Recently, like last weekend, we played 2 gigs in one day. I'm getting ahead of myself though because you don't know about the departure of our original singer, Tyler. Back several months ago he decided to go to Colorado for 6 months to a year. He does construction/welding type work and has to go where the work is. Unfortunately he didn't tell the band about his decision and we had to find out kinda second hand by way of a comment on facebook by his wife. Well, that was a little devastating to say the least. For some of us, well me anyway, this band is all I have. Fortunately there was a guy in the neighborhood that can sing and wanted a shot at it. He had actually came to a practice session before and was going to sing a few songs with us. None of the rest of the band knew that at the time though. Good ole Tyler never told any of us about that. In hindsight now it makes perfect sense. We since found out all kinds of things about him that, lets just say, the boy has a hard time telling the truth and leave it at that. He's talented at singing but he'll never step foot near this band again. In fact he still hasn't bothered to call any of the band members since he left us high and dry with a gig booked. Enough of him though. Its pissing me off just thinking about it.
We have a new singer now and we're as happy as can we be with him. He actually shows up for practice. When he's not going to be able to make it, and that's rare, he lets us all know well ahead of time. That's how it should be too. He's a talented singer and pretty darn good guitar player too. Rich helped us make up the gig Tyler left us stuck with. We played another gig the very next day too. It was a benefit for one of our local paramedics who got stung by a wasp and it darn near killed him from the reaction he had from it. He's on the mend now and getting some much needed rehab. This past weekend made four gigs we've played since Rich joined the band.
We played at a benefit concert this past weekend called the Bob O'Palooza. Bob recently found out he has stage 4 lung cancer. Being the small tight knit community this is, a lot of people sprung into action and put on a show. That's just how we roll around here. A local band, The Midnight Hurricanes put all this together and despite the rain, raised over 12K to help Bob out with the medical bills that are racking up for him.
These benefit shows don't pay in dollars, but that's not important to us. Just knowing you helped someone out is worth more than any dollars and cents. And it pays off down the road eventually. Usually in Karma. And hey, we get to play music for people. That's worth everything right there. How can you put a price on applause ? How much is it worth to see people get up and dance to the music you're playing ? That's one of the greatest feelings in the world to me. Its why I do it. I don't have any false illusions of fame and fortune. I'm fully aware that we are just another band among thousands just like us all over this country out there living the dream. If I have any regrets it would be that I didn't do this sooner. Its been a dream of mine for as long as I've been playing music.
We're still working on getting better at this. Its a lot of work too, but we're starting to come around and sound like a real band now. I'm going to leave you with a video from last weekend. Its from a private party we played after the benefit show. There was no way I could get a video from the benefit. Long story there, but in short, the rain had the audience sharing the stage with the bands and it was hard enough just to carve out a big enough spot for yourself and your equipment. We never thought about a video. Maybe someone else got some footage and something will surface later. If so, I'll share it here.
