wēk - part I
The evening of the inaugural gig of the Step Brothers Dance Band brought mixed signals. Ivan came over to test out a new roto pedal. I jammed along while he hit chords and twiddled knobs. This was my only warm up for the week. The roto pedal had some cool effects. Even more importantly the thing looked made for dance band - it lit up, flickered and spun. Then Snake called to say that he would meet us at the gig from another engagement. Since Snake's sense of time is Trinidadian, that was bad foreshadowing.
I was anxious getting off the phone. I should have told him 9. The feeling didn't last long though. I'm not the overwrought ahole about these things that I used to be. Also, as Jman would tell you, "Snake Time" used to be "Sweeney Time" back in the day, so I don't have much room to speak. Besides that, the Step Brothers was scheduled second. Nobody has expectations at the taproom anyway, no cover no stage.
Still, Old Me would have developed a little knot, only exacerbated by the facts: Roman Numeral One - that the first band had to cancel because A) the band leader broke his hand and B) he forgot what night the show was anyway; and Roman Numeral Two - on account of the broken juke box.
Older Me was relaxed. Until Al walked in.
Al is Ivan's uncle. He is also the churchbus drummer. He is also the oldest member of churchbus by a decade, and that's saying something except that it's not because he is the band's biggest kid. He cannot resist getting behind an open drum set or a guitar or a keyboard. He'll make a racket until you physically remove him.
I have to admit, at that point I got a little nervous. But it faded because really I can think of no better situation for Al's condition. He gravitated to the Korg Electribe which winked and blinked at him irresistibly. He started making some weird synth noises and I got behind the drums fortunately situated within arm's reach of his amplifier. We made a decent noise for some grateful people.
We could do no wrong. No band, no jukebox, and it's Saturday night so the folks are determined to have a good time. Low pressure gig if I ever played one.
Snake showed up at a reasonable time bringing the bass player with him. Snake is the churchbus bassist but he didn't want to play bass in dance band so he's behind the synth like Bernie Worrell. The bassist is the churchbus trumpeteer, Chris. He finger picks. I had no idea he could. These dance songs are long but he somehow has the stamina for it. He is my rock, literally because he had to stand in front of the kick drum with one foot up against it and the other a wide stance forward to keep the kick drum from sliding.
I need to go back to Drum Kit Maintenance 101 and take notes this time because I missed the section about the rug being an essential part of a drum kit. The floor is shiny and smooth at Bernice's Tavern and that's good for dancing but it ain't so good for drumming. By the end of each song and even with Chris holding steady, the kick drum and the kick drum pedal were perpendicular with my foot. Actually they were slightly more than perpendicular and this caused the kick not to happen and also this caused the end of the song.
The only problem with geometry determining the length of our songs is that we only have three songs. On top of that I forgot, as I always do, that bars can stay open until 3 AM on Saturday nights so it was as if we hadn't played at all.
Then in walked Erin, another member of churchbus. He was coming from a stagehand gig so he was dressed in black which for some reason was the color all the Step Brothers were wearing even though we hadn't talked of coordination in any regard(including color). Since the bartender had been giving any guy in black free beers, assumedly because she thought they were with the band; and since that meant that Erin would be getting free band beers and since Al was in the audience, we decided to put Erin to work and we played musical chairs and I got on Ivan's guitar and Snake got on the bass and Al got behind the drums and Chris just stood there looking cool because he didn't have his trumpet.
We went through a bunch of churchbus songs with Erin singing and not playing any instrument. This is something I push for a lot with Erin because he has a great voice. Not that he is a bad instrumentalist, but I always want to hear what he can do when he's not searching for chords half the time.
Plus I wanted to redeem myself for Wednesday night but that's part II of this wēk for next wēk.
