What a Lemon Demon setlist might look like

There is no shortage of talented showmen in the music industry, but now and then there are cultural icons who fall into obscurity despite their contributions. One such legend is Internet comedian Niel Cicierega, also known as his musical persona Lemon Demon. Niel has been around since the dawn of the Internet, and has been setting bizarre trends since. Internet veterans may know him as the guy behind Brodyquest, Bustin, The Ultimate Showdown, Potter Puppet Pals, and so much more. Niel has toured with his band as Lemon Demon in the past, their last show being in 2012. Since then he’s released a full album called Spirit Phone, which has only expanded his cult following online. Knowing me, this hiatus has left my imagination to run wild. I keep wondering what Lemon Demon’s live show would look like today with a new album to showcase and perhaps a larger special effects budget. So I made a playlist of the songs I think he should play.

Now it may look like a bunch of songs thrown together all willy-nilly, but I assure you that each one has been specifically chosen and placed in a deliberate order. It’s up to the artist what beats they want to hit in their show, but there are a few general rules of thumb I tried to follow here. One rule is to start high energy; this can be done by bursting into the set with Lifetime Achievement Award, the first song on Spirit Phone, which has a transition into Touch-Tone Telephone that gave me shivers the first time I heard it. Most of Niel’s back-catalogue is not as well-known as the Spirit Phone songs, but I sprinkled in the must-have fan-favorites so that it’s not just all songs from the same album. He also makes a lot of chaotic songs, which can be exhausting even for an audience that expects it. There’s a soft moment with No Eyed Girl and Spiral of Ants thrown in there, which picks back up with the (frankly terrifying) song Everybody Loves Raymond. Another rule of concert setlists is to end the main set high energy. This is why the main set would end with the beloved Sweet Bod and Brodyquest. If you’re going to do an encore, it is important that it’s the peak of the show because it’s going to be the last thing the audience remembers from your show. This encore has three songs, all of which are bopping fan-faves. The final song is, of course, The Ultimate Showdown, his most popular song by far. In actual performances he performs and extended version of it, which hypes the audience and makes a great close.

Will Niel Cicierega ever return to his Lemon Demon career? Will he ever tour again? Maybe not. He has a family and a successful enough career that he doesn’t need to do music unless he wants to. But for now there is hope, and I shall continue to project fantasies into 3AM Spotify playlists.

The picture of Niel that inspired the album art for Spirit Phone. Photo courtesy of Know Your Meme.

Cross Stage – an app to connect performing artists

A mock-up of a profile page on Cross Stage, designed by me.

Earlier this week I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a career in performing arts. Then I remembered that if I ever tried it I’d be terribly anxious about job stability. Thinking about that fear, I decided that a useful app would be one designed for aspiring performers of all trades, be it dance or comedy or anything in between. It would allow users to keep track of their work and collaborations, and act as a sort of resumé for some. I don’t know much about LinkedIn, but I imagine it serves a similar purpose in both networking and self-promotion. On your profile page, you’ll be able to list your areas of expertise, your employment status, and your growing list of production involvement.

This Is America – A brief tour review

Howdy!

For this post, I wanted to make a video where I talk about the setlist that Childish Gambino used for just over a year in his epic This Is America tour.

You can read along here as I describe what the live show looked like!

How to Survive ACL Fest 2019

This Thursday afternoon, a Greyhound bus is taking me to Austin, where my friend is going to pick me up from the station. Although I’m going to spend the next three nights sleeping on a couch, it will be worth going to the Austin City Limits Music Fest all weekend. I am very excited, and I have been counting down the days since they dropped the full lineup exactly five months ago. If you can’t tell, I’ve been to this fest before and it’s one of the highlights of my year. Whether you’re going one day or the whole weekend, you need to make sure you’re packed for the occasion. I’m here to tell you what items you’ll want to bring to the fest, and what you’ll want to do once you’re in the park!

What to Bring

Pack light, but pack these.

• An empty hydration pack, preferably with an extra pocket to hold things
  • If you cannot get a hydration pack in time, bring the largest water bottle you can and be ready to make frequent trips to water station!
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• Comfortable walking shoes
• Breathable clothes
• Bandanas/hat, to keep the sun off your head
• Earplugs
• A watch, just in case your phone dies
• Hand sanitizer, because you will feel gross
• A fistful of napkins, just in case
• Empty drawstring/fanny pack, for extra storage
• Whatever snack bars you can smuggle past security

What to Do

Necessary actions so you don’t hurt yourself.

