Big Hand Dave

Note: This posting does not necessarily reflect the memory or beliefs of those in attendance or that of the band since our “normal” poster (we missed ya JD) was unable to attend the extra last minute practice and we have had to let Dave write it. Other than that it was a spectacular practice. The posting below has been edited as necessary to preserve the dignity of the band’s image regardless of the drummers artistic take on things.

This practice was without our gyrating lead man (JD) as it was not a scheduled one and developed late in the game. Rodney and I (Dave) decided that if him and I made it clear to Wes and PJ that him and I were going to be working on some songs that they would be guilted into showing up, and our plan worked! I must say it was a really good practice, and without our front man doing the vocals, we realized how much we need him. We need you JD! Come back, come back to hell, we many fine nice things here

I showed up at 5:30 with the understanding that Rodney would already be there getting the place warmed up (he is the drummer’s FRIEND after all), but to my dismay it was very evident that he had just got there also. I have delicate hands, and cold delicate hands don’t work the drum sticks very effectively. It took a bit of time before I could begin practice, although I do admit that I waited longer than necessary just to prove my point.

Rodney and I started off with a type of syncopation exercise between the kick drum and his bass, basically him focusing on my kick drum pattern and mimicking it. I have never done anything like that before, but after we did that for about 10 minutes it was apparent that Rodney’s idea was a good one. I think we should expand on this type of exercise more in the future, perhaps make it our routine warm up for practice?

This exercise led us into playing some funky grooves, although there was not any specific song in mind. PJ showed up and a lot sooner than we thought he would if he was able to at all. He came in with this little rinky dink cooler that obviously could not hold enough beer for practice. Being the drummer I felt it was my duty to call him out on that. Apparently he just had a root canal and is on Vicodin and trying to be somewhat responsible……… WTF? I say drink more beer! We then started getting his guitar and mics hooked up and during the sound check on the mic I did my rendition of Devil Went Down To Georgia / Ice Ice Baby / 2 live crew rap. I can’t believe they don’t want me to have my own microphone when I’m playing as I ROCK!

After getting his equipment up and running he and Rodney started into a somewhat familiar tune while I was getting a beer. I sat down and looked on his music stand and saw he had his “hymnal” open to “Drift Away”. At this point I began thinking that I was losing my mind as it didn’t really sound like drift away in the slightest but I figured I must be wrong since it’s been some time since we did that song. After playing the song for about 3-4 minutes I fessed up and after laughing at me they told me is our first original that we have been toying around with. It’s a really good sounding song, we just need some melody and lyrics. I don’t know what melody really is as I’m the drummer, but I heard someone say that we need it, so that means we need it. We did this song about 100 times, maybe 101, but I think we should have gone for 125 as I like it. It’s hooty-ish, and we all like hooty.

Our first song was Sex and Candy, which is always a fun little number to do and I believe we did rather nicely with only 3 of us. My hands were still cold so I don’t remember much of it, but it did warm my hands, and my heart. (This Was Actually The LAST song we played for the night)

The next song (Not really since the first song was really our last song) we played was Chevy Van, and that took us a couple times. We really need our singer to be more available. These family obligations and work related obligations are ridiculous. The band was never consulted with his desire to have children, and we never authorized him to have a job. It’s time for an emergency meeting! (And possibly an intervention for our Drummer)

We performed Baker Street, and I believe we did a really good job on this. The first couple of times were with PJ playing the lead guitar part and I must say that was rather difficult without rhythm and vocals. He then switched to Wes’s part and that worked out beautifully and I feel like we nailed it! PJ did a wonderful job throwing in some vocals, especially considering he doesn’t normally sing and he was also playing the part of the song he doesn’t play. I was quite amazed, as usual! We did have to work on the ending a bit, but something tells me the lack of a singer and the “other guitarist”.

“These Boots Were Made For Walking” was our next song, which is one of my favorites to watch JD sing, but I still enjoyed playing it without him. We went through it only once which was all that was needed cause we did really well with it. I think this song is what showed me the warm up exercise Rodney and I did helped as we really synched up nicely on this one, perhaps better than ever before.

Wes shows up J Apparently the guilt trip worked on him too!

So now it’s time for our GOOD song! “Dancing In The Moonlight”. This song did pass my GOOD-meter because although it is GOOD, I like it. We did it, it sounded good, we moved on. It was nice to welcome Wes with this song, so fitting!

“Layla”, oh what fun that song is. PJ went against me (as usual) when we first started working on this song and decided we needed to do this in a swing type beat as opposed to the more popular rock beat. It turns out that PJ was right (as usual) this is a good way to do the song. Half way through the song we transition into a regular rock beat and every time we do this song we get that transition better and better, and this was no exception. We did have to work on the ending a bit, but that’s fine, it was fun each time and I believe this really sounds good.

“Signs” was our next one and that felt really good also. The lead in always tickles me as I never knew this song had a lead in, and the lead in doesn’t really match the song in a way you would think it should if you didn’t already know it had one. Go ahead, read what I just wrote again to make sure you got it right, I had to. I believe we only did this once, maybe twice? Maybe 5, I don’t know.

“Secret Agent Man”, this song is our secret weapon, this song rocks, we rock it, and it is just damn fun!

Wes and I with “da pump” on background vocals  did “Stoned Me” and a Pearl Jam ditty. Neither of these songs are anything we have worked on at all, but it was fun nevertheless. The Pearl Jam song is one I like a lot, but I don’t know the name of it and I could have done better at it if I had ever tried playing it before, or even listened to it with the intention of playing it. Wes has a good voice, but makes these funny faces when singing, almost like he is having sex, although I am merely speculating as I would not know.

Notable quotes:

“Vicodin and Beer, let’s Rock!”

I don’t remember anything else. I can’t write things down like JD can. Maybe I need to get some drum stick / pencil combos?

Oh yeah, we have decided to change the name of the band. We are now known as “COUGARFISH” and JD needs to design a new logo. Our original has a similar sound to John Cougar Melloncamp, and if you were paying attention early in this newsletter you’ll know where the fish came from.

 Editors Note: Hopefully this will serve as a Public Service Announcement for those kids out there that want to become drummers and prevent this kind of stuff from happening.