Brain Aneurysm!!

So you all know, the show went very well. Better than well, we had a lot of fun, and our audience seemed to have a good time too.

All day I'd been chugging down tea to help my voice. I'm pretty much a complete coffee person, so the tea was a welcome soother to my throat. It wasn't until an hour before the show when I wondered why I was so freaked out, pacing, sweating, heart racingly freaked out, that I realized said tea was caffeinated. I must have had twelve gallons of the stuff through the day. Good times.

My partner and I were both terribly nervous beforehand, but we settled in fairly quick. Hammerbone likes to do a min-set, then have their guests do their set, then they finish off the night. It's a nice way to do things, imho. Usually openers play to the four or five people who made the mistake of showing up on time. We had a decently packed bar to play to. We did a bunch of covers with a couple originals tossed in. crowd favorites seemed to be the Violent Femmes "Country Death Song" for mandolin and guitar, the White stripes "Little Ghost", and our totally basic version of The Band's "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down."

The thing I was afraid of most, and this'll sound stupid, was between-song-banter. I'm a pretty funny, entertaining guy, but I can't necessarily do it on command. I hoped desperately we wouldn't be those weird guys on stage. Thankfully, the entertaining muscle was fully flexing that night. It also helped that Game 2 of the World Series was on TV. Asking for a score made it easy to get set up.

Our friends all had good things to say, and the owner actually asked us to come back to do our own show. Weird. This was all for fun.

I've been asked by a couple of the theatrical folk about the difference between doing musicals and being 'in the band.' I'll try to answer here as best I can. It's a different animal from theatre and film in many ways.

First, you have to get the right people together. Whether you're writing your own material or doing covers, the right mix is essential. It's fine to be in a show with someone you can barely stand for three months, being in a band for at least a year can take its' toll on friendships. Usually there isn't someone who's 'the director' that you go to with issues. Someone might be more or less in a leadership role but it's far more egalitarian than any stage show. The right mix of personalities isn't necessarily obvious. It's far deeper than musical ability as well. The most creative band I was ever in we almost all disliked each other, but a new song was written every week, and we were good. Comb through the histroies of your favorite bands and you'll see at least half the best were fueled by their internal strife. If you're just out ot play, you don't want that. Make sure your goals are the same.

Second, practice, kid, practice. Your rehearsals are more important than you think. Any time you get together yoiu need a clear idea of what both you personally and as a group need to get done. Don't be satisfied with less than what you need. The reason my show last week went so well was because my boy J and I have been playing together afte hours for years, and for the week running up to the show we were playing together for two to fours a day. That was for eight songs, most of which we both already knew. If you aren't tight and something goes wrong you're toast. Mostly, for that first minute on stage, when you don't know if you 're gonna fall apart or not.

What I experienced at our sound check was frightening. Being on stage was new. Dealing with mics and sound mixes was weird. I could hear myself through the PA and that's a whole different sound than I was prepared for. Not that it was bad, just that it wasn't how we'd rehearsed, and I'd have to learn mic technique over again in the first song. Fortunately I knew J, who's WAY more talented musically than I am, would be rock solid next to me. So I would have to be for him too. Pretty soon I was having fun being able to hear myself again. So practice, kid, practice.

Third, have fun. It can't be more simple than that. If you aren't having fun at it and it's not your job, why are you doing it? You can have just as much fun playing to four people as you can to four hundred if you approach it with heart.

I think that's it. Any more questions, I'll be glad to attempt an answer.

(Special prize to anyone who knows where the last two entry title came from.)

What T-Shirt do I Wear?! What T-Shirt do I Wear?!

I have a gig tonight. It's been so long since I've said that it's almost funny to hear it coming from me. Nothing special or huge. A friend of mine was asked to be the opener for a pair of fellas we know called Hammerbone. He then asked me to play with him, as we are fond of closng bars then going back to my house to pound on instruments to the same five or six songs over and over. Of course I agreed. So for the past week we've been getting together to hammer out a set list and play together when sober, which is something that never really happened before.

I'm mildly terrifed and somewhat excited. It'll be fun to do it again and it's been a loooong time, more than ten years, since I played out. Fortunately nearly everyone who will be at this show will be people we know, mos tof whom have been to my house after the bar closes to hang out and pound on instruments, so they know what they're getting.

What doesn't help is that I woke up this morning sick, sick, sick. Throat thing, this sucks. Long day of doing nothing and drinking tea.

So if you're in Northamptin tonight and lookin for some hot fun swing by Silent Cal's on Pleasant St after ten. We'll be there. Drink a lot first.

P.S. Go take a listen to Hammerbone on their myspace page. Them boys is top notch.

I love the smell of death in the air

Seriously, I've been writing posts for the last month, just all in my head. Then I get too lazy to TYPE them.

Not a ton of things going on. I was just invited to be in another Emerson project, which is way cool. Cool script, very weird and twisted. So it's totally inline with me.

I finally finished all seven weddings this weekend. So all of you out there know, any invitations to nuptials in the next twelve weeks will be RSVP'd with a letter bomb. Okay, probably a stink bomb, but a bomb nonetheless. (Let's see Homeland Security work on that one.)

I've had a fire lit under me by a musician friend in the last couple weeks, which means I keep trying to lock myself into my 'studio' and hammer away at stuff I've been too afraid to finish. We'll see what happens.

Saw Across the Universe this weekend. Any level of Beatle's fandom will suffice. Amazing movie. Unless of course, you're a purist. Then you might not like it. Happily, I feel no such slavish loyalty to the source material.

Hopefully I'll have more to tell you when I feel more interesting.