• At least two or three days before the fest, start drinking lots of water throughout the day
  • It is going to be hot outside, so be proactive. Get hydrated the week before, and stay hydrated while you’re there!
• Save yourself some money and eat something before you get into the park
• Fill your hydration pack/water bottle as soon as you get into the park, drink from it regularly and refill it frequently
  • There are hydration stations around the park that will fill you up for free, all day long. Use them!
• Know how to identify when a person is overheating
• Apply sunscreen before you get into the fest, and reapply during the day! Melanoma SUCKS!
• Use earplugs at shows, especially if you’re going to be close to the stage
  • Loud music will damage your ears and could give you tinnitus, which is life-long and irreparable. I go to a lot of concerts, so I invested in some reusable earplugs like these
• Eat food
  • Festival food is expensive, but you’ll need something to fill your stomach if you want enough energy to make it through the day

Bonus Tips

Stuff I like to do, if you think it’ll help.

• Go to the artist merch booth first thing
  • You’ll get the best selection of merch at the start of the day, if you don’t mind carrying around rolled up t-shirts
• Plan your day ahead of time, allotting time to eat and walk between stages
• Go see the artists that YOU want to see
  • You paid to be here, so if you want to go to a particular set don’t let the group keep you from it (this is why I like going solo)
• Get a good spot for the headliner by showing up for the act before them, at least
• If you’re waiting at a main stage, find a spot on the side rail
  • You can sit against the rail between sets, and the aisle might provide some fresh air in the crowd
• Go check out some artists that you don’t already know
• If you’re camping at a stage, chat up people around you
  • When one of you needs to pee or grab food, you’ll want a buddy system to hold your spots

Estimated Headliner Crowd Pattern

This is about what the crowd will look like for a headliner set on a main stage*

*Crowd size and dispersal variable based on who’s playing. Graphic lovingly made in Microsoft PowerPoint by me. Green star represents where I usually like to end up at the end of the night.

The San Martian Comedy Scene

So you want to be a comedian, huh? You want to join the ranks of Johnny Carson, George Carlin, and yours truly? If you want to also become co-chairman of Comedy Association’s stand-up club then I hope you’re ready to start staying up late, inhaling a lot of second-hand smoke, and embarrassing yourself in front of strangers. I’ll probably give you a bit of advice over the next few months, but you’re never going to get anywhere unless you put in the hours and practice your craft. In the world of stand-up comedy, that means going to open mics. This is where you’re gonna practice your jokes, find your voice, and most importantly, meet other comics.

You are going to try performing new material for an audience, and you are going to tank. A lot. But the good news is that you’ll start to see a lot of the same comedians at different mics around town, and they’ll be more than willing to introduce themselves and offer feedback to help you improve your set. You’ll benefit from continuously socializing and networking with others at these mics. Maybe in the future one of them will be hosting a showcase, and they’ll need someone to fill that spot. Or maybe one of them will be offered a gig at a suspicious music festival in the middle of the woods, and will need a supporting act (that’s a story for another day). If you make a good enough impression within the local scene, hopefully you’ll be the person they call.

If you want to get started at a mic in San Marcos, there are a few options right now. You can find an open mic around town several nights a week, usually giving you a 4 or 5 minute set time. Every Tuesday night at 9pm, there’s an open mic at Wake the Dead Coffee House. Every Wednesday is a mic at Hops and Grain at 8pm, then right after that is a mic across the street at The Buzz Mill. Every Thursday is a mic at Lazydaze Counterculture & Coffeehouse starting at 8pm, and on Saturdays at 8pm is a mic at Brooklyn Pie Co. On top of all that, my co-chairman Clayton Chalman and I are personally working towards starting more mics around town.

There’s a lot to a comedy performance. Like, more than you think. But most of it cannot be learned from reading a college sophomore’s blog (however hard I may try,) but instead through trial by fire. Get out there and start doing, and with enough practice we’ll all start laughing at you.

(Left to right) Clayton, veteran local comedian Jason Johnson, and me at last week’s stand-up meeting. Photo courtesy of the Comedy Association.

Welcome!

This is it. The beginning. You have found the very first post on my new blog, Setlists and Stories. My name is Hayden, and some of my biggest interests are performance arts. Music, comedy, a bit of theatre, you get it. I’m no expert, but I’d like to share my knowledge and opinions on these things for whatever they’re worth. We’ll get to do that right here, on this very blog, hopefully over a variety of different posts and topics. Want to hear about some new bands? Curious about getting into stand-up comedy? There’s going to be something for you here. Using YouTube clips and handy sites like setlist.fm, we’ll review concerts, we’ll analyze performances, and I’ll even share a couple of my own experiences. So sit back, mash that refresh button, follow my Twitter, and enjoy the steady, disorganized trickle of content we’ve got prepared for you!

For the sake of credibility, here’s a picture of me doing some stand-up comedy.