Big Night in Philly

I started learning guitar 3 years ago at age 53, taking all of my lessons on the web. A year ago I got a band together with several of my buddies from work. Fortunately our lead singer/lead guitar player had lots of previous experience although he was only gigging a few times a year. After knocking off 15 years of dust, our drummer was a real find too. Without those guys we wouldn’t have had a chance.

Anyway, after playing together just a year and about six small gigs, we got a chance at the big time. Last Wednesday night our band, The Peril, got to play at the convention center in Philadelphia for the closing party of our big national risk and insurance industry convention.

We got to play two 30-minute sets to the crowd of roughly 1500 people and we had a complete blast. In addition to our freebie performance, the organizers hired a professional band, the Amish Outlaws to play an hour set between our two.

It was really amazing to be supported by a fully professional video and sound crew. Apparently there were about 30 guys just running all the systems, so we just had to a do a sound check and then play with none of the hassle of a typical bar gig. This was all way over our heads, but sure was fun.

I didn't tell my bandmates in advance, but I also hired a stretch limo to take us to the convention center and then to bar-hop when we were done. You only live once, right?! All in all, it was definitely one of the most fun nights I've ever had. We checked a big box on the Bucket List. Now back to real life!

Boys in the stretch:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/142809239.jpg

The hall during sound check (this was taken from only about half way back:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/142809179.jpg

The boys getting ready in the dressing room:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/142809237.jpg

Hanging with the Amish Outlaws before the show. They were a lot of fun and had some good stories.
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/142809235.jpg

… and here are a few YouTube links, taken with my little GoPro which I mounted on some of the side scaffolding. Wish I had hooked up to the main mixer for much better sound, but you get the idea. That’s yours truly up close in these clips and my band mates in the far distance!

Pride & Joy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4e0vvZ8w3g

Blitzkrieg Bop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWp3_tbRdZY&feature=relmfu

Dead Flowers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB6A7-82py8&feature=relmfu

Wow very nice! Looks like a great time. And you've only been playing guitar for 3 years most impressive. Keep on keeping on, you're off to a great start. Thanks for sharing the fun.

Take care....

Nice!

… I guess after you flowed everything out and completed a risk and control matrix, you were set/nothing to worry about!

Seriously, you did a great job – hopefully you’re writing some of your own songs since you have thirty some year of stuff to write about

Did you bring your guitar?

Finally, I can assume you have only good memories of my town.

Very, very cool. I got a brief taste of just how huge the convention center is at the car show a couple years back. Just HUGE. Must have been quite fun playing such a large place and sounding good. Congrats.

Thanks, guys. Had a great time in Philly and really enjoyed the town - when I wasn't worrying about the show. We had three full days to think about it after getting in town, and Tom Petty got it dead right when he said "...the waiting is the hardest part!"

The convention supplied the complete backline, drum kit, keyboards, and of course the PA system, etc. We rented our guitars from Bauder Audio (fantastic guys), just so we wouldn't have to deal with airlines or shipping. That was a bit risky, but the Bauder guys had good stuff and it worked out well. We only brought whatever pedals we wanted to use, plus some spare cables, and other personal gear.

We did all cover material in the show which was one of the requirements of playing. We did 17 songs in our two 30 minute sets, which were very carefully planned (risk managed!), but we still had to deal with our lead singer. We couldn't live without him, but he suffers from all the usual lead singer traits such as seeming to forget we had agreed a very specific set list. By the way, our set lists included a full range of stuff from Johnny Cash to Social Distortion. He also kept inviting the other band on stage to jam with us - which fortunately they were not in the room at the time to hear, or they ignored him. We did finally bring them up on our last song, Rock and Roll All Night, and that was a lot of fun.

Despite a few months of concern that we had really "outkicked our coverage", it all worked out really well and it was a fantastic experience for us.

Very Cool.

Philly, yeah!

I'm the process of trying to convince one of my company's distributors to hire my band for a trade show we're doing at the convention center next November. I'm pushing the whole "Philly" aspect, since the band was born and bred in Philly in the '80s, and now we're doing nearly-annual reunion gigs even though we've all scattered to the four corners of the US.

Good luck on that Rich. Should be a nice homecoming if you can work it out. In the meantime, here are a few more pics from our night there.

Yours truly, feeling good:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/143021824.jpg

A little solo action:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/143021826.jpg

All five of us cutting it loose:
http://www.pbase.com/bruce_j/image/143021827.jpg

GAH! You guys BOTH play Blitzkrieg Bop with alternate picking! It's the Ramones! Downstrokes only!!!! (I know, I saw them play live in the '80s... in Philly.)

Just messin' with you. It looks like a great gig, and I'm hoping we can smooth-talk our way into something similar next fall.

I find it interesting that you rented guitars. Fortunately, enough of our band members still live in the Philly area that they can borrow gear for those that don't. One of our singers brings her Paisley Tele on the plane from San Francisco, but borrows an amp, and I set her up with a few spare stompboxes. One of our keyboard players flies a synth all the way from Dallas. I'm lucky, in that I live within driving distance and can bring my whole rig (and a couple of the kids) with me to these reunion gigs.

In my band, we were all amazed at how much fun we had, and how easily we fell back into the old patterns, though in some cases, members hadn't seen each other in 25 years. I can't imagine what your gig must have been like for you, without having done that kind of thing until you were in your 50s. It's what Car & Driver calls "big dirty fun".

P.S. Being from Philly (and now living in the mostly-frozen North Country of New York State) I kinda guessed what the Amish Outlaws were about, just from their name. But I googled them anyway, and what a hoot. Their website is great, and the band looks like a heckuva lotta fun. They need some Tele's, though.

http://amishoutlaws.com/

GAH! You guys BOTH play Blitzkrieg Bop with alternate picking! It's the Ramones! Downstrokes only!!!! (I know, I saw them play live in the '80s... in Philly.)

http://amishoutlaws.com/

Ha! It ain't Philly is someone's not getting their chops busted.

Johhny Ramone would have a lot to say about this, actually. He had a lot of rules.

Sorry about the Blasphemy on Blitzkrieg! We play Sedated too and do use all downstrokes on that, as we should. I'll make sure we do Johnny proud next time! Seriously - good comment. We were just being lazy, and that just ain't right when playing Ramones.

Regarding the rented gear, it was a bit disconcerting to think about it, and we would have all preferred to have our #1's there. But I was also there for the business part of the conference and had a lot of things going on. It was really nice not to have the one further complication of getting our stuff over there and then back. I did miss my Tele though!

One more shout out to the Amish Outlaws. They did a fantastic job of getting the crowd revved up. I might have mentioned this before, but they also came up and sang with us on I Want You to Want Me, and then we all played our last song together Rock and Roll All Night. What a blast!

Glad you had fun.