News or the same old same old

[cnev]

Well that's all I got Roy. Right now I see my job as obviously holding down the rhythm and providing fills and hooks when needed. I can do some of the easier/shorter solo's but I really concentrate on doing my part, we already have a lead guitar player that is better than 98% of the people I've seen play so I'm not going to surpass him anytime soon.

What I would like to do as I get better is to be able to do some dual leads or some call response stuff although alot of what we play that might not fit.

I'm to the point where I know I can hold my own (as long as I know the song) and I haven't had an issues with stage fright or anything like that.

This new guy is actually still in one of the bands and is going to finish out the year with them as they have a couple gigs left but yea that might be helpful.

Dan we aren't in the Metrolpolis that Philly is heck you've lived in CT. We are more suburban and the places we can get into are local neighborrhood bars. The pay isn't great but they do pay and it'll give us a chance for people to hear us. The nice thing about these places is that they are like 5 mins from my house. Now if we wanted to play in Hartford that would be different it would be much much harder and we'd need a CD at minimum to get a gig.

[TRGuitar]

I think you are plenty strong for a weak link Chris. Yeah, you definitely live in the sticks .... not like here. You know though, with nothing to do we have an inordinate amount of bars up here. My performance aspirations are in a holding pattern right now. I am renovating "The Man Cave" to be better insulated and look like a real room. I should post a pic or two of the progress. In the mean time we have layed down a couple of basic recordings to act as a demo for Wicked Fester. My son works and is in college so he doesn't have the time I do but he can wing it. We are going with backing tracks for the time being. I am finding / programing some pretty decent ones and we seem to be sounding better. When the room is done I plan to put together some video to match the audio. Part of our press kit if you will. That way we get better sound for the video, yet by keeping it basic it is not a studio recording as not to mislead anyone. The plan? When we are ready, hit a few of the local bars that hire bands and drop off our press kit to the owner. Sounds simple but may be the best way to go. We also have a web site that features local entertainment. But for now ...... I need to mud sheet rock.

PS Your band sounded great in the White Room video!

[cnev]

TR the cave is lookin good alot of changes.

FWIW here are the songs we will assault our audience with when we get out there. Of course almost all the songs I've learned aren't on this list but that's OK.

Tie your mother down
Beer drinkers Hell raisers
White Room
Badge
Crossroads
Another thing coming
Day of the Eagle
Too rolling stoned
Use Somebody
Ain't talkin bout love
I got a line on you
Good
Lightning Crashes
Back in the USSR
Jailbreak
Day Tripper
White Wedding
Play that Funky music
All right now
Jumpin jack flash
Satisfaction
Kyrptonite
Roadhouse Blues
Are you gonna go my way
Get Back
Mustang Sally
Can't get enough
Train Train
First I look at the purse
Were an American band
Sweet Jane
Just what I needed
Rockin in the free world
Funk 49
Godzilla
Young Lust
Smoke on the water
Tush

We added Smoke on the water as a joke it's been so played out I can't even remember hearing it in a bar so I actually think people would get into it.

[rparker]

Wow, some early pre-pop J Geils Band in there. I can dig it.

[cnev]

Just realized I never even heard of Young Lust I see doing a search it's a Pink Floyd song, don't remember it at all although I wasn't a big fan of The Wall

[rparker]

It was almost overplayed down here 10+ years after it was released. Nice bass in that song.

[TRGuitar]

Your doing Godzilla! Oh yeah!

[cnev]

TR gotta love Godzilla, when I first started playing we had a female drummer and her and I wanted to do this but the other guitar player hated it so we never did it but now these guys are into it so we can rock it out. It's hard not to get into this song once that riff starts.

I remember seeing BOC, Foghat and I think it was ZZ Top at a show in the late 70's, the encore was all the bands coming up on stage (there were like 12 bass players/guitar players lined up) and they played Godzilla, it was awesome.

[cnev]

Small set back dislocated my pinky on my left hand playing basketball at lunch. Gonna sideline me for a few days at least hopefully I can play by the weekend.

[rparker]

Doh! I hope it gets better soon.

[cnev]

Thanks Roy it's weird I've been playing sports all my life yet everytime I've gotten hurt for the last 20 yrs someone has to say, "You need to stop your too old".

But that's who I am and I can't stop, getting injured is a part of sports if you play enough you're gonna get injured. This could have happened if I was 20.

I was suppose to play a round of golf with my instructor tomorrow but had to cancel, of course he told me " I told you not to play basketball" not because I was to old but because it would affect my guitar playing, oops.

I was also suppose to play with the new bass player at the open mic tonight we had 4 songs we were gonna do put since it's the pinky on my fretting hand and I can't bend it I can't do that either. I was kind of looking forward to it since we were going to do a few new ones.

[rparker]

I've got swollen knuckles dating back to freshman year of HS football. It can happen to anybody at any age. It just lingers longer.....kind of like a temporal region after getting infectin=on.

I digress. Back to the finger. No way to play the songs using different chord shapes, or is it just too late to even bother trying?

[cnev]

Tried that but I can do I few things but that whole side of my hand is swollen and evn moving my ring finger is painful. I'm gonna have to get all the fluid out of the area before i'll be able to play and that could take few days.

[cnev]

update:

We now have 2 nwe bass players interested in trying out for the band. One of them played with the drummer at the Open mic Thursday which I was supposed to too but the finger injury has me down. He's good so no problem there just a matter of chemistry and getting together with the rest of the band.

The other guy is going to the Opne mic this Thursday so we will check him out then.

I'd like to play Thursday too but it's not looking good with the finger. The whole side of my hand is still swollen as is the finger which I can't bend yet. This is going to take at least a couple weeks to maybe be able to play guitar and then it's going to be very painful at that. This really suxs now I know what Vic felt like and for me it's only been 4 days.

But the rest of the guys are going to be pissed if I can't play soon we are really trying to get off the ground and now I'll be holding them up.

Trying my best to rehab this with ice packs and some Epson salt soaks.

[TRGuitar]

Sorry about your hand Chris. I see by your typing it is bothering you. Get better soon!