Its about a week shy of five years that I have been playing weekly at the Chateau Lafayette on York st. in Ottawa. I may have missed 2 or 3 Wednesdays in that whole time.
A house gig is a most interesting challenge as a performer. You are faced with maintaining an interesting show for a regular audience, as opposed to performing the same show for different audiences.
Some considerations : adding new repertoire is essential , but can be time consuming as I like to get really comfortable with a song, this can take weeks , months and sometimes years. It is one thing to have a cursory awareness of a song, but I think it is accurate to say it takes a deep ongoing revisiting to really get it good.
There are some people that come in to the show almost every week , some that come slightly less regularly , and a majority that drop in from time to time. Also on any given night there are always some random new faces in the audience, and this helps a lot to keep it fresh.
I am always surprised that so many people come so regularly , but I have learned to go with it.
The real sense of freshness and the antidote to monotony at least for me is in being in the moment with each tune each time it is played. Allowing it to come out the way it wants to on any given occasion, with all the factors that define that moment distinguishing it from all the other times it is played. Its not quite the same as Jazz where ideally only the bare bones of a head and the harmonic structure are maintained, I’m sure 9 out of 10 times a given rendition is similar in most respects to previous incarnations, but once in a while it takes a whole new dimension.
Or course this could be true of any performance , and probably should be, but it is easier to rely on standardized approaches when you are in a new town playing to new audiences. With the house job , you have to keep it fresh and try and create a unique experience every time.
Of course the witty and not so witty banter in between songs always gives each performance its own energy. Sometimes the comic monologue flows like water , and sometimes the awkward moments steal the night. Often it is defined by what the regulars throw in there, or the odd heckler. The heckler psyche has always bewildered me, trying to understand what motivates someone to try and hijack the room when they are witlessly drunk. I always think of them as would be performers who are too lazy to get a gig or think of anything engaging to say.
As the performer however it is always your job to avoid catastrophe and an uncomfortable audience is catastrophic. I am not saying I suceed at it each time, but it is the goal. Ultimately you are there to have and facilitate a good time. And make millions of dollars. Luckily the good time part is working out.

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