Big Hand Dave

Last night we had an odd practice. It was on an odd day and we were also recording. It’s really cool watching Jeff set up all his equipment and he has a super sweet Mac laptop that I’m lusting after. In addition, Rodney and PJ practiced a new trick they like to call “Put A Stick In Dave For Charity!” And somehow or other, it was mentioned that we should change the name of the band to BFD, for Big Foot Dave. As a bonus, I’m hoarse this morning so it couldn’t have been all bad.

We warmed up with a little “Walkin’ Down The Highway” jam. The mix sounded really loud but nice, and we finally got a good dose of deep full bass. We then played “Can’t Find My Way Home” and it sounded nice. On take two we missed the ending. Dave claimed he didn’t see me raise my hand to signal the end. Then we played “Gloria” and some of us forgot that it ends on the guitar.

We played “Save Tonight” and it wasn’t bad for the first time through, although I did manage to almost complete destroy Rodney’s music stand and knock everything off it into the floor while signaling for the end of the song. Then Wes showed up and we played “Can’t Find My Way Home” with a full compliment of guitars and it sounded really pretty. That was probably the high point of the evening.

Next we played “Dancing In The Moonlight” followed by “Fire Woman” which was close enough for rock ‘n roll. Then we played “Real Wild Child.” That song is set up perfectly to go into a medley. “Johnny B. Goode” comes to mind. PJ finally cut loose at the end to make up for the licks he missed in the middle. That’s a tough song to end and we’ll probably have to let PJ and Dave signal each other.

After that we played “What I Like About You” with a really strange ending. Next we played “All Along The Watchtower” and it was as good as we’ve done it. Unfortunately we were screwing around at the beginning so it didn’t get recorded. We played it again and it was almost as good. Then we played “These Boots Were Made For Walking,” “Louie, Louie” (and it’s all Louie, Louie, anyway), “Tainted Love,” and “Layla.” I may need to get a monitor as I had trouble hearing the background vocals all night. We ended the festivities with “Gimme’ Some Lovin” and I would’ve liked one more shot at that one. We almost got it right, which seemed to be the story of the evening. Hopefully, one of these nights we’ll get together and not waste Jeff’s time.

And I didn’t mean to, but I stole Rodney’s pen. I wanted to steal the shirt Dave lent me to wear, but he made me give it back. That’s ok, I got it all nice a sweaty for him.

There was much horseplay and joking around. Here are some of the lighter moments.

“He’s got a good one for you.” ~Rodney

“I’m going to need some more beer if I’m gonna’ put up with this!” ~PJ

“I need to put a compressor on your vocals, JD.” ~Jeff

“That’s a compliment!” ~Dave

“That’s the way I took it!” ~JD

“I didn’t mess with any of the knobby knobs.” ~Dave

“That’s what you get for recording without me!” ~Wes

“It’s not a ‘gay’ contest!” ~PJ

“But if it was, we would have some great contestants!” ~Wes

“It sounds so sexy when you say it like that.” ~JD

“We commandeered your holder.” ~Dave

“The love is gone.” ~Rodney

“He’s a twelve-hit–wonder.” ~PJ

“I would be ready by now if it weren’t for PJ.” Wes

“What kind of shit scavenging do we have going on over there?” ~Jeff

“Well, because he taped those and not these.” ~Rodney

“That had some really good spots in it!” ~PJ

“I played one note wrong that I could see.” ~Rodney

“Get off me, bitches!” ~Wes

“That needs to be on YouTube,” ~JD

“That’s just wrong.” ~Rodney

“My rates just went up.” ~Jeff

“That’s one way to end it.” ~Wes

“Is anybody going to eat this sour kraut?” ~PJ

“See! I’m twirlin’!” ~Dave

“I can’t wait for you to stand up and do that.” ~Rodney

“It almost sounded kinda’ cool.” ~Jeff

“Dave forgot to come.” ~Wes

“I love my microphone.” ~JD

“The comedy!” ~Rodney