Category: lizardfish

Boy Scout Fail aka Gig Recap

The band played out last night. It was our fourth show at Racks Bar in Plaistow, NH. Overall it was a decent show. The two day long snow storm kept a lot of people away so the turnout was lower than we’ve gotten at previous shows. Also, I think the success of the first three shows has left me a little over confident.

Mike the bass player owns one bass guitar. I own a cheap bass too and I’ve brought it to all of our shows so Mike would have a back up. I forgot to bring it last night. That was dumb of me. That was one thing that I look back on and wish I could do over.

There was one other thing that I felt was a bad move done in the spirit of over confidence. Picks. At every gig I’ve ever done in my entire life I have had a pick in my right hand and a bunch of spare picks in my pocket. In some cases there were picks taped to my microphone stand too.

Last night during one of the first couple of songs it occurred to me that I didn’t have any spare picks on me. I had a box full of them in one of my guitar cases, but nothing up on stage with me. I told myself that before the second set started I would fill up my pocket with spares.

A couple of songs into the second set it dawned on my that I never grabbed that box of picks. I started getting nervous. What the hell am I going to do if I drop this pick and can’t find it? There was another pick with my second guitar, I could grab that one if I needed to. Still, that would suck. I told myself I’d get that box out of my Les Paul case before the third set.

Fast forward to the third set. Did I get those picks out of the case? Of course not. Sure enough, we were playing one song that has a great solo section where I always try to come as close as physically possible to shredding like a demon. As the moment approached, I stepped on the pedal I was using as a volume boost for solos and…

Whoosh, out of my hand went the pick. I knew it was going to happen eventually, and there it was. Fortunately it landed right at my feet and didn’t get lost, but I had to finger pick through the rest of the song. I lost my chance to shred like a madman and then I had to get down on my knees and pick the stupid thing up. I should have just been able to pull another pick out of my pocket and keep going like nothing happened.

I did screw up a lot last night. There were some small miscues all through the first two sets. The third set… I train-wrecked a little. The other guys held it together but I was off the rails once or twice. I think I know what happened to me. We had a lot of snow overnight Friday and I was planning on getting up pretty early to dig out so that we could drive up to see my step daughter perform with the all-state choir in Concord, NH at 1:30. The stress of it all must have popped me awake at about 3:30 am. I couldn’t get back to sleep no matter what I did. So when the third set came around I was at about the 20 hour mark. I didn’t feel tired. There is too much adrenaline pumping for that, but I think I was really mentally fatigued. Things that I usually do without a second thought suddenly escaped me. Guitar parts that I usually nail became challenging, or I just flat out forgot them. It pissed me off, but I took out my frustration on a couple of solos and it got better. Still, stupid snow storm.

We booked two more shows for later in the year so we have three booked now. Every show we’ve done and every one we have booked has been at the same bar. That’s not really a good sign, but I am too old to care about such things. My days of seeing music as a career are so far gone that I can barely remember when it was an actual thing.

The next show is in early June. I promise I will have spare picks at all times.

Band Practice

I haven’t posted any music from my band’s practices in a while and I just finished chopping up the recording I made with my iPhone on Sunday so I thought I’d try to remember how to embed hearthis.at files.

I wonder if this works…

Looks like it!

Who said that Lizardfish can’t bring the funk?

I think I need to do something new in the guitar tone department.  Maybe just add some top end to it?  The high knob on the amp is way down, and every pedal with a tone control has the highs rolled off.  Is it just the recording that sounds muddy or did I really sound like that in the room?  No idea, really.

Band Practice Recap

Last night was the first band practice since the July 1st show. We didn’t plan on taking a whole month off, it just sort of happened. We planned on learning a bunch of new songs. One went okay. The others were weaker than usual. We also tried learning something at the practice. Not sure how that worked out. I can say that one of the new songs is a Beatles song, so hopefully my beloved wife will be happier out our next show. (love you sweetie!)

None of that is out of the ordinary. One other thing was. It was weird. Very weird. I brought my Strat. Every now and then I feel the need to bring it to practice to sort of justify the fact that I payed money for it. You know, see wallet? I’m using it with the band. It wasn’t a waste of money. The weird thing was how it felt. It felt… good. It almost felt natural. I’ve always said, since the day I bought the thing, that it is so different than the two Gibsons that it never really felt right to me. Last night though… it felt good. The action is still a little high, and the bridge is much harder to mute with the palm of my hand, but otherwise. It felt good playing it. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but playing a Fender Stratocaster felt good.

What’s wrong with me?

