Just got home from band practice. Lucy did not pull the football away from Charlie Brown.
My finger tips ARE KILLING ME. The last two songs we did I could barely play. My fingers just said, “yeah we’re done for the day” and that was it. Outside of that, things went pretty well. There probably won’t be a practice next week as our drummer is traveling, but after that I hope we can get onto something like a regular schedule.
We did it. We have had two band practices in a row. Oh thanks be to the gods of bad middle aged cover bands, we pulled off two Sunday practices in a row!
I fought with my gear through the whole thing. I have something in my signal chain that is adding a weird whistling noise and when it reaches my overdrive pedals it gets LOUD. I ended up bypassing half of the board and it seemed like it fixed the problem for a while, but eventually it came back and kept getting worse. If I had to guess I would say it’s probably my power supply. I don’t know. I think I might bring my stay at home pedal board next time and see if it had any similar issues.
I also just wasn’t vibing with my amp. The Vox AC15 is fun and I like using it when I record at home, but when the band was playing I was missing my Deluxe Reverb. I might swap them next time. Or maybe I’ll swap the pedal board next time and then swap the amp the time after that.
Look at me, making plans for the next two practices, as if I wasn’t just worried about ever having two practices in a row again. Why don’t we focus on the next practice actually happening before we start looking beyond that, m’kay?
As for me personally, my playing was awful. Probably worse than last week. That’s okay though, I will get back up to speed soon enough, assuming we get ourselves on a regular schedule, of course.
How about a couple of gear pics?
I didn’t get my hopes up last week and everything worked out. Now we’re shooting for two weeks in a row. Should I be excited?
Last week we had our first band practice in months after more false alarms than I care to remember. After all the fails I refused to get excited about it until we were all actually in the room together. Once we were though… rock and roll bro.
Now we’re talking about practicing again tomorrow. One week later. Is it going to happen? Is it going to fall through? Are we on or are we dealing with another false alarm? I don’t want to get too excited. I don’t want to get my hopes too high… but we’re practicing at noon tomorrow and my stuff is already packed up.
Rock and roll, bro.
The car was packed up… did the band practice happen? It’s been so very long…
Yes! Yes it did happen! All four of us were there. The first band practice in ages!
Yes, we sucked but who cares! It was fun and we weren’t nearly as bad as we could (should) have been. We have tentative plans to try again next week. Fingers crossed, folks. A few practices… get back into playing shape… relearn a bunch of songs… book a gig. That’s the hope. We’ll see how it goes.
I don’t want to feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football but… that might be the case.
We have a band practice scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Will it happen? I keep getting my hopes up and they keep getting canceled at the last minute. Should I be excited about this or should I be resigned to the fact that it’s going to fall through.
I don’t want to feel like Charlie Brown. I am choosing to be excited, but maybe not quite as excited as I was the last bunch of times.
So which guitar should I bring to the practice? Whichever it is, it’s going to need new strings. I’ll decide in the morning.
The band practice is on the books for 4:00pm tomorrow. I should be super psyched.
I’m not.
We’re going to get slammed with a snowstorm tomorrow afternoon. Practice is going to get snowed out.
MUTHA PUSS BUCKET!
I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I swear that mother nature hates my guts. What a bitch!
It still looks like Sunday will have a band practice. The first one in ages.
I need to put new strings on my Les Paul Standard. I also need to not get too excited because statistically speaking it’s probably safe to assume something will take the plans and cock them up.
Ugh. I want to be in a band again! AARRGGHH!!!
4:00pm on Sunday?
We’re trying to setup a time for the band to get together this weekend. I think everyone is in. At least we’re all in as of this moment. I need this. I so need this. I don’t even know when the last time all four of us got together to play was. It’s been way too long. So long that I was pretty convinced it would never happen again. Pessimistically I am still pretty convinced that it is never going to happen again but I am choosing to look on the bright side right now, like the ray of fucking sunshine that I am.
My fingers are crossed. Band practice on Sunday. Make it so.
I wrote a post about this yesterday. I am supposed to work from the office two days each week and last week, thanks to a head cold left over from our Florida vacation, I didn’t come into the office at all. That means for the rest of the month of June I would owe two days in the office.
Well… assuming I can survive for the next 3.5 hours or so, I won’t owe any more. Today is the fourth day of the work week, and I’ve been in the office all four days.
I am exhausted.
Prior to the pandemic, four days in the office and one day at home was the norm. Thursday was my one telecommute day each week. The rest of the week I was in the office. It’s not the same office I’m in now, but that’s not important at all. Four days in, one day home. I am pretty sure this week marks the first time since Covid came to call that I will match that schedule. Well… not exactly. Friday will be my work from home day this week. That is not important either.
What is important is that I have made up the two days I missed last week. I am back on track. Next week will only have two days in the office and all will be right with the working world again.
I just can’t get over how tired I am. The commute, the noise, the stress… it’s just wearing me out, man. How did I manage this for 16 years or so before Covid? I can’t wrap my tiny little miniature brain around it.
Tomorrow I will work from home. I have to move back to the basement office because Harry is home and I won’t be able to use the desk in his room. That’s oaky with me. Who knows, maybe if the weather cooperates I might work outside for a while. Maybe I’ll give it a try at least, just to say that I’ve done it.
In other news, my House of the Dragon season one rewatch to prep for Sunday’s premier of season two continues. I’m through six out of ten episodes which is nuts given that I only thought of doing this four nights ago. I’m caught up on Star Wars: The Acolyte and loving it so far. Three episodes in and I am coming up with some crazy theories. I’m ready for part one of the two part season finale of Doctor Who which airs tomorrow night. We still don’t know who the bad guy is. I haven’t a clue. The new season of The Boys is supposed to launch today at some point. I’m not sure exactly when. There will be three episodes released at launch. I am probably going to hold off on them until I get through the last four episodes of HotD. I’m not sure though. We’ll see.
No band practice this week. No band practice next week. After that I am hopeful that we’ll be able to string together a bunch of them and start getting some of the songs back up to speed. Not to mention growing calluses on my finger tips so that playing doesn’t hurt as much. I’m really looking forward to that.
Oh good! One of the guys in my group at work submitted a bug yesterday and someone in the Dev group just picked it up off of the queue. Here’s hoping we get a quick turn around! That would be excellent. I love it when things go according to plan.
Until next time… I am so freakin’ tired!
There is a high potential that tonight will be a big night for the band. If things work out the way they seem to be working out (and there are still a couple of hours for it to go wrong), tonight will be the first band practice with all four of us since before the last gig on February 1, 2020.
Now I know I’ve said this a bunch of times before, but it sounds like whatever was keeping our singer away has been resolved and he seems to be fully on board again. Like I said, it could all blow up any minute now, but at this particular instant in time, it’s happening.
I put new strings on the Les Paul Standard. I’m nearly ready to go. I just have to pack a few things into a bag to take along with me. My fingers are firmly crossed.
I also used the Gibson branded multi-tool that came with the guitar for the first time. Cool, eh?
I had to take the back cover off of the pickup selector switch to spin the whole thing a little in the counter clockwise direction and then tighten it all up. The switch came a little loose recently and when I tightened it by hand from the face of the guitar, the switch moved a little and it was facing in a new, slightly awkward direction. I think it’s all set now. In further 2020 Les Paul Standard 50’s news, is there a little issue brewing with the nut near the high E string? Maybe. It’s tough to tell. At least I have a relationship with a luthier now so if it needs help I know where to take it.
Inside the Red Head's Head 