REMASTERED My Seven Performances - #3: HGH, July 17, 2009, Part 1 of 5 - Enchant'ment (Pt 1)

Our first ever gig... and first ever day playing as a trio (rehearsals included... our sole one as a trio was three hours before this set). Performed onstage at the Manhattan on Friday, July 17th, 2009, as part of an evening of experimental music organized by Paul Goguen (aka Paranerd). We were followed by electronic musique concrète artist Ghistlain Roy (from Montréal) and Paranerd himself. Visuals were provided (via Nintendo NES console and LCD projector) by Heosphoros (which I believe is pronounced "He is for us" in a German-like accent).

Although HGH is commonly known as the acronym for "Human Growth Hormone(s)", it also comprises my first initial with the other two members' family initial. The three of us first played together during the community performance of Terry Riley's "In C" (see Performance #1 of "My 7 Performances"), organized by Frédérick "Fred" Hétu (who plays computer-based samples and keyboards here). André Hébert was the guy who helped me into the performance, by collaborating on rehearsal and showing up at the same time (he plays a Telecaster guitar, or maybe a Stratocaster... it's hard to see on this video... with only an amp and a volume pedal). I, over-achiever and with a hidden inferiority complex, showed up with Gibson Les Paul, Yamaha 5-string bass, Roland RC-300 MIDI programmer (which I forgot to touch during the _entire_ performance, despite testing it several times during soundcheck), CASIO MIDI-capable keyboard (from the late '80s), and a rented Roland RC-50 loop pedal combo (which may become my new pet plugin). The RC-50 is why I am frequently crouched down during the set.

We quickly found out during our sole rehearsal (we believe in speed ;) ) that we have a penchant for Henry Cow, early Tangerine Dream, ."Ummagumma"-era Pink Floyd, "Starless and Bible Black"-era King Crimson ("We'll Let You Know"), and Quebec's Dionne-Brégent and René Lussier (even though we may not actually listen to those groups... No wait, I listen to everything but Henry Cow on a semi-regular basis, and André loves the Henry Cow and René Lussier).

Enchant'ment (with the apostrophe to reflect both the English and French spelling of the word) is named as such because of the inclusion of a testimonial on old-time sorcery, a talk on positive thinking and action (which probably was considered sorcery back in the day), a child's enchanting verbalizations, and my singing (which is "chant", or "chanter", in French). Part 1 was based on our 15-minute(-or-so) rehearsal jam that evening, after which we set a blueprint for our set... which we subsequently barely followed in our attempt to replicate it. Part 1 is that attempt..
PS: I absolutely must declare that I had every intention of passing my bass and guitar to Fred, who also plays drums atop in addition to those instruments. In the heat of the moment, I plum forgot. Fred was still quite happy when we concluded the set... as were all of us, in fact. :)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Moncton
• experimental
• HGH
• the
• Human
• Growth
• Hormone
• Hormones
• Glen
• Burg
• Bourgeois
• Frederick
• Fred
• Fréderick
• Frédérick
• Hétu
• Hetu
• André
• Andre
• Hébert
• Hebert
• Manhattan
• Paranerd
• Ghislain
• Dionne
• Brégent
• Tangerine
• Dream
• Pink
• Floyd
• Henry
• Cow

[burgmail]

Let me clarify; our band name is HGH from the initials in our three names [Hetu Glen Hebert]. None of us take HGH, though friends off Youtube have spoken to me about their use. These friends are in their 50s andd 60s. I'm sorry but I cannot advise you on use of the HGH drug. I can tell you I was 4 foot 11 inches until the age of 17. Without drugs, I am now 5'8.

[TheLeilisa]

hgh will stunt my growth if im a teenager?