Just prior to my Old Bard's Night concert (log available due to the amazing work of Mykk Dalys and hisConcert Archive), I was a complete wreck. A fact which, for some odd reason, surprised a few people. I remember getting the question, "You're an hold hand at this, why are you getting so nervous?" Therin lies the rub. There are two sides to a great concert, the performance and preparing for the perfomance.

It's true enough that I've gotten a bit blase` as far as performing concerts goes. When it's just the music, I'm good to go at the drop of a hat (or, more accurately, the raise of a glass), there's a point bards reach where you can just go out and play, letting your music take you. However, that's a point you can fall away from in the blink of a critic's eye. I won't kid you, there's always something a bit stomach-churning about the stage, a splash of adrenilene no meer clash of arms can compete with, and that's the way it should be.

But, as bad or good as that can be, it's my experience that the setting up of a concert is a far, far bigger worry. I really have to applaud Dreamheart and Daerlynn for having the gumption to put together and maintain their concert serieses, my A Night of Romance series is bad enough, and that's no where near as often as theirs. Particuarly given one simple thing -- it's much easier to plan for your actions than a bunch of others.

That's the thing that really got to me prior to the Old Bard's Night concert, not what I was going to perform, but getting the other performers together and in synch. For the longest time, I only knew where one of them was, then another showed, then I was beating my brains out waiting for the last for what felt like days. It is an unfortuneate fact of planing InGame events that you never know what RealLife events are going to take place to devestate those plans. That's why the single most important ability a performing bard can have is flexibility. On the RL stage, it's the same way. When things start to go wrong, you just have to suck it up and keep going, "the show must go on," and all that rot. It's the same way in DR. If you're a performer short, maybe you'll just cut that song and not go quite so far over budget on time. If you're in a play and the actor playing the lead is in the dressing room changing clothes because he thought he had a lot longer than he really did and is now needed on stage to stop one of the actors currently on from coming off, maybe you'll just have to wander out there and do ten minutes of improve until he finially showes up. It happens. You don't have much choice but to go with it when it does, and hope the audiance doesn't notice too much. Then, later on, you can have a panic attack and drink down lots of rum or whiskey or wine or all of the above...