Day 156 - August 14th 2009
I tried to get up as early as possible today. I had a long day ahead of me as the band and I head to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson New Jersey as today marks the first day of 7 show run over the next seven days. There’s always a lot of stress and hustle and bustle when you do these sorts of shows with time being of the essence we’re rushing to make sure that we get there on time.
Rob arrived first and then Casey as we loaded up the car picked up Jake and Lily and headed towards the theme park. It was a not so long drive up there as we listened to some music and chatted. I dozed off for a while and woke up at a WaWa near the park. It was packed so we had to go to a McDonalds. The grease from Jake’s Angus Burger was making his hands all shiny.
As we arrived into the park and unpacked the van we realized my guitars and Jakes bass head were missing from the party…OH NO! I had asked Casey to carry them out but didn’t check before we left to see if we’d forgot anything, I was in such a rush that I’d left three essential things…Fudge!
Fortunately I’d brought my acoustic guitar out and put it in the car. The plan was to just rock it like that. Jake would go direct and I would play acoustic guitar. I quickly put a set list together of songs that would sound halfway decent without the electric guitar, things that I play acoustic often , that I would feel comfortable playing with the band. Casey would attempt to drive back to Philly toi grab the gear and we’d rock it unplugged until he got back.
As we were about to start and Casey was well on his way, one of the sound guys (who must have overheard us talking) approached me and said, our boss has an electric guitar in his office. I said cool maybe we can use it? He said yes and I patiently waited to see what we were working with, I was expecting one of those toys r us guitars that just look like they sound like ass but as they approached I was relieved to see Fender Stratocaster…pretty close to the one I play night in and night out so we got down on that.
The challenge here, play enough material for a three hour set…child’s play. But the one twist today is we have to be family friendly (Quite a bit of my material is about booze and sex and also there‘s swear words) so this was going to be interesting
Set 1
Ain’t No Sunshine
Godess
Only You
Always Givin Me The Blues
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
3000 Miles Away
Destiny
Sunshine of Your Love
The First Set was a little rough. Admittedly I was a bit rattled over the whole guitar thing and playing an unfamiliar guitar can be a daunting task, you‘re just not used ot the feel and the sound of it. It’s kinda like dancing with a girl from the first time. I tired my best to focus on the task at hand making sure I didn’t sound like complete a utter ass. A task I didn’t accomplish. You could smell it all the way to the Scream Machine.
After we were done we had to sit and wait for the Hoedown spectacular to be finished. I was a little nervous because three of the songs I generally use to close sets with I played during the first set so I was scrambling trying to put two more sets together and remembering that I needed to keep it clean. I was anxious to get back up because by some miracle we were moving merchandise. And I wanted to make sure that we contiuned to do that, so as soon as we were done the sound guys turned us on and we were pretty much ready to go.
Set 2
What’s My Name
Electric Love
Hoochie Coochie Man
Michelle
The Way You Make Me Feel
How Can This Be Love
Love Affair
Demolition Man
The roughness continued until about midway through the second set, I had gotten a read on what I could and could not do with this guitar in terms of rhythms and leads, and I had to think on my feet to remove the drug references out of Michelle. But once we settled down we were great. Songs like Love Affair and Demolition Man really help with that.
When we came off we were told that the break would be a little longer because the hoedown spectacular was running a little late. I don’t know how those kids do those shows three times a day. It’s a living I guess. I was having flashbacks to the time I auditioned for them and Disney to sing and dance. That could be me up there…scary thought.
When they were done we hit the stage for the third set.
Set 3
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
Stranger
Billie Jean
Feels So Good
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Baby One More Time
Leavin
The roughness was a thing of the past as we ventured into all familiar territory. The crowds started to stop and either sit down or stand in front of the stage as we started to funk it up properly. I felt like we were finally on fire as the CD’s just started to really fly from the merch table. As I looked to my left a little Asian Girl was standing by the merch table taking pictures every so often. She seemed sweet but I couldn’t for the life of me figure exactly why she was standing there.
I saw some 14 year old girls scoping out the mountain of man that is Jake Dean so I broke into the Britney Spear Classic, Baby One More Time. It’s a song I knew pretty well so that band just followed me through the chord progression. It sounded pretty good.
We wrapped up the set and as I approached Bin Bin, the Asian Girl at the Merch Table, she told me she wanted an autograph, I was more than happy to oblige, I was gonna be in her autograph book one page after Bugs Bunny. She told me my handwriting was a lot better than most Americans. Sweet girl. I signed a couple of CD’s and we bounced.
Unfortunately for me my day wasn’t done as I had to venture in to Lickety Split to Handle Buisness. The first act had gone on, and when I arrived Jim George was playin. He wrapped up his set and I got Justin Barron on stage and got to talk to Jim as he picked my brain about how to make it in the Philly Scene. I’m reluctant about giving advice a lot of the time because I’m never sure if I’ve made it in the Philly Scene.
Once Justin was done the night closed out with Max Swan who hit us with some smooth Jazz. He was like a Jazz pied piper drawing people inside of the bar. He mellowed us out for a couple of hours and wrapped up the evening. Exhausted I got a ride home and fell asleep, face first on the couch.
Day 1 of my 7 day stretch is complete. Now all I have to do is last 6 more days.
No comments:
Post a Comment