The event was held in a lecture hall on campus, and there were only about 22 people in attendance, but it was still very cool to be a part of.. and actually featured! At first I thought I was just playing for a couple people and a video camera, and it turns out I was featured on the poster of this event! However I was even more excited about the event because of this, and prepared 2 songs and a short speech on American culture.
My friend Rao sang a song and did a presentation about Pakistan, and wore a traditional Pakistani dress shirt.
A really cool guy from Mongolia did a presentation and sang as well.
My friend Tong did a short presentation about Vietnam and played lead guitar for the song "Afterlife" by Avenged Sevenfold. He has some amazing guitar skills.
I performed last since I was "featured," which was an HONOR. I was really happy to do it, and wasn't nervous, however when I asked how many people could understand English, and less than half raised their hands.. it really broke my concentration. It shouldn't have, but I was trying find a balance between how I communicate to my English students, and the audience that I anticipated. So I edited the videos up a bit due to little stumbles and fumbles, but I still feel that I did pretty good, and they all thought so (all that matters :)
When I played open mics over the summer I did this song with an electric guitar, and it would sound even better with drums.. and bass.. and a whole band! But regardless I love playing it and decided to do an acoustic cover. Tong's electric was in drop D and had a tuning lock on it, so I stuck with the acoustic.
I did mention a couple of things about music and art, but I cut that since I stumbled a bit. We also talked about how many people think all Americans eat McDonald's every day. Of course I couldn't talk in the depth that I would have liked to about American culture due to time restraints, and I found myself changing my speech midway through due to the language barrier. I am my worst critic, and I wish I would have done a better job, but it still was an awesome experience and my friends at UNIST were very happy with it.
This is one of my favorite songs to play, but it is a bit controversial, and as I noted in the video I slipped up on it a bit so I cut it short. However I think the message that I stated before hand was the point I wanted to make, that we all have problems, and we all should be empathetic. The audience also had a chance to experience this style of music, which is one of the main objectives of this event.
All in all I had a great time participating in this event, and I'm glad I did it. Afterwards the fellas cooked dinner and I played a few more songs for them. A good time was had by all :D
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