A little about the band

I seem to have run out of things to blog about at the moment. Well, I haven't really, but, the powers that be here would be bleeping me and eventually ban me from the blogging world. So in lieu of some past experiences of being in a new, young rock band touring America, I've decided to talk a little about the new band I'm in now. The new band is Jamboozle and we're basically out of Lansing MI, although I don't think anyone in the band actually lives in Lansing anymore. At least not full time. We've been talking about getting together for about 2 years and over the past couple months it actually fell into place. We're all seasoned musicians in our 40's, at least I think we are that old, maybe not. Anyway, on new years eve we were at a club called the Double Deuce and we're talking to the owner. We told him that we would eventually want to play his bar in a few months once we started practicing. (We still hadn't really started jamming on a regular basis because of all my surgeries). He told us that if we wanted to play his bar, that we would have to be ready by the end of January because he had a couple bands cancel. He said he was in a bind and would really really appreciate it. So we booked the show as a favor as it ended up being 2 weekends in a row instead of one. Basically we had 3 weeks to get ready and we still had to find a place to practice. Our guitar player found a trailer in the middle of nowhere, in a township of Onandaga, to rent and we had a place to practice after a week. Well we crammed, practicing 4 to 5 nights a week and managed to come up with about 42 songs to do the shows. The 1st weekend we played actually went pretty well. Suprisingly enough, there weren't any train wrecks on stage and everyone seemed happy. The second weekend only got better. We were much tighter and you could definately see improvement in everything we played. It was a good feeling. The crowd liked us, the bar owner was happy and we could look at each other and be proud. I was definately impressed at how fast we pulled together and sounded like we'd been playing together a long time. Our only major concern was if our singer, Kevin, could sustain through the weekend. We choose songs that would be the least stressful on his voice. He rose to the occasion and sounded great. Everyone did. It was a lot of fun. That, to me, is what it's all about anymore. No one is trying to be rock stars. We're just a group of talented musicians, at least the rest of the band is, playing the music we like and having fun. No primadonnas or egos flying around. Just having fun. That's the way it should be. I remember back in the 80's when attitudes and such played a big role in bands and it always bothered me. Of course, I was never one to take things too seriously and let those with attitudes just kind of fade away. Sure it's fun making money playing music and it would be nice to make a living off it like I did in the 80's, but that's not as important as having a good time and enjoying myself is. Realisticly, it's not as likely anymore either. But you know, when the audience sees you having a good time, they usually follow suit. I think that's the key to all you musicians that happen to stumble onto this blog. Show the audience that you love what you're doing, show them you're having fun and don't let egos and attitudes get in the way of your performance. In a lot of the bands I've been in in the past, I always seemed to be the counselor or whatever. I always tried to keep the peace, at least until we got through the gigs. Glad we're all grown up in this band and I don't have to worry about stuff like that. As you know, the show must go on. You may as well enjoy it. nuff said