This is going to suck.

At the open mic this week, the sound guy played, and he was great. He and I have the same first name, and we chatted for awhile before things got rolling. Initially I felt bad for him, because he had trouble getting the equipment working (it was his first day). But he sounded great when it came to be his turn to play. He has a sort of spanish classical style, and the typical skills associated with it - the triplet trilling, the runs of fast double-picked notes, the generally just badass sounding Em and Am chord progressions.

But what he said before he played a song he wrote was, "I have been told never to say, 'This is going to suck,' on stage, but..." and then he started playing. And he rocked that song. And it's an important lesson about stagecraft: most of it is maintaining the impression that you're doing what you plan to. Even if you fuck up badly, if you can keep it rolling, or even make it seem intentional, you're set.

My playing that night was plagued by problems. The bar is so cold, and my nerves run so sweaty-palm anxious that when it comes time to play anything that is fingerstyle and complicated (i.e. my bread and butter) I lose all my fine control and feel like I'm playing with ten thumbs. Maybe I should learn the Chet Atkins song, All Thumbs: