The First Rehearsal of Many

On Monday night, the first rehearsal of my new band, still unnamed, took place. MA and RH arrived at approximately 7:00, and promptly began working on the 17 songs we had picked the previous week.

We sat around my computer, with selected songs in an iTunes playlist, ready if needed, and copies of the lyrics in triplicate. We drank beers and ran through the repertoire. What transpired over the course of the evening was very impressive and promising. I was surprised to find that I was singing lead on most of the songs. Even more surprising was by the time the practice ended, we had only given the axe to two songs.

The guys did their homework. The harmonies were there and will be promising. This is going to be one tight band. If we keep learning this quickly, we may be able to start gigging sooner than I expect.

The three of us are going to get together for a band practice this Saturday. We will be going over some of the songs we just practiced, and likely pick up a few more. I will let you all know how things turn out.

The Wheels Are Set In Motion

Today in the Blogosphere: Matt and Jen meet Tony in L.A. for some good times.

Elsewhere in web, the forums are heated with flame wars over Apple's switch to Intel. It's amazing the childish idiocy that are prevalent in these forums. It's not doomsday people; Apple will still be a leading innovator in the computing industry. They will still manufacture high-quality computers, and develop cutting-edge software that Micro$oft cannot touch. The news has only been out for two days, and I'm already getting sick of reading about it. I don't even have the energy to comment on it at this time. I'd rather wait until the smoke clears, and then I shall have a better idea about Apple's future, which I still believe is very bright.

Since I left Legacy in 2002, I decided that I was going to make music on my own terms and no one else's. I also sat around for many months, waiting for the phone to ring, as well as connect with the right people to put together an act of a caliber that no one in this town has seen. After waiting endless months of waiting for the gigs to come my way, it became apparent that I would have to be a little more proactive in securing my next gig. I have been lucky to dedicate my energies to a few side projects here and there, but I was never gigging as much as I would have liked, and I wasn't playing material I was necessarily passionate about. All this time, I have been dreaming of a new band, where I could hand-pick the musicians I would work with, and have a band that I could be proud of.

On Monday, and after three years, this dream was put into motion. RH, the bass player from the SK sessions, and MA from my past Grease experience, have both agreed to work with me on my new project. The timing is impeccable, as I will no longer be a contributing member of Mule Shoe in three days.

Monday was the first time RH and MA met, so Monday's practice was generally an icebreaker, we had barley pops, listened to music and did very little playing. We did however come up with a bit of a game plan, burned CD's of music to learn, and agreed to meet next week for the first practice. We plan on doing thing the right way from day one. There will be no high-volume practices in the foreseeable future. Our practices are going to center around acoustic guitars, working on vocal arrangements. Once gigging is in the foreseeable future, then we will move to full-instrumentation, and I have a feeling that those kinds of practices will be few and far between.

Both RH and MA are accomplished musicians who collectively have more than thirty years in the club scenes of Winnipeg and Vancouver. They have a lot of talent to contribute to this endeavor, and I have great faith that they will exceed my expectations. I expect we will be a force to be reckoned with in this city once we hit the scene -- and I hope that will happen before 2006.

I shouldn't have to mention that I am very excited about our next rehearsal on Monday.