Our gig in Peace Park on Saturday afternoon went extremely well. In addition to our individual solo sets, Maggie, Tony, Jamie, and I did a final set together. We had to cut it a bit short due to time restrictions, so we chose 4 of our more up-beat tunes and let Maggie and Tony’s powerful voices wow the crowd. We also had our friends Cannery Row do a set of their songs, and invited a cookin’ blues harp player, Kit, to sit in on some tunes. Kit is new to Hiroshima, and I expect to see him out playing a lot.I was pleased with my set, and got several nice compliments. Overall, Saturday was a big boost to my spirit, following my disappointing gig the previous Wednesday.Right before I went on stage Saturday, I had the pleasure to speak with Kamitsuna Katsuhiko for just a few minutes. Kamitsuna-san, a native of Hiroshima, is a very well-known pianist/keyboardist/songwriter in Japan. Although I’ve known his wife well for many years, I’ve only spoken with Kamitsuna-san briefly, and that had been several years ago. I was shocked that he remembered me. He was excited to see a Chapman Stick for the first time, and told me a story about how he had met Dan Chapman, Emmett’s brother, many years ago, and that they had performed together. (Dan is a harmonica player.) What a small world!

The music ended at 4pm, we packed up our gear, and then promptly found a nice spot under some cherry blossoms to spend a few hours eating and drinking with a large group of friends. Springtime in Hiroshima is just amazing.

I’ve been redesigning the English side of the website a bit, with a few more minor changes to come later. After I get everything ironed out here, I’ll make the same changes to the Japanese side.

Practice tonight with Maggie, Tony, and Jamie for our gig in Peace Park tomorrow afternoon. I’m hoping the weather cooperates. If it’s as sunny and warm as today, we should have a wonderful event. After we finish and clean up, I hope to find a nice spot to sit down with friends, some food and beer, and enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

My solo performance at Starbuck’s last night wasn’t quite as smooth as
I would have liked. I was running a bit hot and cold, with a repeating
pattern of one song coming out about as good as I’ve ever played it,
then the next coming dangerously close to a train wreck. It ended on a
high note, so I was happy about that, and the crowd was very nice.

Largely as a result of last night’s experience, I’ve decided that I should
try to perform in front of people more often, to get more stage experience
and hopefully learn to suppress the pre-performance jitters a bit. I have a
few contacts at restaurants, cafes, and such, so maybe I’ll be able to work
out some regular monthly gigs at a few places.

I also discovered last night that I apparently have a short in my mono-stereo
Stick cable. In the middle of a song in the second set, I could hear some
static in the bass side like the signal was about to go out. Luckily I
had the presence of mind to quickly flip my pickup switch to mono, and
then finished the show playing through only the melody side pickups. It
went so smoothly, I really doubt if anyone noticed the change. I got home
at about 2:30am and immediately called Stick Enterprises to order new
cables.