the EARL (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Kenny Howes, Shamgod
So, okay, back in the days of Radiant City, we rehearsed 2 to 3 times a week. It could get grueling at times, but we were pretty religious about it, up until the very end. Sometimes I’ll tell other musicians that and I always seem to get the same reaction, sort of like, “my god, you guys were insane…” So, it’s been odd for me with the Million Box because we’ve had a very sporadic rehearsal schedule. Since they’re all in other bands, booking shows is tricky enough, trying to make sure everyone is available. So, for this show, we rehearsed on November 10, and then we rehearsed again last night at 7pm, before the show.
And the show felt good.
Of the three shows we’ve done so far that was easily the best, the mistakes were small and probably not noticeable except to me. The other two shows I never felt like I caught up to the show (well, granted, I was doped up on Percocet for one of them), but this time I was there. I was able to move around a little more, be a little more complimentary with my guitar playing. One thing about Radiant City is, we all had remote units for the guitars, and so we used to really roam the stage during a show, switching mics during songs, singing along on one mic, that sort of thing. We once played a show in Athens, where the owner really loved our CD so he knew what he was getting, but afterwards wouldn’t book us back in because, he said, we were too “Paul Revere and the Raiders” for his club. So, you can see, we were a pretty active, goofy band live. I doubt I’ll try to get back to that with the Million Box, but it was nice to be moving around a bit more, to sort of feel like I was starting to reclaim the stage, if that makes any sense. It’s felt sort of awkward, the first couple of shows, being back on stage with a band. Bands really are like marriages, it’s a cliche for a reason, and so, being back onstage with another has been strange, and hard not to compare with the past. But last night it really started to feel like it was gaining its own identity.