New Side Band Gig Report 5/25

[Brian Krashpad]

So in April I sat in on bass with my buddy Doug's band, called Dynamite Charade. A week or so ago he PM'd me and asked if I'd like to come aboard as a guitarist, as a full member. "Full membership" is a little misleading though, my friend the singer/songwriter/bandleader lives up in St. Augustine; the rest of the band lives in or near Gainesville, which is a couple hours away. As a result they don't play very many shows and have zero regular practice schedule. Instead the singer breezes in day of show or the day before, they do one run-through out at the drummer's house (he has a band room studio with a PA set up, fridge, bar, etc.), and then they do the show that night (or the following night).

They did their band run-through Thursday night for last night's show but I was van-less and had a practice with my "other" sideband (our singer came and got me, as my wife was working and had the car) so I couldn't make it. My Friday sucked, with my van still not outta the shop and repair costs unexpectedly almost tripling. I managed about an hour of run-through at my office with just the singer, adding some guitarist's notes to the bass cheats I'd made for the show in April.

Then we jumped in our vehicles (I had to use Mrs. K's SUV, a nice car but I call it the "Mom-mobile" and really prefer to pull up to a venue in a van, even my mini-van) and went to the club. Some buddy of the management did a solo acoustic set to open and we had the middle slot, with some band from Orlando closing. The acoustic guy was pretty mediocre, not embarrassingly so but out of place doing covers on a bill with 2 originals bands.

Our sound check had been awful from my vantage. I sounded too loud to me, too soft to everyone else. My guitar (the new mini-humbuckered Daisy Rock Retro-H pink cheapo) sounded thick and boomy and I just felt totally out of the groove.

So I was all set to continue what had been my disastrous day into our set. To make matters more interesting, while at my office my buddy Doug had seen my ol' wighat on a mic stand in my office and decided I should wear it all night and stay in character as "Sven," their new hotshot guitarist fresh in from Helsinki Finland.

Being an idiot, of course I had agreed.

But then something interesting happened.

We went up onstage and everything changed. With one exception where I got overexuberant and didn't end my solo at the right spot, I could do no wrong. Holy cow I was killing up there. The rig sounded fan****ingtastic, my fills worked, even my backing vox (falsetto on one song!) were on. We progressively amped things up slowly through the set and I went nutso during the last 2 or 3 songs. Then we closed with one we hadn't practiced earlier in the evening at the office, but which I'd done years ago in a predecessor band with the same singer: the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" which has a sidetrack segue' into Modern English's "Melt With You," and then back to the Stones.

The first time I had ever played that medley was onstage with the same guy many years previously, on both occasions he had sprung the "Melt With You" bit on me and I picked it up without skipping a beat. Fortunately back in my 80's party band days I had done "Melt With You" and learned the odd little backing vocal (singing "Let's stop the world, stop" in between the lead vocal lines) and last night it came back like riding a bike. I was on rock and roll auto****ingpilot, baby.

Damn it was good.

Anyhow, afterward we loaded out and hung out for a bit of the closers' set. A mutual friend of the singer's and me invited everyone over to his place for an aftershow. The Dynamiter's rhythm section split but Doug and I went. This guy is a UF professor (chemistry or something), a few years older than I, never married or had kids until he married a tall leggy blonde many years his junior a couple years ago.

Our host plays in a local rockabilly band and lives in a very nice home (his own little Graceland--actually the house is every bit as big as Graceland, which is not all that huge by modern standards) in an older but swanky neighborhood. I'd been invited to parties there several times in the past but had never made it out. It was a very small gathering: our hosts, Doug and I, and a couple who were mutual friends of us other 4. Although I was offered crash space it was a bit late to call home so instead I determined to drink a few bottled waters and chill out for awhile and then drive home. It was an interesting gathering. Everyone else was drinking and there were some other substances around as well, which I politely declined. The rockabilly guy played us some recordings of his new 60's style garage/pychedelic band and showed us his very nice home studio and guitars, including a vintage Gretsch he said he recently found out was worth about 6 grand.

Meanwhile the two women (both of whom are very attractive) were in a very... playful mood. The girlfriend from the visiting couple insisted on wearing my wighat, and the host wife went and fished out more wigs, one of which she wore, plus a Beatle-type moptop she plopped on Doug. The girl wearing my wighat kept profusely complimenting me on my performace at the club, almost always reaching out and touching me for emphasis. (Within minutes of the first time I had met her, a couple months earlier in a club, she PLANTED one on me, dead on the mouth, in a club. I'm sure if I hadn't been in shock and had reciprocated, which of course being married I would not do, there would've been tongues.)

It was rather surreal, while still being immensely enjoyable. I kept getting the vibe that at any second an orgy could break out. Which I'm sure was inaccurate, but that's still how it seemed. Being a married man, I made my partings for the night and drove home safe and sound, getting in relatively early, about 2:30.

Here's some pics. Comments on my poseritude, etc., are welcomed as always.

Here's my rig, w/the bassist tuning up:



Band late in the set. The blurry blob with the pink guitar blob in the middle is me:



Will bump w/more pics presently, as they're uploaded (@ home w/slow connection).

BK

[Brian Krashpad]

[ibobunot]

Originally Posted by Brian Krashpad

It was rather surreal, while still being immensely enjoyable. I kept getting the vibe that at any second an orgy could break out.

Now that's Rock N' Roll....

Everyone should have one of those "rock star" moments every now and then.

[Brian Krashpad]

Originally Posted by ibobunot

Now that's Rock N' Roll....

Everyone should have one of those "rock star" moments every now and then.

Sven agrees!