Dark Horse (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Chain Poets, Johnny Hyde
Another show involving medical treatment. Friday I was at the hospital with a kidney stone, doped up with Demerol. X-rays, CT-scan, the works. It was a whirlwind of fun. The stone is still with me and was able to enjoy the show, which I performed under the influence of Percocet (administered every four hours to keep the pain at bay).
This show Michael Lorant filled in admirably on the drums, particularly considering we only rehearsed for an hour on Tuesday before it was cut short by the first visit of this particular stone. We started the show at 10pm sharp, and burned through 35 minutes in 35 minutes. This show was somewhat tighter than the last, as could be expected, but still rough. I felt much more in sync with this show compared to the last. With some time between now and the next potential band shows it’ll be nice to actually pick apart the songs we’re doing and really work them up, and add a few more. I miss more backing vocals, which is something we’ll have to figure out, too. We did these two shows from three rehearsals (one with a different drummer) so I think, to have pulled them off as well as we did, I really have pieced together something good here. All of them seem to be looking at this as a BAND, too, from what they say to me. Things could be very good in the coming months.
Chain Poets were up next. I had rehearsed with them on Thursday since we had talked about doing a song together during their set. In the end at the show we did “Telephone Line” and “No Matter What.” I couldn’t hear my vocals on “Telephone Line” (I was doing the very high falsetto stuff and playing guitar while Greg played the keys) but “No Matter What” came off great and sounded tight. They seemed to enjoy their set, as well, and it was great sharing the stage finally. I got to know them just as RC was splitting, so we’d never played together before. Plus, being on stage with them during their set was an added bonus. A blast and I hope we manage to do it again soon.
What the show did for me, though, was solidify my desire to put together some sort of monthly package show featuring local pop bands. The only problem is figuring out where it can be done on a Friday or Saturday and how to get people out to see it. Pop fans don’t seem to make a regular trip out to see local music, so the trick is how do I let them know such a thing exists and get them out? Because, even if I manage to put this together once (and I think I can pull that off somehow), if I can’t pull a crowd they won’t have us back.
Once again people were there who I never really got a chance to talk with to my satisfaction. I suppose a room filled with live music is not exactly the best place to try and talk anyway, and then hopped up on goofballs doesn’t help, either. Thanks to Lee and Greg from Gentle Readers who made it out, and two of the Ether Family Presents… (who introduced themselves by their Ether names, which I thought was great, except that I was drugged and now can’t remember which was which), and Andrea from Daemon Records. Thanks to everyone else who made it out, I really do appreciate it. Write me some time and we’ll chat. Really.
Up next, I’m finally back in the studio, all next week.