Tag: Music

Neglecting the Ol’ Bloggie

I haven’t been posting much lately. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, you know what I mean? Work is Insane with a capital I, the holidays have been super stressful. So much to do, so many demands, so many headaches. I haven’t been sick, but through the last 2–3 months or so I have generally felt like sickness is right on the doorstep. I just want summer back, you know what I mean?

I booked a vacation day for this coming Friday so that I could have the full day to get ready for the next gig. I scheduled the day off back in October, right around the time we played the last gig. Since then we have booked a major vacation for late summer. No spoilers, but I need to use up a sizable chunk of my vacation time. So much so, that I had to book more time than I currently have in the bank. That means for the next few months I can’t take any more vacation days. Yikes! That’s especially painful because I feel like I need a good couple of days off. Granted, the holidays are helping but I feel like I need a couple of days off when the rest of the world is working. Now don’t get me wrong, this coming weekend is going to be spent with the love of my life and that is far and away my favorite way to spend time. I just need to be able to hide under the covers for a day or two. That ain’t happening.

Sure I have been bitching about the holidays, but Christmas was fun. The kids were great, the family was great, everything was great. I was very happy. I just wish that with all the time and energy spent preparing for Christmas, that Christmas itself could last a little longer. A week, maybe? That seems fair. We don’t have plans for New Years Eve, but we do for New Years Day, there is a much needed game night, and we do have plans for New Years Eve Eve, there is a gig to play. We had our final pre-show rehearsal on Monday. I asked the band if we could agree to never, ever book another December show. They were all very quick to agree. It has kinda gotten in the way this month. It will be another really fun experience when it happens on Friday, but I will be pretty pleased that it’s over with.

My 21 year old cousin Abigail got married today. It was a surprise. No one outside of her immediate family knew it was happening until it was already done. Her husband is a soldier and is being sent overseas. They decided to tie the knot ahead of his deployment. Very romantic, yes? I wish the two of them the best. Speaking from experience, being married is the best thing ever. I wouldn’t want to change a thing. I hope someday in the long distant future they look back on their lives together and say the same thing. Congratulation Abbie and Tim.

I am sure I could come up with a few more post-worthy topics, but I must run off to pick up the kids. Talk to you later, okay?

Fuzz

We had a band practice today. It was the last one before Friday night’s gig.

The band agreed that from this point forward… no more December gigs. This month has been suck after suck after suck, and there just isn’t time to work on the music. Practice went well today, apart from the singer having a cold and having to take things easy. We cranked through all three sets as quickly as possible and we were all toast by the end. Fingers just didn’t respond the way they should have. It was tough, but over all there were few disasters.

I took my amp and my pedals home in the hopes that I will be able to work on all of my pedal settings through the actual amp I want to use at the gig. Unfortunately there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do what I need to do, and it will require volume to get it right. Still, I hope to spend some time with it. Fingers crossed.

Four days to the gig.

Greg Lake

Out of the three members of Emerson Lake and Palmer, only Carl Palmer remains.

I woke up this morning to find out that Greg Lake, vocalist, bassist, guitarist, all around great musician, had passed away after a battle with cancer. It was yet another musical kick in the teeth from the hell beast we call 2016.

I spent much of my day listening to ELP and the first King Crimson record. All of Mr Lake’s finest moments.

This year is an asshole.

Rest in peace, Greg Lake.

My Guitar is Home

Finally, after almost five whole weeks, my guitar has come home. More importantly, it’s in one piece!


It has a new bridge pickup. I can’t wait to plug in and play it. Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups are really high output. It’s going to make that tube amp I bought last March scream!


Check this out. For the first time since I bought the guitar back in 1990, the pickup switch actually sticks in the neck pickup position! It’s a Christmas miracle!


As for that huge hole in the finish that was all the way down to bare wood? The tech told me he’d make it so it wouldn’t get worse, but it wasn’t going to look good. He was right about both things. It’s so weird to run my finger across that spot and feel nothing but the glossy finish. It’s amazing!


It’s not a good time to actually plug her in and test drive the changes, but at some point tomorrow I will. My Marshall amp is just itching to make some noise with it’s old friend. Then there is a band practice Sunday when this sucker is going to get some tube amp and fuzz box time! Bring it on!

My Les Paul Custom is home!

