Post CapriCon Open Thread

[filkertom]

So Amtrak was kinda iffy, but CapriCon itself was a lot of fun.  billroper and daisy_knotwise were incredibly gracious and kind (especially poor Gretchen, her bank is changing computer systems and Friday night she was frazzed), and everyone else, from my dear friend Pat at Ops to (I believe) Richard running the Internet Cafe, was just as nice and helpful.

I also got to spend time I don't usually have to talk with people, especially Gretchen, Pat, Erica Neely (catalana, every bit as lovely of voice and song as of form and manner, which are pretty hubba-hubba), and my old fannish mentor Lee Darrow, and comics writer and novelist Peter B. Gillis, and other people I hadn't seen in awhile like Alan Salmi and Dierdre (the filker best known for autoharp), and whole bunches of other folks like Jan and ericcoleman and tigertoy and on and on and on....

Oh yeah... I had two sets.  I try not to toot my own horn too much, but I think we rocked pretty hard, especially the Saturday Night concert, which went a full hour and forty minutes.  Lots of energy, lots of shtick, lots of fun.

So... how was your weekend?  If you were at either of my sets, I'm frankly soliciting reviews.  I think everything went really well, but I'd like other opinions.  :)

Comments

[bardicwench.livejournal.com]

Glad you had fun. I was boredboredbored this weekend... getting ready to fly to Arizona on Friday, though, and I keep hoping that the rain down there will stop...

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

Hi! I caught most of your earlier set, but couldn't make it to your later set (I was the one with the 6 month old, and needed to tend to him when I could have been at your later concert - oh, the woes -and woahs- of motherhood *wink*). This was my first time to see you perform and it was great - you have fabulous energy and you're extremely funny. I hope you don't mind me adding you to LJ - I'm rather an addict and I saw you on a couple flists of friends.

Hope to see you perform again soon.

[spiritdancer]

And just so you know, Erica is catalana

LJ is a magnet, y'know? ;-)

_M_

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's who catalana is!

[firedrake-mor.livejournal.com]

Okay: The world is now officially too small for words.

Lee Darrow is your "old fannish mentor"? I haven't seen him since the SCA's Pennsic War III, in 1974, where he was one of Bob's Aspirin's (Yang the Nauseating's) Dark Horde, as "TarKhan Jubei." As I recall, we talked about hypnotism and suggestion even then!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Met him in 1977-78, thereabouts. He was working in a little magic shop attached to a T-shirt/head shop on State Street (which also sold underground comix, and was where I discovered Cerebus at the very beginning of its existence).

[ericcoleman]

I only saw a little of your show since I was on the air spinning at the time.

What I saw was brilliant ... What I heard about later sounds like it was even better.

Oh, it did occur to me later that I was doing a dementia show friday afternoon. I tried to find you to see if you wanted to hang out, but wasn't able to.

Your music showed up on RC twice. I played Talk Like A Pirate Day in the Dementia show.

Saturday afternoon I did a show of folks I have met or got to hang out with more this last year including Roper, Erica, the folks from Riverfolk, Dave Clement and many more.

It seemed a perfect to close out the show with Rich Fantasy Lives. It's one of those songs I hear occasionally that I want to thank the songwriter for giving to us.

Thanks.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I missed your Internet Cafe set. I wandered into the cafe while you were still signing CDs for people, but you were done singing.

I was pretty highly entertained by your main concert set, and it seemed from where I sat that there were a bunch of other people there who felt the same, but I was a little troubled by the attitude you were projecting in your patter between songs. I think we, the audience in general for live music, do sincerely want the performers to be enjoying themselves, but you seemed to be laying it on a little thick about how much fun you were having. It seemed to me that if I did not already know you and your material, I might be put off by your talking about how much fun you were having, as though the audience had come to entertain you instead of the other way around. Now, I understand that you understand so much more about connecting with an audience than I do that I shouldn't even say anything, except that you did specifically ask; so if this is something you're doing on purpose because you think it draws the audience in, I'm willing to accept that you know more about these things than I do; but if it's just something that happens, it might be something you want to think about a little bit.

As far as song selection goes, I love to hear more of your serious material; if I got to write your set list, I'd put in PQR and maybe Hellraiser or Starlight and Saxophone, and I'd take out Honey Glazed Ham, 'cause, well, I've heard it before, and I'd take out the long B5 song whose title I forget, because I'm not a B5 fan and most of it goes right over my head. But I don't remember any songs from the set that I didn't like. Thanks for doing Telly Taley Heart and 307 Ale; those are a couple of favorites I rarely hear you do.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

i disagree, phil...tom WAS having fun...and i thought he did an excellent job.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Yes, Tom was having fun, and that's as it should be, because if he stopped having fun so would we. The show was great; I just thought I caught one wrong note in the symphony.

[st0rmseeker.livejournal.com]

W00t! The Saturday show was awesome! I've been listening to your music since my friend gave me his copy of Who let him in here three or four years ago. This was my girlfriends first time at a Con and my first chance of catching one of your live performances. She had a blast and so did I. (She was "that babe by the door" as referenced by Seven Drunken Nights in Space in the red renaissance garb.) I thought the energy was really good and I loved hearing some of my favorites like 307 Ale, Rocket Ride and D.I. live. I had forgotten about Hellraiser or I would have requested it. :-P I can’t wait for the site updates and new or updated tunes.

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

Not having seen either of your sets (nor having been anywhere near Arlington Heights at the time), I can only speculate...

filkertom played a good first set. Many songs we knew, a few we didn't. By the end of the set, everyone was singing along to that one Dr. Seuss song he does. The second set, however, was astounding. The set began with an old favorite, "There's Strontium in the Asp of My Badger's Pajamas," accompanied by the ancient Greek philosopher Demosthenes on slide whistle, and Cardinal Richelieu on electric tuba. Tom then segued into a thirty-minute rant on the evils of tea bags - a rant which some say led to the destruction of several Lipton factories around the country. From there, we heard such timeless favorites as "Hellraiser," and that one about the alien elbow-planers. By this time, the audience was dancing in the aisles. Tom finished his set with a rollicking rendition of "There's a Tear in My Beer," accompanied by Emmanuel Kant on the piccolo. Several audience members, when interviewed afterwards, revealed that for a few moments, they had thought that they were tuna. All in all, it was the sort of show that makes one stand up and say, "I've got to run upstairs and irradiate the pudding!"

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

i was totally in awe (although i was afraid you were going to break tc)...you were having fun and you had more energy than i have seen you have in a long time. close to two hours and the audience didn't want you to quit. the song you did for jonathan was ...truly a nice thing to do...i'm glad you were there.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

my weekend was kind of meh. worked too much, got to wrap pallets to ship out and in doing so hurt my back a bit (muscle spasms are so not fun), and spent most of the weekend with a migraine. but my sweetie took me out to dinner last night for valentine's day, since by the time i get out of work tonight he's just getting ready to go in to work, so that made it all better. :-)

[mikewdotorg.livejournal.com]

When I noticed your journal post that you were heading to CapriCon, that's what threw me over the edge on a decision to go myself, and I wasn't disappointed.

This was the first time I had seen Tom Smith in concert, and all I can say is mind blowing, synapse-frying fun! One of audience members (while gasping for breath from laughing so hard) summed it up nicely, "It just keeps coming."

Anyway, I know I'm late in getting to this party, but it took me a while to get my LJ account set up.

Thanks Tom for a wonderful show, I hope to see you again!

-mike

[jss]

FYI: Star Wars: Episode III spoilers on the graphics-heavy page here.