Big Hand Dave

Even though we were a couple of guitars short of a quintet, we had a
fabulous practice. The evening was in danger of starting off very badly,
however, when Big Hand showed up thinking that he was dressed like, and
looking like, Magnum P.I. It was sad, really. Fortunately, we were able to
talk him down because “Magnum Hand Dave” just simply does not have the same
ring to it.

Once we got down to business, we decided that some of the songs were simply
going to be too tough to do without guitars, so we just played along with
the recording. On some of the others we were a finely tuned trio and we
rocked!

We started off by NOT playing the Theme from Magnum P.I., then we played
Wild Thing a couple of times, we played What I Like About You and House Of
The Rising Sun where Dave adjusted his beat to make it more sustainable. He
essentially simplified his left hand cymbal and threw in some funky beats
with that big right hand of his. It sounded good. Then we played Chevy Van a
couple of times and it sounded great. Rosdney kept us on track. We played
867-5309/Jenny and Dave ROCKED on the skins.

Then there was Tainted Love. It was, without a doubt, the best song of the
night. We keep making it a little darker each time. Big Hand voiced a
concern that perhaps we may make it too dark. I must agree with Rodney when
he said “The darker the better.” We came up with a musical break in the
final chorus that we really like and Dave did some really cool setting on
his drums that goes well with how we’re doing the song. It was going along
really well until the John Tesh Live at Red Rock incident. You had to be
there.

And then Dave did some stuff to his drums. For about four and a half hours.
Then he played some sick music (and I’m NOT referring to the vernacular
meaning of “sick” as “awesomely cool” - I mean sick) that really scared
Rodney and me. Dave knew all the words. Be afraid.

We finished up the evening with Sex & Candy, Louie Louie, and a rousing
rendition of Stacy’s Mom complete with bass solo.

There were some stories that you had to earn by being there. And on a sad
note, my egg is missing.

It was a good practice and we made some good headway, particularly in the
timing between Dave and Rodney. But it’s just not the same without P
and Wes.

The memorable quotes section has become traditional in this little overview
and I’m not about to stop now.

“Phillip is rubbing off on you!” ~Dave
“And we all know how painful that can be.” ~JD
“If you know what I mean.” ~ Rodney

“If I take my clothes off the room gets cold” ~Dave

“I’m on a mission from God” ~JD

“I’ll run screaming like a little girl if that’s a bee!” ~Rodney

And the best of the night:
“I’m Magnum P.I. damn it!” ~Dave