Lights, Camera, Zoom! The Mules Go Virtual.
For one chilly Saturday evening in February, Dick’s back deck was transformed into a TV studio – much to the surprise of his pets & neighbors. The Mules had been invited by Marin Democrats to perform for their annual Ragin’ Cajun Mardi Gras fundraiser. Only this year, for obvious reasons, the event was held via Zoom. So this would become the Mules’ first show of 2021 and their very first experience with live online performance.
Dick started researching optimal Zoom settings about a month ahead of time, but Brian stepped up, and Dick and Geoff were more than happy to let him take the lead on the technical logistics. After all, Brian does have his own IMDB page full of film credits as a production assistant, boom operator, camera operator etc. But Zoom is a whole different animal and there was much to learn, equipment to acquire and hook up, and plenty of trial and error, hair-pulling and troubleshooting.
The Wednesday before the show Brian had enough together to attempt a run-through. It had been a long and frustrating day. Nothing seemed to want to work on Dick’s back deck quite as flawlessly as it had in Brian’s living room. But that evening the band assembled — the first time they’d all been together since Novermber — and things started to come together. The band sounded good and looked pretty OK (except the too-bright lights completely washed out everyone’s face). The only real problem was that the band didn’t have any way to hear the other end of the Zoom call. Geoff’s wife, Marisa, had to monitor the call via headphones and give the band a visual cue when it was time for them to play. That got us through the run-through, but it did seem too nerve-rackingly hit-or-miss to rely on for the actual show.
Fortunately by Saturday evening, Brian had worked his magic and figured out how to pipe the Zoom audio into the band’s PA monitors. And he even managed to connect the laptop to Dick’s TV, conveniently located just inside the back door, so they were able to see and hear the call from the “stage.”
Brian had managed to set up four cameras so we had a good variety of camera angles available. Marisa functioned as the director, switching between cameras during the show. She even thought to point her finger to the current live camera so the band members – at least the ones paying attention – would know which camera to face.
Interspersed between speeches by Congressman Jared Huffman (who is an awesome guitar player in his own right) and a couple of state legislators, reminders about the in-progress silent auction, pleas for volunteers, award presentations, etc. the Mules performed three songs that evening, two Miracle Mule originals “Bayou Delight” and “Romp in the Swamp,” and the ELO Cajun classic, “Hold On Tight to Your Dream.”
Hopefully this won’t be betraying a closely guarded secret, but the multi-colored hair that Sandy was sporting for this event was . . . not her own hair. Partway into “Hold on Tight” Sandy was aghast to realize that her wig was slipping and the hair-do’s misbehavior was visible to who-knows-how-many out in cyberspace. Suddenly she was much more concerned with holding on tight to her wig than to her dream. But trooper that she is, Sandy soldiered through, survived the ordeal and didn’t even get the lyrics scrambled along the way.
The Mules closed the evening with the title song to their perpetually upcoming album, “Romp in the Swamp.” No applause were audible over Zoom as they took their final bow, but the session’s comments section contained accolades such as “Love Miracle Mule!” and “This is my first Zoom live concert, but this is incredible!!!”
Never before had the band invested as much time, effort and energy to play a 3-song show, but it turned out to be a wonderfully fun evening and a great learning experience. Now that the Mules have gone virtual and mastered online performing, who knows what possibilities might lie ahead?