uh, no accelerometer pieces for this show.

things that breathe and Study in Losing Control go off incredibly well. Every number, too, I'm actively performing and using the space on the stage. I stand on chairs... I use random things as props... I'm oddly cognizant of vertical and horizontal levels in space... I had changed a few parameters in Study in Losing Control since everything lately had been under control since I had... er, over-performed it? or something. Anyways, I had learned how it reacted... so I had changed some parameters in the noise UGENs, etc. thinking that would do something. Well... it did. I had no idea what was going on... also, I was so stressed out that I was actually really freaking out and worried about things blowing up. Sounds were coming out of it that I've never heard ever... possibly in my life. I checked the computer a few times during performance, even. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time. There is the sense for me though that my set has coalesced and everything makes sense. I'm finally performing performing the whole way through it.

At the end of my set, the woman from the next act whom I hadn't seen tells me to get my shit off the stage at fast and possible. She is very upset with me. So I do.

Another thing, the entire night was advertised as being a set of experimental music by female musicians. Well, we were all female. As for experimental... the other artists were very good from what I heard... but all definitely fit well within the rock/alt/indie-guitarish category. Ah, well. Even in the experimental shows I feel like I tend to stick out a bit... especially when the other sets are quiet-ish free improv with very introverted performances.

Afterwards, Amber comes up and tells me that was exactly how she's been feeling lately and she was so glad she came to my show. I think that's one of the best things to hear. Stefan tells me that was the best set he's seen me do... Everyone is very nice, and wanting to chat. They ask me if I want to leave, but I stay because I've been the last act and had people leave, etc. Unfortunately, this also causes some problems. My friends do slowly file out the club, leaving it more than half empty and then saying good-bye, etc. as they leave.

I stay the whole set. At the end, the woman in the act comes up immediately to me and makes another comment. She is extremely pissed off. There's nothing to be done at that point, so I just get my stuff and go.

Then, we go to Vespa and catch the last half-hour of bhangra and I run into more people that I know. Turns out that there was a conflict (of course!). Well, I knew NC Lounge had a Siren's gig thing but there was also bhangra, etc. and Montek & Bruce were djing. So, its pretty damn cool that everyone who showed up, did show up.

Next time I play Chapel Hill I am going to go through another venue or booker. That is actually an extremely easy thing to do. No more damn Nightlight and ungrounded outlets. Stefan thinks I should carry a small electrical generator where I go. Perhaps not a bad idea.

Later, I get more detailed feedback from some of my friends. Rivka, whose dissertation is on embodiment and performance tells me she did really like how I used space on stage in my performance. She also said the accordion really worked since it was such an embodied instrument for me... which I think actually must have happened in the past few years. Pepe likes my rhythms and improvisation stuff... It was nice to get all that positive feedback. Oh, and Stefan says he's going to start going to my shows and holding up a big black sign that says "ANGST" in red letters.

It was so nice to be home (or a home-like place) even with all the stress. I had a locopop. You cannot find these outside of the Triangle. And rural areas of Mexico. Seriously! I had grapefruit-basil. (it is entirely predictable I would get the one with basil) Other flavors were: Tamirand, Chocolate Stout, Blueberry-Rosemary, Mango-Chile, Indian Rice Pudding, etc.

I also stayed with Gennette, who is a master water-saver. See, there's been a drought for almost a year or something and they were asked to cut water consumption by at least 30%. Gennette took that as a challenge. I think at this point she must be saving over 80% of what she was previously using. Seriously. And she has youtube videos about it.