Big Hand Dave

What a great practice we had last night!

There were two new songs introduced to play around with: “I’d Love To Change The World” by Ten Years After and “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. Wes also suggested we mess around with “Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry. Later on in the evening it was determined that “Touch of Gray” by The Grateful Dead is actually considered a one-hit-wonder (believe it or not) and we may consider that one as well.

One of the highlights of the night was the printout of the set list by PJ’s new state-of-the-art BedrockInk printer. Sweet.

Three pieces of artwork were unveiled. The first, and most important, was the logo for the fantasy football juggernaut, the Armadillos, which will whoop the rest of the band and everyone else in our league.

Another piece of artwork was PJ’s painting. It received favorable reviews.

The final art of the night was Wes’s painting, which also received favorable reviews.

I just have one of us left to do. Then we will all have artwork for our solo albums.

We started warming up with “All Right Now” where we did a really good job. Dave said we were “on it!” We also did a damn good ending on it. Next we moved on to “Layla.” One of these days we’ll get that one right. The first time around, in my humble opinion, the tempo was too fast, there was too much percussion, and the singer needed to find the key. More about “Layla” later.

After that we played “Keep Your Hands To Yourself.” We all like that one and there was a big nasty power chord during the ending solo that actually gave me chills. Rodney insisted that he fucked the whole song up but nobody heard it. That was followed by a sort of jazzy/Paul Simon-ish/Big Band version of the song. No, we don’t have a horns section, but I could almost hear them!

Next we played C.C. Rider and nailed it.

Wes showed up at this point, which initiated a band vote that on Thursdays, Wes must go into work at 4:30 in the morning so he can have more time for band practice. Wes was not informed of the decision. That is Dave’s job.

Next was jam consisting of the theme from “Hawaii 5-0” and “For What It’s Worth.” Your guess is as good as mine.

We got down to business, in earnest, with a full complement aboard with “867-5309/Jenny.” It sounds really good and the background vocals are getting it done. We followed that with “Chevy Van” and worked out the tricky double chorus ending. Next was “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” and two guitars on that one really make a difference. Another blistering guitar solo at the end truly made it an awesome finish, which led to an explosion of Dave. He was very happy and excited at the end of that song.

In celebration there was jam of “Northbound Train.”

After that we played “Baker Street” which felt really good. Then it was decided that we should tinker with our sound, as hopefully we will be recording again next time. This was probably the most productive part of the evening and I’m really glad we spent the time we did working on it. Wes is really a magician with the board, and Dave gained a lot of understanding of how to fine tune his drum sound. We also got some BASS in the house! Yeah! Finally! Now we gotta’ work on some more volume for the backup vocals.

Dave announced that a whole new world was opened up when we got his monitor dialed in and he could hear all of us and himself, together, at the proper levels. Wes made the analogy that he had been playing ‘blind’ which is apt. Dave was very excited and was happy to know that he really doesn’t suck as a drummer.

To test the new sound we messed around with “Jack & Dianne” and “Your Weakest Moment.”

Back to the set list we did C.C. Rider. It was a little faster than we usually do it, but it was not uncomfortable and actually may sound a little better at that speed. Next we played “Gimme Some Lovin’” and got our “Hey!”s down pat. And we nailed the ending.

We finished up the night with “Layla” and I’m happy to say that after reviewing the CD, my vocals were on key after all. The verse is higher than the chorus. That’s where we were going wrong. Once we got that figured out, we smoked it. The bass held us together, there was some very nice, subtle drum stuff happening and those two guitars were sweet together, balancing each other out. We did the intro very nicely and had a good transition.

Wes commented that that transition is his favorite in all of Rock-n-Roll. I think we agreed with him. That’s definitely the prettiest part of the song and it was agreed to experiment with drawing the ending out a little bit. It might be a good first set ender when we’re playing out somewhere.

Of course, there were many memorable quotes. I think a curve ball was delivered as to the secret word. Or perhaps a balk. I don’t think there was a secret word this week. Tricky.

And finally, before the quotes, congratulations on Rodney’s shiny new pull out ID thingy.

“Nobody wants to hear that shit… except for us!” ~PJ

“I thought we were playing A, A, A, A, A, D.” ~Rodney

“What, no rim shot?” ~JD

“Book ‘em Dan-O!” ~Wes

“You weren’t even paying attention. That was just fortuitous.” ~PJ

“I don’t have a microphone, I don’t have to pay attention.” ~Dave

“How about we change the name to ‘Loud Hand Dave’?” ~ Rodney

“It’s the new hit series: Police Monk!” ~JD

“I’m outta’ tune. And I need some Doritos.” ~Dave

“I’m just going to sit here and look at myself for a while.” ~PJ

“Wasn’t that supposed to be synchopated?” ~Rodney

“I only like him ‘cause his wife’s cool.” ~Dave

“You’re always in there making noise.” Wes
and the best quote of the night…

“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t bitten by a dog.” ~PJ