I should have known something was in the air this past Saturday night for a couple of reasons. First, when I got to the Pub I got the first and closest parking space to the door. Secondly, when I walked into the joint Jason, the owner, greeted me at the door. He was moving tables and when I asked him if it was cool to stack the tables on the other side of the room, he agreed. Was this a preview of what was to come?
The bar was pretty hopping when I walked in and it was somewhat of a challenge not to bowl people over when Bob and I hauled the gear inside. Setting everything up was what one would call, 'A controlled disaster' but we got the job done about 15 minutes before show time.
We broke into 3 a.m., the first song of the set~Surprisingly, everything sounded pretty good volume wise. I could hear my vocals well and my acoustic actually sounded like an acoustic guitar. We jammed through the first four songs with minor difficulties. I even hit my harmony part on 'Take the Money and Run'. Which surprised Chris...I looked over my shoulder to see him smiling.
My only major flaw of the first set was on the song, 'Folsom Prison Blues'. For some reason I always seem to skip the 3rd verse and sing the 4th instead. Once I realized I was doing it, I stumbled over a few lines, but nothing mumbling couldn't hide. I figured everyone would just think that Johnny Cash has such a low voice that it sounded like mumbling. I proceeded to sing the 3rd verse last and we ended the tune. A minor train wreck...
The rest of the set went of rather smoothly, which was unusual for the band. In past shows our first set is always 'shaky' at best. We tore through the rest of our set and before we all knew it we were siting down for our first break.
The first song of the second set was, 'Good Things' from The Bodeans which I knew was going to sound good when Chris sang his harmonies. I think that was the best we ever played that song. My second minor train wreck came on the next song, 'The Middle' by Jimmy Eat World. I opened my mouth and started singing. The first verse and chorus were just fine, but before I knew what I was singing in the second verse, I realized I was singing the wrong words!
Again, I second guessed what I was singing and started to mumble something that could have been the Gettysburg Address. The next chorus couldn't have gotten there any sooner! I wish I could say that the third verse was better than the 2nd, but it wasn't. Thank God I sang the last line right or it would have thrown off Chris vocal part. All in all, people still dug it.
Song after song we tore it up! People seemed to really be into all the tunes that we played. For some reason the band was really tight. We all were really connecting to each other and it showed on stage and in the way the songs sounded. It's to bad it was happening on the night of Russ' last gig with band. I kept thinking, this is how it should be every night we play! At five minutes after midnight set 2 came to a close.
We opened set 3 with 'Honky Tonk Woman' from The Rolling Stones which really got the room rowdy. (As if the crowd needed any more help from us... I swear they put something in the water that night!)
Each tune of the 3rd set was played with an ease that only comes from bands who've been together for years. Each person had only minor blunders, that were more laughable then tragic. Like the song, 'You Wreck Me' from Tom Petty. We got to the middle break and I started playing what I thought it was and realized something sounded off. I glanced over at Chris who had an 'Oh...S*@!' look on his face. I think it was a case of second guess each other in the band. We all just laughed, shrugged our shoulders and tore into the guitar solo.
About ten minutes after 1 a.m. we finished what was to be our last song. About five girls came up to us and asked us to play one more song. I told them they had to convince the drummer, which Russ was already walking away from his kit. So, not wanting to disappoint, I decided to play one more song acoustically. I started to play, "Piano Man' from Billy Joel. I was a bit reluctant when I started it because there are so many words, I didn't know if I would remember them all. But I got my confidence up when I heard Chris playing the melody on the electric. It was pretty cool to hear most of the bar singing the chorus to the song. I have to say that the song went over well.
With the strum of the last chord the evening came to an end. I have to say, I was pretty bummed about it. After having connected so well with everyone in the band...and the band playing the tightest it has in almost 8 months. Now, it was time to see this particular line up come to an end. After 8 months our drummer, Russ will be leaving the band. I can't say it hasn't saddened me a bit...I really thought the four of us had something pretty special.
Oh well...players come and go, the thing you have to do is: Just keep playing with no matter who! All our best to you Russ! You'll be missed my friend.