Amplifier Comparison

Song #1 here is through my ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue. The rhythm guitar is through the bass big muff and the little solo is through the tone wicker big muff. The rhythm sounds okay, but the lead… doesn’t.

Song #2 is through my Marshall Valvestate VS265. Same pedal configuration. Everything is much toppier. Isn’t the norm for Fender vs Marshall the opposite? At least through the Marshall the wicker big muff sounds okay. I think I might have toned it down a little too.

So the moral of the story is maybe to not use two fuzz pedals and just crank the fuzz on one and use it all the time. Oh, and turn up the bass on my Marshall amp (if it’s not full up already).

Next practice is Sunday. No dicking with gear allowed as it’s the final run through before my first bar gig in 11 years. The goal is to just blow through everything we know in as short a time as possible.

Awful

My guitar playing at practice tonight was probably the worst it’s ever been when other people were in the room.  I’m stunned they didn’t sack me on the spot.  My hands hurt so much I just couldn’t make them do what I needed them to do.  It was just awful.  What if this never goes away?  What if it gets worse?  What if I can’t play anymore?  When does it get so bad I have to see a doctor, and what if the doctor tells me I’m done for good?  I am literally scared.

Is it a Myth or is it True

I’ve known people who played guitar who insisted that certain songs should be played on a specific guitar.  Usually that sort of thing comes down to genre.  People feel that if you play a hollow bodied guitar you should be playing jazz or blues.  If you play a souped up Kramer strat copy with active pick ups you should be playing metal.  I call bullshit on that.  I’ve seen plenty of heavy rock gods playing hollow guitars, and I’ve heard a good amount of smooth jazz coming from 80’s era shred machines.  No, your choice of guitar comes down to two things, tone and feel.  Genre is irrelevant.  If you like the way it feels in your hand, and you like the sound you get out of it, then it’s yours.  This discussion isn’t about that.

Years ago, while playing in a band with Mike the bass player and Maria the drummer, I graduated to the upper echelon of guitar skill by finally being able to fudge my way through the opening riff to “The Spirit of Radio” by Rush.  You know, that sick speed demon little bastard that all guitar players dream of being able to play when they first start out?  I could get through it, though not cleanly and… well… not well.  Yeah, I sounded like crap, but at least I could get through it and have it be recognizable.  That was when I only owned one guitar, my Les Paul.  A couple of years later I bought my ES-335 and I couldn’t play that riff.  I attributed it to the action, as it’s a touch higher on the 335 and I thought that was the source of my problem.  After that, I never really worried about it again.

Now in the new band there is one wicked easy 80’s song we do by the Greg Kihn Band.  Dude, I really hope I’m spelling your name right.  During my first practice with the band I had the ES-335 (Mike the bass player said that seeing me with that guitar instead of the Les Paul was just wrong.  I don’t disagree, but I do love that semi-hollow little sucker).  I played through the Greg Kihn song pretty well.  Not great.  Not terribly clean, but okay.  After a few weeks I decided that Les Paul was my #1.  The upside of the 335 was the ease in producing quality, usable feedback.  The downside being that the intonation on the low E string is a little funny, and one song we do has a little chromatic scale that sounds out of tune even when the guitar is tuned up correctly.  When playing the Les Paul, for some reason that stupid little Greg Kihn riff just kills me.  I mess it up constantly. Really, I feel so embarrassed playing that damn song at rehearsal.  Seriously, every time we play it I expect them to fire me.  After that first practice I have never been able to do it well.

After the sad passing of BB King last week I decided that I would honor his memory in a way that no one on Earth would ever recognize, realize, or care about.  I decided to play my 335 at this week’s practice.  I put knew strings on it and then played through my nemesis, the Greg Kihn song, for a solid 20-30 minutes.  Just playing that stupid four bar phrase over and over…

And I got it just about right every time.

That’s kind of peculiar.

Then it hit me.  One of my problems was that I loop my thumb around to play the first fret on the low e-string.  The neck on the Les Paul seems to be wider than on the ES-335.  Is that the reason?  Is that the problem?  Is that why I can get through it pretty well on one guitar but constantly blow it on the other?  We played it at rehearsal with me using the 335 and it went pretty well.  I think I might be on to something.  I think the ES-335 might have to make an appearance at every show we do.  Because of the iffy intonation, I don’t think it can supplant the Les Paul as the #1, but maybe it means that I don’t have a single #1, I have two of them.  Maybe we have to make sure the Aerosmith song (I hate them so) and the Greg Kihn song cannot be played in the same set, so a Kihn set can be played on one guitar, and an aerosmith set (I hereby refuse to capitalize their name) can be played on a different guitar.

And the Stratocaster stays at home and only gets used on home demos.