We were pretty excited on Friday. We had to be. That is the only way that I can explain how fast our first five songs were. We had been practicing the set we played at Iota for a few weeks, and had it timed to right about 45-50 minutes. Well, after the first five songs Aaron looked at his watch and realized that we had three songs left and about 20 minutes. Spencer took this information and spun out the next two songs, “If You Say So” and “Strike Up The Band,” to almost absurd levels. Friday night was the first time that “If You Say So” had two guitar solos, but Spencer kept building the song back up and I decided that if I didn’t solo, the whole thing would been pretty stupid.
The big secret with our band is that the drums are pretty much leading everything. When we are playing live, Spencer pretty much decides when songs end, and how long certain sections are. Spencer also is most responsible for shaping the songs, and giving them their dynamics. Most of our songs are written first on Aaron’s bass, and then Spencer’s drums. I am almost always the last element. I think that is what gives our band its strength, and probably explains the alternate time signatures that we like to use.
That said, Spencer took “Strike Up The Band” out too long. It got a little wandering and unfocused. If I were James Brown, I would dock his pay. Hell, why not. Spencer, I am taking 10% of your band income.
Friday night was great. I loved having all of the guests. On “Oh, Backwards!,” the last song, Spencer hit his intro fill and everyone came in together on one. There was this fantastic wall of sound, and I just lost it. I simultaneously thought, “what they hell have we created?” and “this is the most fantastic thing I have ever done.” I couldn’t stop smiling. I don’t really remember playing the song, just the joy that I had while playing it. At the end of that song Spencer and I just go all over the place while Aaron tries to keep the song together as best he can. During practices, we told everyone to just go nuts at the end, and if they can play around the key of Eb, all the better. We like to create chaos in certain parts of our songs, and tried to convey that to our guests. When we hit the end, I looked over to the horns and told them to just go. I felt like I almost dared them to go as wild as they could. It was great, and I kinda want to be in a seven piece band now.
Except that saxophonists seem to like to show up late, and adjust their reeds when they are on stage.
So, thanks again to Tom from These United States, Drew from First Rays, Kriston from Gestures, and Tim from hopefully some band soon.
Also, thanks to everyone who came out. If you missed it, click here to buy our CD.
All of these photos, and many more, by Flickr user dotslinesandpolygons. Who has taken a lot of great photos of us in the past, and a lot of other local bands.
