Bring it on.
I've done doubles like that with ETB many times before, and while my body was more than a little angry with me the next morning for playing back-to-back 3 hours sets punctuated only by the mad dash to tear down the gear and wheel it two doors down and throw it onstage at BD Riley's, my bank account was quite jubilant. That and I wisely downed 3 Ibuprofin before leaving the house.
Again, really fun to be playing with Eric and Rob again. Setting up at Friends took my main P-Bass (Minnie Pearl) out of the case to find it was still in Eb, from the last ETB show I did 2 weeks ago. Meaning: I haven't touched my bass in two weeks.
Wow. Hands/arms-wise, that second set is going to hurt...!
And I forgot to stretch out before the first set. Shit! My whole body was going to hurt.
Friends set was a blast, the BD Riley's set we on fire and totally destroyed.
Kind of a blur for the whole night. 6 hours of high energy blues rock. All I knew is my hands were starting to hurt a few songs into the second set but there was nothing that could be done about it except keep going, keep going, keep going.
I don't think our energy wavered a millisecond that whole second set. All I know is we improved the first song, and played a few things the second set that we didn't play for the first.
Next morning I had to be up bright and early for 11:30am rehearsal in far North Austin on guitar with Vine House, only to leave there at 3:30 to haul ass back downtown for a short set with Forever Town.
I wasn't as on point for the VH rehearsal as I would have liked. Have been going over the first half of their material and was going to start with the second half Saturday during the day. That changed with the early set added to ETB's night, and had to forgo charting out songs and learning them to go into energy-conservation mode for the long night and day ahead.
That and my frethand and arm were blown from playing 6 hours the previous night. But got through it and it sounded as good as it could have. Turns out Matt their drummer and I played briefly together in Shandon Sahm's band, and he is in two videos we shot several years ago.
'Everything's Cool' Shandon/myself/Jim Ortiz/Amy/Matt
'Rock N Roll Demon'
I didn't play on the recording of 'Everything's Cool' but I did supply the guitar solo for 'Rock N Roll Demon.'
Anyway.
Pretty much dead on my feet by the time I rolled in to Red Eyed Fly for the Forever Town set. And thank God is was short.
Soldiered through that one best I could. After the first song both my hands were blown and I was feeling a little loopy from having only eaten a single breakfast taco in the past 24 hours on top of the massive energy expenditure the previous night.
But mission accomplished, I hung for a bit but had to grab my gear and head out so I could go home, get some food, eat some more Ibuprofin, and rest.
Today was a self-imposed day off. More Ibuprofin this morning.
I need to work on the rest of the Vine House music, but don't want to press my luck with my hands. I often have to remind myself that when I need to take a day off, that is still DOING SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE. Usually my head will swim with all the things I need to do and should be doing.
But when I have the opportunity for some much-needed downtime, I need to take it.
Mission accomplished there. I feel really good. And gobbling around 2000mg of Ibuprofin the past day and a half, my body feels pretty damn good too. I feel very fortunate to feel very good physically for being 39.
Adding to my feeling of general well-being, I was able to pay my rent in a timely manner this month. That hasn't happened in awhile. Things are looking up, and I hope that trend continues.
Also looks like Ocean of Stars will still be on hiatus for the next two weeks, as life and schedules aren't allowing for rehearsal this week or the next. Not the end of the world. This will give me the opportunity to sit down with the prospective bassist and work with her personally to bring her up to speed, rather than just throw her into the mix and hope she kicks its ass.
So yeah. Today was nice, on many levels.
Finally cooling off here in Central Texas, have had the Hobbit Hole open for the last two days, and had to get an extra blanket and wear pajamas for warmth last night. #awesome
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