A fair point. Minnesota can be something of a crapshoot when it comes to audiences, but from experience I can tell you that bigger is decidedly not better. And I hope you didn't find me dismissive in using the word "minutiae". That wasn't my intent. I tend to speak dismissively concerning myself. I've called my instruments "toys" before, and once got a rebuke for it from a well-meaning, but I'm afraid rather humorless, party.Brus wrote:There are enough geeks at festivals, especially at the smaller stages featuring the trad-est performers, to make this worthwhile.
At least in the northeast USA, where all the festivals I've been to are.
For me there's performing, and then there's entertaining. Accordingly, the performer's stagecraft gets part of my attention. As I've hinted before, in my opinion slinging the minutiae is fine if you can entertain with it, but on average that will depend more on the crowd than on you. So I agree that on smaller stages at festivals one may more safely geek away, but being entertaining about it still gets those plus points. The bigger stages are where there's more pressure to entertain, but not all performers are entertainers, and I get that. They don't have to be. But when they are, it's a thing of beauty, and what I like best is when it's so subtle that it's almost easy to miss, and yet...there you are, entertained. Of course it can be overdone, and that's no good either. The light touch gets my vote; if you can play like a champ and on top of it simply engage me in good humor, I'm yours. In the end personality comes into it, and I can state for the record that while I've performed a fair-enough amount, I'm no entertainer because I have all the stage personality of a handtool. But I can still note and appreciate it nonetheless.
