Discounting SCA performances, Saturday night was the Calais Consort's first actual gig in years. The first set lived up to the alternate name we jokingly use amongst ourselves — "School Play" — as the audience comprised friends and family for the most part. It was held in the International Bazaar, a coöp store in Ybor City which also holds arts classes and performances.

We did, however, gain a family of listeners when we began playing Un Amor, a Gipsy Kings song, who actually hung around for quite a while when we went back to playing some of our more historical pieces; and there were a few other people who came and went during the set.

During our final song of the set — Trista Pena, another Gipsy Kings song — a transformer blew and plunged several blocks of Ybor City into darkness. Including our venue, naturally. There were some candles burning, and the emergency lights switched on, but as luck would have it, all of them were in front of the stage, leaving our stands in darkness. We actually managed to keep going (until there was some confusion as to which verse we were on, and half the band kept playing while the other half stopped).

The second set was relatively uneventful — though I utterly screwed up during the Hymni and had to drop out about six bars before the end. It's one of those pieces where it's simply impossible to find your place until the parts come to a cadence, and the only one left was the final one. D'oh. One of the audience members actually came up afterwards and asked if we could autograph one of our posters for him, and when we'd be playing again.

As if in immediate answer to his question, we were asked by one of the owners if we could play again this coming Saturday night... and this time, we'd even be advertised.

So. A couple of hitches, but all in all, not a bad gig for our first time in years.