Two-Steps Back
I managed to sleep in today. I woke up without my headache, and felt like a million bucks.
I went back to the Alamo around 2:00 in the afternoon. I spent some time listening to tracks I was not terribly familiar with, and made a few notes in an effort to speed up my learning. I want to know my material inside & out and in record time. Some of the keyboard tracks have been recorded very well -- for example, Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight sounds better than the original. On the other hand, Enter Sandman sounds like a bastardized version -- and in my opinion should never be played.
After listening to two dozen country songs, my brain was beginning to feel like mush. I took a quick break, tuned my drums, and made a few adjustments to the hardware. I left the Alamo at 4:30 feeling like I made some progress that afternoon. All I needed was to put my knowledge to the test -- and that would happen in a few hours.
I returned back to the gig a little after 9:00 pm, and made sure everything was on and working properly. There were already a few patrons there, but you will only find out if they are there to listen to you until you start playing.
By 9:30 we were playing our first set of the evening, and it felt rough. I was missing fills, cymbal crashes, starts and stops. I was getting a little frustrated. To make things worse, I was still messing up the songs that I had paid particular attention to earlier that afternoon. Sheryl Crows' My Favorite Mistake and Shania Twains' Honey I'm Home sounded disastrous. I felt like a first-class ass.
We crashed through the first set, and took a break to clear our heads, and rest our vocal cords. My friends DG and KH were there, sipping on a few beers. So I sat down with them and discussed "musical things", such as the PA sound, song choice, etc. They stayed for a few songs in the second set, but left soon after.
The rest of the night seemed to go by much smoother. Maybe I was more relaxed. Maybe it was because we were playing more rock music. The one thing that did change, was as the night went on, people became more receptive and responsive to our music. Even though there might have been only forty people in the bar, half of them occupied the dance floor.
We even got two encores! They wouldn't let us off the stage. We played a half hour longer than we were supposed to, and it was like we could do no wrong in their eyes. We finally managed to call it quits, and the house lights came on. Dave and I started discussing what the summer had to portend, about some of the bars we will go to, and some of the sights we will get to see. Arleen was busy talking to about half a dozen girls aged around 18-20. They kept telling her "You sound just like Sheryl Crow!"
We also heard quite a bit of "You guys rock", and "You guys kick ass!" This particular cute brunette was saying this to all of us when she turned to me and said "And you... You are soo cute!" All I could mutter was a modest "Thank you," before she walked away. Maybe she was embarrassed. There wasn't much I could do. I had work to do -- a PA system to deconstruct.
All the patrons were kicked out of the bar, and Dave and I got back to work, ripping down 2 tons of wire, magnets, metal and glass. It wasn't until 3:30 in the morning that we had all the equipment loaded up. We took a half-hour break and had a non-alcoholic beverage with the bar staff. The staff always seem to have stories to tell. They usually center around all the dumb drunken boobs that saunter in and stumble out of the establishment. Not us; we work, and we get drunk on adrenaline. Let the lushes have their booze, and we can have our music.
I went back to the Alamo around 2:00 in the afternoon. I spent some time listening to tracks I was not terribly familiar with, and made a few notes in an effort to speed up my learning. I want to know my material inside & out and in record time. Some of the keyboard tracks have been recorded very well -- for example, Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight sounds better than the original. On the other hand, Enter Sandman sounds like a bastardized version -- and in my opinion should never be played.
After listening to two dozen country songs, my brain was beginning to feel like mush. I took a quick break, tuned my drums, and made a few adjustments to the hardware. I left the Alamo at 4:30 feeling like I made some progress that afternoon. All I needed was to put my knowledge to the test -- and that would happen in a few hours.
I returned back to the gig a little after 9:00 pm, and made sure everything was on and working properly. There were already a few patrons there, but you will only find out if they are there to listen to you until you start playing.
By 9:30 we were playing our first set of the evening, and it felt rough. I was missing fills, cymbal crashes, starts and stops. I was getting a little frustrated. To make things worse, I was still messing up the songs that I had paid particular attention to earlier that afternoon. Sheryl Crows' My Favorite Mistake and Shania Twains' Honey I'm Home sounded disastrous. I felt like a first-class ass.
We crashed through the first set, and took a break to clear our heads, and rest our vocal cords. My friends DG and KH were there, sipping on a few beers. So I sat down with them and discussed "musical things", such as the PA sound, song choice, etc. They stayed for a few songs in the second set, but left soon after.
The rest of the night seemed to go by much smoother. Maybe I was more relaxed. Maybe it was because we were playing more rock music. The one thing that did change, was as the night went on, people became more receptive and responsive to our music. Even though there might have been only forty people in the bar, half of them occupied the dance floor.
We even got two encores! They wouldn't let us off the stage. We played a half hour longer than we were supposed to, and it was like we could do no wrong in their eyes. We finally managed to call it quits, and the house lights came on. Dave and I started discussing what the summer had to portend, about some of the bars we will go to, and some of the sights we will get to see. Arleen was busy talking to about half a dozen girls aged around 18-20. They kept telling her "You sound just like Sheryl Crow!"
We also heard quite a bit of "You guys rock", and "You guys kick ass!" This particular cute brunette was saying this to all of us when she turned to me and said "And you... You are soo cute!" All I could mutter was a modest "Thank you," before she walked away. Maybe she was embarrassed. There wasn't much I could do. I had work to do -- a PA system to deconstruct.
All the patrons were kicked out of the bar, and Dave and I got back to work, ripping down 2 tons of wire, magnets, metal and glass. It wasn't until 3:30 in the morning that we had all the equipment loaded up. We took a half-hour break and had a non-alcoholic beverage with the bar staff. The staff always seem to have stories to tell. They usually center around all the dumb drunken boobs that saunter in and stumble out of the establishment. Not us; we work, and we get drunk on adrenaline. Let the lushes have their booze, and we can have our music.
posted by MC at 01:52
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home