The sufferings of the final Open Mic Night

The final Open Mic of the academic year was held in the EleHouse on Saturday 21 May 2011. It was also Unbirth’s birthday, and he had requested a song, Still Alive from the first Portal game. The other two songs I sang were John Denver — Annie’s Song and The Bangles — Eternal Flame.

BUT I TELL YOU, I SUFFERED OTL.

-___-“

The list of things which went right:

• Eight people whom I invited had turned up, so I had quite an audience.
• There were a few people who recognised me, including the organisers themselves.
• I had an okay voice.
• It was filled with people wanting to perform, which was a great thing.
• A number of people knew Still Alive. ^_^

The list of things which went wrong:

• The keyboard was brought in at the last minute — I was deprived of the keyboard I had used in previous Open Mic Nights, because it’s now with the organiser’s son in Kent!
• This keyboard had no sustain pedal.
• The lower register was lower than usual.
• I had to bend and look at the keys half the time because of how it all was…
• I had next to no practice, except  for the vocals.

And I’m glad and grateful to God and to the members of the audience that they enjoyed my performance. But soon after that, someone came… a music student… with his electric guitar, and BLEW EVERYONE’S MINDS AWAY. Not that I’m complaining about him or being envious of him — he is good, and he should keep it up. But I wanted to do 10x better than I did that night, and I knew I could… and yet, given all that I had, that was all I could do. I have no keyboard to my name (or else I could’ve brought it, I could have even practised!), and my goal has always been to touch hearts with my music. If I’m not going to be given a chance to do that, then my goal is always going to be something out of my reach. Sad, but true.

Thanks to Marta, Glenn, Kevin, Sengnom, Mary, Shelby, Carolyn and Emmanuel for being there for me. Thanks also to Suet Li and all those who watched and gave feedback on the vid. Thanks to all who supported me even from a distance, even though they couldn’t come, and thanks especially to Glenn for taking the vid, and to Kevin for taking the still pictures (coming soon)!