Back to business

Got back to work after my doldrums had subsided.

Last week:

Tuesday rehearsed with Jason Patten and Derek Hensley in prep for an imminent album recording with Chet Himes. Jason and his lady made me a chunk of German chocolate cake, laden with candles so it looked like a sea urchin. Awesome! That was really nice of them and made my day! Update on that situation, looks like we hit the studio tomorrow, which will conflict with rehearsal with Heather Bishop tomorrow night in prep for her birthday show at Saxon Pub next Wednesday. Shit.

Wednesday had afternoon rehearsal with Ulrich Ellison before a gig at Hanover's in Pflugerville that night. Both went well. Despite my rookie mistake of leaving my pedalboard (containing all pertinent cables for the gig) at his practice space. Well shit. Had a tuner in my phone and borrowed cables so not the end of the world. Having my bass drive does come in handy for giving my hands a break. Was able to function without it and dig in more with my attack to get the extra volume. But lets just say my hands/forearms hurt like hell the next morning. Which sucked because:

Thursday had 11am rehearsal again with Ulrich and this time the keyboard player (all gigs save Sat at Maggie Mae's were trio gigs). My hands were blown by the time we were done. And I still had a 4-hour recording session with Sean Evan to bass for 4 more tracks on his album. Spent the day resting and not playing music. Listened to the 4 songs before heading out, wrote down the charts Sean had emailed me for a guideline.

Went in there with little to no prep and still knocked them all out by the third take. Felt really good about that. Once I locked into the kick/snare pattern, the bass line fell into place. Went back to clean up a blown change or two, but still made quick work of the tunes.

In between all this was trying to settle a booking controversy for Oct 4. Had a Hooka Hey show which I agreed to, but then had two other offers come in the same time which unfortunately would have paid much more. But Hooka Hey doesn't have the roster of possible subs that the other two bands do, and to back out would mean cancellation of the date (an outdoor festival in Victoria TX at 9pm) altogether. Shit. So I did what I should have done to begin with, keep the date I initially accepted and explained the situation to the other two situations.

Friday played Anderson Mill Tavern with Ulrich. Spent the day resting, then doing some much-needed housework. Oh yeah, we're having a dinner party coming up this week. We need to clean!!!

Saturday was supposed to play an early private party for some bikers in Del Valle, but that got rained out en route. They still paid us half which was really cool of them. Got the news just as I was pulling into a gas station for a 5-Hour Energy and wondering how I was going to get through the day. Back was really bothering me, hands still hurting, and really really wanted a nap...

So we killed some time here, then loaded in at Maggie's early to avoid the clusterfuck of Pecan Street Festival going on downtown. Uli dropped me off back home and he ran to do a short set with Nakia Reynosa. Finally got a nap. Headed back downtown (this time with my damn cable box, thought my cables were in my pedalboard... glad I noticed that loading in, my hands would have killed me) in Heather's car (smaller than my van and could fit my rig) with plenty of time to find parking and have a leisurely set up.

Gig went great! Good crowd all night, and was cool to finally have the keyboard player onstage as well, kind of gave me a bit of a break from holding down rhythms, heh. Was really fun playing with Ulrich and Michael Davila and Bill Commander. Glad Ulrich's wife Sabine (usual bassist) will be ok and home soon to begin their upcoming tour. But I had a blast playing with them and kinda bummed the shows are over :)

Sunday resumed rehearsals with Dead Oak. Good to see them, been awhile. They may be hooking me up with three days of freelance work next week for a handsome paycheck.

Which is great as October was looking light so far...

This week, rinse and repeat. Rehearsal tonight. Recording tomorrow. Hooka Hey rehearsal on Wednesday. Joint birthday dinner party for Heather and myself here at the Hobbit Hole on Thurs (invite only, there is not much space here hahaha), Friday probably with Sean Evan at Dizzy Rooster, Saturday in Victoria with Hooka Hey. Sunday Dead Oak rehearsal. Mon-Wed could be working freelance 9-5pm. Rehearsal with Heather on Tues for her birthday show at Saxon on Wednesday.

Maybe late next week I'll have another day off finally. See what happens.