Here’s our living room this morning:
But here’s what it was like last night:
A rockin’ house concert, for our family and 25 other folks – some of whom were friends, but most of whom were just friendly strangers.
That’s Jason Narducy playing to the crowd. He releases music as Split Single. He’s also the touring bassist for Superchunk, one of my favorite bands. Also bassist in the Bob Mould band (Bob’s another fave). And Jason teamed up with actor Michael Shannon to organize the R.E.M. tribute supergroup that I posted about a couple of months ago. Oh, and he wrote a book filled with some fun stories from his life on the road as a musician.
When he’s not touring as a “band guy” he does solo house concerts.
It’s not a glamorous existence, cramming all your gear into a rental car (in Jason’s case, a rental car with the “lane assist” function that he can’t figure out how to turn off) and driving hours upon hours to get to the next stop. And when you get there, setting up all that gear, hoping the host is a decent human being, and that your voice isn’t shot, and that the crowd isn’t dead.
It’s also not a lucrative endeavor. On a good night, you move the people with your music, and you move some merchandise too. Enough to pay the bills, and may put a few bills in your pocket.
From my biased perspective, I think last night was a great night. Jason’s a gifted musician, and a natural storyteller. And he’s a heck of a nice guy. As much as I love hearing music in an intimate setting, I probably enjoy the dead time before the show just as much. It was just Jason and I, hanging out in our kitchen. I won’t delude myself that we’re now besties. But it was good to get to know a bit more about him as a person, not just a performer.
Live music is my thing, but every house concert is a family affair. Peter helped me rearrange the furniture. Tina cleaned after my “cleaning” efforts fell short. Gabriel grabbed the pizza for Jason’s pre-show meal. Leah and Andrew kept the dogs upstairs when guests started arriving.
The show was stellar – mostly originals, with a few tasty covers (The Kinks, Superchunk, R.E.M… on mandolin!) in the mix. Great stories in-between.
We live on Wilaray Terrace and Jason jokingly called it “Wilaray Arena.” I love that. As long as I’m living, our living room will be open for business as Wilaray Arena. Because I’ll take a rockin’ living room over arena rock 100% of the time. Or in Jason’s case “95 Percent.”
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