Our first live studio audience
We did a show tonight for DotConFest, a new all-online convention that's happening all weekend (gaming stuff is tomorrow!).Our show was a surreal and amazing experience, and I just wanted to share our thanks.
When our evening started, Aubrey and I were worried about how this streaming concert thing was going to work out. The technology (UStream) is new to us, and, per usual, Aubrey was quite concerned about making the audio sound good (I guess we're a musical act, so this is logical. I'm glad that she worries about these things). We were both rushing to the very last minute to get the accounts, video, and audio up and working.In the meantime, our studio audience was arriving at my house. I sent out a call for audience members earlier this week, thinking it would be nice to not play a show just into a silent, unloving webcam. It didn't really occur to me until later that I would need to clean up my house and find a space to host these people, but thankfully our kind people are awesome, which makes this a pretty low-stress experience.The audience ended up being a combination of fans we don't know very well, fans we know quite well, and our friends. Jill brought cookies that look like bears in Star Trek uniforms. Ian brought Thin Mints, which are now in my freezer making me very happy.
The show started at 5. After an excellent and mostly-technologically-sound set by DJ REAL, Aubrey and I played our music. Then we answered some questions.And it all worked! We didn't get technical hiccups that would have frustrated us and made us all annoyed. The studio audience was looking at us and smiling (in between tweets, of course). The online audience was also happy, we're told, though we couldn't see what they were typing. It was a very happy experience. Not every show is one that makes me want to smile the whole time through, but this one was. It made me want to do all of our shows in my basement to about 10 people.
When the show was over, we all sat down to watch Mike Phirman's set. Mike's concert ended up as a surreal and hilarious encounter held in his home studio with his two-year-old was running around and dancing adorably. Unfortunately, Mike did not push "record" on his performance, so it has been lost to time. Those of us who saw it will cherish the moments forever. Thank you, Mike.And thank you all very much: for being in our studio or online audience, for creating and supporting things like DotConFest, for generally adding to our cause so we can participate in things like this and have these moments that make us so very appreciative. I don't think we thank you enough. You make the Doubleclicks happen, and that makes our lives great.We've been in the studio in all of our spare moments for the last couple months. It's going well, but it's quite exhausting and it's getting old. The good news is that the album is going to be done! Eventually! And you'll be able to listen to it! Sometime! YAY! The exhaustion of the studio has made having shows all the more important, however - to remind us why we're doing the hard parts of this whole "musician" thing.See more pictures of our show below.You can also watch the whole show, recorded as it was broadcast, on the DotConFest UStream!
When our evening started, Aubrey and I were worried about how this streaming concert thing was going to work out. The technology (UStream) is new to us, and, per usual, Aubrey was quite concerned about making the audio sound good (I guess we're a musical act, so this is logical. I'm glad that she worries about these things). We were both rushing to the very last minute to get the accounts, video, and audio up and working.In the meantime, our studio audience was arriving at my house. I sent out a call for audience members earlier this week, thinking it would be nice to not play a show just into a silent, unloving webcam. It didn't really occur to me until later that I would need to clean up my house and find a space to host these people, but thankfully our kind people are awesome, which makes this a pretty low-stress experience.The audience ended up being a combination of fans we don't know very well, fans we know quite well, and our friends. Jill brought cookies that look like bears in Star Trek uniforms. Ian brought Thin Mints, which are now in my freezer making me very happy.The show started at 5. After an excellent and mostly-technologically-sound set by DJ REAL, Aubrey and I played our music. Then we answered some questions.And it all worked! We didn't get technical hiccups that would have frustrated us and made us all annoyed. The studio audience was looking at us and smiling (in between tweets, of course). The online audience was also happy, we're told, though we couldn't see what they were typing. It was a very happy experience. Not every show is one that makes me want to smile the whole time through, but this one was. It made me want to do all of our shows in my basement to about 10 people.When the show was over, we all sat down to watch Mike Phirman's set. Mike's concert ended up as a surreal and hilarious encounter held in his home studio with his two-year-old was running around and dancing adorably. Unfortunately, Mike did not push "record" on his performance, so it has been lost to time. Those of us who saw it will cherish the moments forever. Thank you, Mike.And thank you all very much: for being in our studio or online audience, for creating and supporting things like DotConFest, for generally adding to our cause so we can participate in things like this and have these moments that make us so very appreciative. I don't think we thank you enough. You make the Doubleclicks happen, and that makes our lives great.We've been in the studio in all of our spare moments for the last couple months. It's going well, but it's quite exhausting and it's getting old. The good news is that the album is going to be done! Eventually! And you'll be able to listen to it! Sometime! YAY! The exhaustion of the studio has made having shows all the more important, however - to remind us why we're doing the hard parts of this whole "musician" thing.See more pictures of our show below.You can also watch the whole show, recorded as it was broadcast, on the DotConFest UStream!