Gig is Getting Close

The band’s next gig is December 30th. With Christmas and everything happening between now and then, the date is actually much closer than it looks on the calendar. Our drummer sent out a rough draft of a setlist today. Let then arguing begin! Personally, I like to wait until we’ve actually played through a set before I suggest changes. I just like to know how it all feels, you know?

I am going to be using my Fender Deluxe Reverb for this show instead of my Marshall. I really love it except that when I use my two Big Muff pedals together it sounds like an over compressed mess. I’m going to see about swapping out the second muff for an overdrive pedal and try to use it as a clean boost. I already have one setup that way in front of the first Muff pedal in order to give the signal a little extra push. Now I want to add one after the first Muff to try and get a volume boost for leads. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Rush — Time Stand Still (not) Review

My wife and I watched the new Rush documentary, Time Stand Still the other night and it made me sad.

The film documents the R40 tour from 2015. If you remember, when the management announced the tour it was alongside a rumor that it would probably be the last major tour the band would do. As things wore on that changed to the last tour the band would do. It was stressed that it didn’t necessarily mean the band was splitting up, just that they were too old (they are all in their 60’s now) to want to go on large tours anymore. They said that one off shows and new records were still possible though. That eased the pain a little.

Then on the last night of the tour, in Los Angeles, Neil Peart did something he never ever does. When the show ended, he walked to the front of the stage, grabbed the other two guys, and took a bow. It sounds silly, but knowing Neil Peart… that was a really bad sign. Not long after that he posted a blog where he said his daughter, when asked what her dad did for a living, answered that he was a retired drummer. Uh oh.

Now we have the documentary, and although they once again never said that “It Is Over”, it was so clearly the case. Rush is done. I would be stunned if there were ever more shows, or more records, or more anything outside of archival releases. There might be solo records, especially from Geddy Lee who seemed the least ready to pack it in, but Rush as a thing seems pretty much over.

The whole thing made me really sad. Not because the band was breaking up, but it was something deeper and more personal than that. Jen asked me to describe how I was feeling and I tried, but I don’t know if I pegged it exactly.

I first heard Rush when I was 10 years old. A classmate brought a tape recorder and a dub of Exit Stage Left to school and a bunch of us sat around his desk and listened to it. I liked what I heard enough to save up my money and buy a copy for myself. I loved it. I didn’t know why. I didn’t have the musical language to understand what I was hearing, I just knew that it was something I had never even imagined was out there and it had a power. It had something that I needed to be a part of.

As I got older, being a Rush fan started to define me. My friends were mostly Rush fans too, and if they weren’t they were still either budding musicians, or passionate music fans. All through my teens and 20’s the obsession continued to grow. Then in my 30’s, something unexpected happened. I fell in love, and the woman I fell in love with liked Rush too and was not only willing to go see them, but was willing to travel around to see them. We went to multiple shows each tour, hitting New York and Connecticut multiple times, but also Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We planned a few Las Vegas and California trips, but they never panned out. Once we went to Ontario to see them but missed the show. As great as the trips were, even better was the idea that this goofy obsession that I had been feeding since childhood morphed into something that I could share with the woman I loved. It became more than just a part of me. It became a part of us. That was something I never expected, and something more wonderful than I had ever considered. I am so thankful to my wife for sharing all of this with me.

And now that part of my life is over.

We still have the mountain of music, and all the fun memories that will always be there. There just won’t be any new memories, and that makes me a little sad.

I totally get it though, and for Neil Peart at least I have been expecting this for a while. A few years ago Bill Bruford celebrated his 60th birthday by retiring from music. His reasoning was that he was still at the top of his game, but at any moment he was going to be physically unable to play the drums at the level he had come to expect from himself and he was unwilling to be less than his best. The minute I heard that, I knew that soon enough we would be hearing Neil Peart say the exact same thing. Peart lasted a little longer before saying it, but he said it. The guy is the best there has ever been at his instrument. To expect him to be willing to be less than that is pretty silly. I get it, and I back him up 100%. Go out on top. Hell, we’d all do it if the circumstances would let us. I completely respect the guy’s decision, it just sucks for the rest of us.

So I am no longer holding out hope for some future records or shows. I have accepted the fact that Rush is no more. I wish those guys the best in everything they do from here on. I just want to reiterate the fact that for the rest of us… it sucks.