I’ve been asked and I’ve asked the question of myself, why I don’t play many ‘Livestream’ gigs. The answer is fairly simple. I don’t enjoy them very much. I understand during these times of Covid that these livestream gigs are pretty much all we have, as musicians, that we can play but it is so not the same and I struggle with that. It’s the direct contact with folks that I miss. I’m sure we all do, both the musicians and the folks who love going to gigs.
In a way, a livestream gig is like playing a house concert. Now I love playing house concerts, they are small and intimate and I hope to play many more of them once we are able to gig again. They are the type of gig where I can tell anecdotes and stories between songs. I know you’ll say ‘But you can still do that with a livestream gig’ but it’s the immediate reactions of folks that make it really work for me.
If I do decide to play a livestream gig, I don’t really want to be sitting inside my caravan whilst playing to folks either. Where I am in Spain I can be in mountains, by a lake or by the sea, in around 15 to 20 minutes, though playing outside does create it’s own problems as I’ve found. Wind noise, the position of the sun and making sure I have a good signal, being the main ones. Hopefully the wind noise can be solved now by my purchase of an external microphone, a Rode Video Mic and what is called a ‘Dead Cat’, a fluffy sleeve that fits over the microphone to help eliminate wind noise. That said, on the occasion I played the livestream of the songs due to appear on my next album back in November last year, for some reason on the day I had to switch from the Rode Mic to the internal mic on the phone and then had a wind noise problem. Also I was in partial silhouette at times due to where I had positioned the camera to catch the beauty of my surroundings. Movie makers, I bow down to your skills, it really ain’t easy folks. Maybe I’ll give it another go once we return to Spain as just now, we’re stuck in the UK or I may even see about playing one here at the house before we return to Spain.
What I do know though is that I really and I do mean really, don’t like having a second device so I can read folks comments. By all means make them, I’ll read them after and reply then if okay with you. My apologies but for me it breaks up what I’m doing, struggling to read the writing on a small screen between playing songs. As I’ve already said, I understand that this is how it is now and for those musicians who play these gigs maybe it works and works for those of you watching. You’re happy and they’re happy with the model we have at this time but sadly it is not for me.
I have done and still will play occasionally for charity events with an online stream. There will most definitely be one for the National Association for Bikers with a Disability at the beginning of May. I’m sorting the musicians for that one now. I may try another livestream gig for myself at some point but you at least now know and I hope understand, why I don’t really play many of them. CHEERS !! …. Stevie.