Sammy Griffin, Live at The Dirty Bastard Hotel and Casino – 3rd January 2012Sammy has been performing in front of small crowds his whole life, and he had even thrown a couple of big ones in when he had done a couple of festivals last year. This year is a fresh start. He is going on tour with Cinzia Ricci, one of the years biggest breakthroughs in only a couple of days, and tonight is just a last minute warm up gig.
The announcer comes to the stage and promptly introduces him.
Sammy hears his name called and moves onto the stage. He is holding an acoustic guitar, and is wearing a nice new shirt and tie because he has been at his friend’s daughters christening earlier. The suit that went with it was probably the most expensive thing he had ever bought. He got to the microphone and stood there for a second. “Hey, this is a little bit last minute…” He pauses for a second, “One second,” he placed the guitar down on the floor and then undid the top button on his shirt and sighed. “That’s better, it almost felt like I was at school again!” a few laughs come through the audience. “So I’m gonna do two or three songs for you tonight, my current single will be included; this is just a warm up gig for the Cinzia Ricci tour that I will be going on in a couple of days. Hopefully this gig goes well, I’ve not sang for like, what… an hour now!” a few more laughs come through the audience.
He starts plucking away at the guitar now, playing the instantly recognisable tune of his current single, “
Your Real Disguise”. A slight tremor of cheers can be heard from the audience; Sammy obviously has at least a small fan base here at the Dirty Bastard Hotel and Casino. The pace of the guitar increases and Sammy steps up to the mic and starts to sing the first verse. As he reaches the half way point of the verse the tune of the guitar switches and becomes more jumpy.
Sammy finishes the verse and then sings the chorus, blasting out his strong, meaningful vocals so that everyone in the audience hears and understands him. He strums too hard by accident and breaks one of the strings on the guitar. He keeps singing though, choosing to ignore it, but the look on his face shows that now he has to try and find a way of making the song work without one of the major strings.
“When I feel your lips touch mine,
Everything is fine,
The passion in your eyes,
Is your real disguise.
Your real disguise.”
Sammy tries changing the tune of the guitar but then gives up just at the end of the chorus. He puts the guitar down and stops singing. “Right, I’m gonna go for some audience participation now that I’ve broken the string on the guitar. So everyone on the right of the room, I would love for you all to make an ‘ooh’ noise.” He gestures to the right of the room, and then signals for them to try. “Perfect. Now I want the left to make an ‘Aah’ noise.” He then gestures to the left of the room and they make the noise. “Amazing. I want you to do that for me about 10 second after I start singing again.”
“You are the glint in my eye,
The soul of the party,
Without you my heart dies,
And it won’t restart yeah,
I just feel so empty,
Now that you’re gone,
But I don’t want this
Anymore, because it’s wrong.”
Sammy gets to the end of the second line of the verse and to his great pleasure; most of the people in the audience join in with the harmonising that he was hoping for, helping to create an amazing orchestral effect. Sammy sings at the top of his voice and reaches the chorus. Some people stop doing the harmonising now and join in with the chorus, but there is still enough people harmonising to make the whole thing sound good still.
Sammy finishes the chorus and the audience keep going. He gestures for them to stop. “Okay, what I want now is a quiet ooooooooooh sound, gradually getting louder and then as you reach the height of the noise I want, I’ll start rapping. Then I want you all to go back to doing the Oooh’s and Aaah’s!” he laughs and then the audience does as he asks.
“Your disguise is one I’ll never be fooled by again,
I know what I’m looking for now, shame it’s now and not then,
I’ll keep on spitting my bars over my music forever,
Even though you and I will never be together
Ever again, because the lies you told are too big,
So I’ll forgive but never forget all of your bullshit.
I have a heart, and it was broken,
But my voice is hear, although it may be croaking,
You hurt my bad, and I’ll never forget
But for the time being, it’s not over yet.”
The song ends and Sammy bows as the audience cheers loudly for him. He picks up the guitar and jogs off stage quickly to grab another one; he always brings a spare in case anything happens