🎵 NHAMFest26: offbeat live & unplugged
#music #musique #fediverse in #english
So I usually chronicle my musical adventures on this blog, but between the three-month-long heatwave and the adventures themselves, it just dawned on me that I had totally neglected to keep up. So I’ll hopefully be catching up over the next few days, starting with this post.
#NHAMFest26 took place on August 27, with an animated and retrostrange pre-fest evening on the 26th, CELEBRATING CREATIVE HUMANS AND FRIENDLY HANGOUTS as the (n)hamster who made it all happen described the event, which saw a non-stop series of artists perform from 5am to 1am the next morning (UTC time).
I’m not supposed to play favorites, but I’m only human and I have to say that Sound Of The Void (@Firesledge@piaille.fr), Johann Bourquenez (@johann@masto.bike), control.org (@controlfreak@social.control.org) and (big surprise) @bgm@musicians.today and his son George were particular highlights for me (no offense to the others whom I also greatly enjoyed).
I participated too, by helping with organization and backstage logistics, and by playing my own set, because it generally takes about a year for me to forget how stressful it was the last time. And as usual, I was paralyzed with stage fright from start to finish because I think playing live is totally incompatible with my brand of offbeatness. Mentally, I was relatively serene, even though I hadn’t been able to learn my songs properly due to the uninterrupted crushing heat, but my body begged to differ and tried to sabotage the whole thing. Nevertheless, I muddled through acoustic versions of the songs from my latest album, offbeat, and even brought out the ukulele to play my smash hit, Ukulele Bonk to close out the set, and the kind audience was very supportive.
The whole event, despite tricky logistics, went off with nary a hitch, I managed to catch all but 2 or 3 acts (out of 20 or so), a lot of people showed up, and the vibe in the interactive chat was fantastic all the way through.
Somewhat bittersweet thoughts...
Recovering during the following days, I have to admit I had bittersweet feelings. I’m always amazed and energized by the great community spirit, but I can’t help but reflect on why people attend or don’t attend.
It was a weekday, some people were at work, some people were busy with life, or are naturally shy or otherwise uncomfortable in social situations including online, while demonstrating a strong community spirit in other ways or situations, and all that is perfectly understandable and fine.
But it’s always a bit, shall we say, disappointing, to see how certain prominent and/or vocal people in the Fedi music community seem to systematically see community as a one-way street. And don’t get me started on “music influencers” who continue to ignore any and all manifestations of indie music on the Fedi. You know who you are...
Conversely, I was very pleasantly surprised to see some unexpected people show up. And a lot of people who follow me on Mastodon and who don’t necessarily care about my music don’t hesitate to boost my music-related posts, and gladly boosted the ones promoting #NHAMFest26, which is always very touching and appreciated, so if they can be bothered to do it…
So consider my eyes opened, for better or for worse.
Sorry for the negativity, but I had to get it off my chest. Anyway, I’m never doing this again!
Until the next time I forget how traumatic it is.
Thank you to those who attended and/or watched the replay of my set and sent kind and supportive words my way. I really appreciate it! Several more recordings are available on the NHAM Live Performances page.
And a huge thank you to the (n)hamster for the huge amount of work he put in to make this happen!
