Pic from ETB show last night, taken on my Droid using the Retro Camera app. Awesome. Will explain.



First things first.

Just thought I'd mention that Richard Lamm has left the Eric Tessmer Band. We all wish him well, and his reasons for leaving are his own and I will not post them here. All I will say is that ETB practiced Wednesday afternoon, dialing in song tempos on a metronome. Then went to load in for the set at Maggie's that night. Richard quit then, and left the band at the venue with no drummer, a show in a few hours, and three more in as many days. No need to post how I feel about that. But it is what it is.

So last 2 nights ETB has been playing Drummer Roullette, as we've had 2 drummers in as many gigs. Not sure who we have for tonight and tomorrow. But it's actually been really cool. Both are drummers we've never played full or even partial shows with, but have all run into on 6th Street.

Wednesday we had Brannan Lane, an old friend of Michael's. He did great! We just rolled with it, mainly covers with a few originals and LOTS of jamming. Which has felt good. Mindless repetition offers a certain degree of comfort, but putting yourself on the line shows what you're really made of. It's been fun being able to try things with basslines and not worry about messing it up... who cares, we're up here with a drummer we've never played with before! Lots of crowd walks as well, and the drinking rule has been set aside for now, heh.

Last night at Friends we had a young guy named Derek. Totally different style and again we just rolled with it. Had a pretty good crowd too, and again they loved it.
Good times and a good night.

Which leads me to the bloody guitar pic. We were on crowd walk #2, I believe. Eric out playing when his signal starts to cut out. He looks back at me, I give him an "I didn't touch anything!" look. He came back to the stage, Fonzie'd his delay pedal with the side of his fist and went back into the crowd. I went to the bar to get a drink from him (he pours shots while playing, and you'd already know that if you've ever seen us \m/,) and noticed the blood on his guitar. I ran back to the stage to grab my phone, heh! Had to stop playing to take some pics, but Michael can do basslines with his left hand, heh! Teamwork!

Later on I was out front smoking a cig during another crowdwalk and noticed a guy pulling a van up 6th Street via meathooks in his forearms. I still had my phone on me and of course got pics. As much as I gripe about 6th Street, you never know what you're going to see on any given night.

ETB tonight at BD Riley's. Drummer roullete night 3!