The gig was for Have a Heart Foundation. While we were setting up, a few speakers told their stories to the audience. It was pretty incredible stuff. While I was plugging stuff in, a woman told of how her son died in the hospital and gave away his organs (and he helped something like thirty people because of it). The next lady got up and said that she was walking around with THAT GUY'S HEART! Wow. Amazing!
The sound on stage was not very good. I don't know if it was because of all the concrete or the fact that the stage was hollow or just bad mixing, but there was this low-mids ring that roared through every song. Once we got up to volume, it was difficult to hear very well because it was so prominent (at least to me) on stage. My other thought is that sound guys these days are so used to hearing two guitars, bass, and a thrashing drummer that they don't quite know what to do with a band like us.
Ganesh got tripped up again on the beginning of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and Kevin Spencer took a wrong turn (vocally) on Ride Like the Wind. We spoke on the break about how the mind really starts to mess with you on stuff like that. It's the same thing for me in the breakdown of Lonely Boy--because I messed it up a week ago on the Schooner gig, now the voice in my head REALLY goes crazy as we approach that section and I can't shut it up. I start analyzing what I'm playing, and suddenly I'm paralyzed and can't remember what I'm doing. I wonder how many times I have to play it correctly (on a gig--practicing it doesn't fix it) before I can get past that. It's a hurdle that must be cleared. Same thing with Sailing--we really need to play that song about a dozen times so that I can erase the fear of the intro. Playing it on my own a million times (which I have done since the Variety Playhouse disaster) will not cure me.
davidfreemanmusic.net