I was anxious getting off the phone. I should have told him 9. The feeling didn't last long though. I'm not the overwrought ahole about these things that I used to be. Also, as Jman would tell you, "Snake Time" used to be "Sweeney Time" back in the day, so I don't have much room to speak. Besides that, the Step Brothers was scheduled second. Nobody has expectations at the taproom anyway, no cover no stage.
Still, Old Me would have developed a little knot, only exacerbated by the facts: Roman Numeral One - that the first band had to cancel because A) the band leader broke his hand and B) he forgot what night the show was anyway; and Roman Numeral Two - on account of the broken juke box.
Older Me was relaxed. Until Al walked in.
Al is Ivan's uncle. He is also the churchbus drummer. He is also the oldest member of churchbus by a decade, and that's saying something except that it's not because he is the band's biggest kid. He cannot resist getting behind an open drum set or a guitar or a keyboard. He'll make a racket until you physically remove him.
I have to admit, at that point I got a little nervous. But it faded because really I can think of no better situation for Al's condition. He gravitated to the Korg Electribe which winked and blinked at him irresistibly. He started making some weird synth noises and I got behind the drums fortunately situated within arm's reach of his amplifier. We made a decent noise for some grateful people.
We could do no wrong. No band, no jukebox, and it's Saturday night so the folks are determined to have a good time. Low pressure gig if I ever played one.
Snake showed up at a reasonable time bringing the bass player with him. Snake is the churchbus bassist but he didn't want to play bass in dance band so he's behind the synth like Bernie Worrell. The bassist is the churchbus trumpeteer, Chris. He finger picks. I had no idea he could. These dance songs are long but he somehow has the stamina for it. He is my rock, literally because he had to stand in front of the kick drum with one foot up against it and the other a wide stance forward to keep the kick drum from sliding.
I need to go back to Drum Kit Maintenance 101 and take notes this time because I missed the section about the rug being an essential part of a drum kit. The floor is shiny and smooth at Bernice's Tavern and that's good for dancing but it ain't so good for drumming. By the end of each song and even with Chris holding steady, the kick drum and the kick drum pedal were perpendicular with my foot. Actually they were slightly more than perpendicular and this caused the kick not to happen and also this caused the end of the song.
The only problem with geometry determining the length of our songs is that we only have three songs. On top of that I forgot, as I always do, that bars can stay open until 3 AM on Saturday nights so it was as if we hadn't played at all.
Then in walked Erin, another member of churchbus. He was coming from a stagehand gig so he was dressed in black which for some reason was the color all the Step Brothers were wearing even though we hadn't talked of coordination in any regard(including color). Since the bartender had been giving any guy in black free beers, assumedly because she thought they were with the band; and since that meant that Erin would be getting free band beers and since Al was in the audience, we decided to put Erin to work and we played musical chairs and I got on Ivan's guitar and Snake got on the bass and Al got behind the drums and Chris just stood there looking cool because he didn't have his trumpet.
We went through a bunch of churchbus songs with Erin singing and not playing any instrument. This is something I push for a lot with Erin because he has a great voice. Not that he is a bad instrumentalist, but I always want to hear what he can do when he's not searching for chords half the time.
Plus I wanted to redeem myself for Wednesday night but that's part II of this wēk for next wēk.
3 Comments:
We went across the street from to an abandoned or under construction parking deck or building skeleton; we jumped a fence to sneak in and steal a cinder block to use to hold the bass drum back at Bernice's. That's what those who flunk drumming 101 learn to do.
Sounds like a fun night. Are you planning more gigs, or was it a one off?
The Step Brothers is not a one off but its charter is loosely defined. Some day and some place perhaps you could be a step brother.
I've talked about doing something similar to this in Houston with Christian and Chris King. With that combo, I'd probably play guitar or synth.
The Step Brothers might get a chance to play here in Chicago with Houston's Bring Back the Guns in a few weeks.
"Sound of the flunky drummer", Chuck D-ish. Would like to be part of the Steps. Oh shit, a cold front is blowing through H-town. Get ready for 65.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home