Saturday, July 11, 2009

To band or not to band?

Let me make a quick note on what happened over the past two days. Thursday I got my drums and stuff from my dad's, picked Katie up from her house in Fort Ashby, took her to my mom's where we restrung a guitar with Brittney, Shane, and Britnee, walked around the house some, and then we went off to play a show. Katie had to go eat dinner with her daddy. Here's how the show went, though. It was unique.

So I'll set the stage with us getting stuck behind traffic on our way there since we always run into road work when we really have to be somewhere at a certain time. We had to be at the show by 5:30 and left my house around 4:55 or so. We dropped Katie off, went to 7-11, and then got stuck in traffic for like 10-15 minutes. Wonderful. So we get to the venue a little bit late. It's okay because no one else is there yet. Not even the sound guy. In fact, the PA didn't even arrive until about 10 minutes after the show was supposed to start. Sean Farr sang first. He did some covers and some good originals. I guess coke makes you a good singer/songwriter but sacrifices your ability to seem like you're from this planet. Sean's set ended with him breaking his low E string. Good set, Sean.

Next was Even Falling. I guess I shouldn't really voice all of my opinions of people who we get to actually play with, but this is for document's sake! So Even Falling is this acoustic band that has a guy who plays acoustic guitar, a guy who just sings, a girl who plays bass or only sings on some songs, and a girl who plays bongo drums. The guitarist obviously has some metal influence and the girl plays bass like she worships Shane. Shane was very impressed by her bass-playing and singing abilities. The guitarist needed to tune his D string. I'm not real sure what the bongo drums brought to the band, but hey, that's not my call. They're a young band, they'll improve or break up. That's what bands do. Their set ended with the guitarist breaking a string. Good set, guys.

Well here's the thing. There was supposed to be this fourth band coming and we were to be third. We were relying on this fourth band to bring a guitar amp since we had no room for ours in the cars. So what we decided to do was to play "acoustically." Now both Sean Farr and the guitarist in Even Falling broke a string. So we couldn't actually play with an acoustic guitar. What we did was we plugged the Gibson Les Paul Jr. '55 into a small PA system and then micked that PA through the main PA. Interesting, I'll give it that. So we were like a quieter version of I Forget. We started our set with "I Love You (As a Friend)" where I used drum brushes instead of sticks so that I'd not overpower everyone else. I was told when the song was over that I could probably get away with using drumsticks. That's what I wanted to hear! So then we did "I Hope You Take It Personally." We played "Get a Clue," "Dog," "Jeeznips," "Back Seat," "The Enforcer," half of "Bulbasaur" before the guitar went out of tune, and "Perfect Day." No "Great Smile," no "Cut Your Hair," and we completely forgot to play "for.the.$$." Did I ever mention that there's a band called for.the.win? Yeah, totally didn't hear about them until after we wrote and titled that song. Also, I saw a shirt that completely ripped off Freaky J's song "Rawr Means I Hate You In Dinosaur." It said "Rawr Means I Love You In Dinosaur." It was being advertised in a corner on Facebook. Complete bullshit. Anyway, our set was interesting. Shane and Brittney sat down to play. It was our first time playing together since May 2nd when we played our last show with Freaky J and the Bears! Oh, they actually changed the name of that song I was just talking about to "How the Indians Was." Anyway, our set ended with Brittney's guitar going out of tune and then getting out the Jagstang and it playing very quietly, so I had to use drum brushes when we played "Perfect Day." Great set, guys. I should come see you play more often.

After the show, Tim, Brittney, Shane, Britnee, Kierston, Alex, and I all went out to eat at Denny's. We sat at the big corner booth and terrorized the other people eating. It was a funny time, as always. You put a lot of funny people together, you're gonna hear some funny things. It's really quite simple. If you put Brittney by her self, even, you're gonna hear some funny things. After Denny's, I came to Mark's house and spent the night.

In the morning, I went home! There I uhh...got a shower and then slept until 2:30 because I was so stressed out about going to my dad's. I decided soon afterward that I was not going to be able to go to my dad's that night. So he came to pick Zane and I up later and I laid in my mom's closet freaking out while my mom went out to talk and rationalize with him. He calmed down after a while and my mom told him to enjoy the evening with Zane and she'd talk to me about going to his house later on. So here in a few hours, I'll be going to my dad's with some hope. I feel a lot better. Oh, and Katie informed me last night that she's staying here for all of this coming week, which is excellent news for me. We got a lot of shit ta do. Oh, and Off With Their Heads at the Talking Head club at Sonar in Baltimore on August 18th and Paint It Black and Naked Raygun at the Ottobar in Baltimore on September 11th, which is a Friday. If I quit marching band, which I may, I'll be able to attend that.

So that was my last two days, pretty much. Any questions? The plan for today is to go see a movie and get dinner with my dad. That'd be nice. Katie wants a kitten, so I'm gonna see if she can't come over to see ours tomorrow. That'd be nice for everyone. I wish I knew how to open a survey. I'd ask if I should quit marching band or not. I vote yes. People in marching band are going to be biased because the drumline is gonna be a lot worse without me. It feels so empty without me. I don't care, though. I want to keep the last month of my summer, keep my weekends in the fall, and maybe go see Paint It Black on 9-11. Why do I feel like something else special happened on that day?

love,
Kyle

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think that's the first time I've seen your tags match what you were actually talking about in your blog.
If your schedule doesn't fit, you must acquit!