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I'm finding, more and more frequently, that the music of my filky friends doesn't have to be relegated to traditional filk venues. Many of the songs make the transition to more mainstream venues without missing a beat, and it's fun to watch audiences hook into the stories in the songs.
I love playing for fannish audiences because they listen and they're interested in the lyrics, and they sing along and show obvious enjoyment in the words... not just the music. But if you get out of smoky bars (where bands are frequently just background noise for the drunken conversations), mainstream audiences can also turn out to be very appreciative of songs with cutting wit and good storylines (or just a great beat, even with semi-incomprehensible lyrics).
Yesterday was a good case in point. Wild Mercy played a picnic gig at a local winery. People (several hundred people!) brought chairs or blankets and hung out on the winery's beautiful lawn, enjoying pizza and wine and the company of friends, kids and dogs (I must do a blog post over on reddogs.com about this being a dog-friendly event... I know lots of the local dog-loving crowd would be thrilled to have another place that they can take their furry friends), while we did three sets and enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather.
( First Set )
During the set break, I went out to spend some quality snuggle time with a gorgeous Newfoundland (who can resist a giant black fuzzy dog, after all???) and visited with several clusters of people as I made my way across the lawn and then back to the patio, and several people commented on how much they were enjoying the variety of the songs. Yay! We like introducing new people to the music of our friends!
( Sets Two and Three )
So, out of 32 songs, 14 were filk. For a non-fannish audience, who pretty much just ate it all up. That's pretty cool. (We also got great reactions to Naked Highwayman and the Christine Lavin and DaVinci's Notebook songs, all of which are certainly very filk-compatible, while not technically filk.)
My point (yes, there really is one) in all of this is that there are many audiences who love a good song, and filk has generated a lot of good songs. Now we just all need to get out there and share them with the rest of the world! Don't sell audiences short by thinking that they "won't get it"... heck, people were rockin' along to "Come to the Party"... even as they looked puzzled by the word salad sections! :-)
So for those filkers who also gig in mundane venues... go through your filk book and see what you can add to your repertoire for those gigs. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the audience's response!
I love playing for fannish audiences because they listen and they're interested in the lyrics, and they sing along and show obvious enjoyment in the words... not just the music. But if you get out of smoky bars (where bands are frequently just background noise for the drunken conversations), mainstream audiences can also turn out to be very appreciative of songs with cutting wit and good storylines (or just a great beat, even with semi-incomprehensible lyrics).
Yesterday was a good case in point. Wild Mercy played a picnic gig at a local winery. People (several hundred people!) brought chairs or blankets and hung out on the winery's beautiful lawn, enjoying pizza and wine and the company of friends, kids and dogs (I must do a blog post over on reddogs.com about this being a dog-friendly event... I know lots of the local dog-loving crowd would be thrilled to have another place that they can take their furry friends), while we did three sets and enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather.
( First Set )
During the set break, I went out to spend some quality snuggle time with a gorgeous Newfoundland (who can resist a giant black fuzzy dog, after all???) and visited with several clusters of people as I made my way across the lawn and then back to the patio, and several people commented on how much they were enjoying the variety of the songs. Yay! We like introducing new people to the music of our friends!
( Sets Two and Three )
So, out of 32 songs, 14 were filk. For a non-fannish audience, who pretty much just ate it all up. That's pretty cool. (We also got great reactions to Naked Highwayman and the Christine Lavin and DaVinci's Notebook songs, all of which are certainly very filk-compatible, while not technically filk.)
My point (yes, there really is one) in all of this is that there are many audiences who love a good song, and filk has generated a lot of good songs. Now we just all need to get out there and share them with the rest of the world! Don't sell audiences short by thinking that they "won't get it"... heck, people were rockin' along to "Come to the Party"... even as they looked puzzled by the word salad sections! :-)
So for those filkers who also gig in mundane venues... go through your filk book and see what you can add to your repertoire for those gigs. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the audience's response!
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