Big Hand Dave

Last night’s practice was on an off night because of St. Valentine’s Day. You can’t practice on Thursday if Thursday is Valentine’s Day. Well, I guess we could, but then we’d be practicing other things later.

I blame Hallmark. The card company. You can’t go to the store - any store - without being assaulted by Red and Pink everywhere you turn. It’s just not natural.

In any case, it would seem the god’s agree, as there were ferocious hail storms all over the place as we were trying to gather. The trials and tribulations we have to deal with for our music! Not to mention that Dave is just getting over the flu. So he felt like shit, but, like a trooper, he hung in there as long as he could. Bonus for him, he’s quitting smoking and I think he’s got it beat!

The big news of the day is PJ’s new amp. Very very nice doesn’t quite cover it. It’s way cool and will allow what is arguably the best part of Big Hand Dave (the lead guitar) to shine even brighter.

I blame it on either Dave’s flu or the medicine he’s taking for it, but there was a ‘had to be there’ mic test.

We warmed up with “Ain’t No Sunshine.” We haven’t played it for a while, but it’s still sounding good. Next we played what turned out to be the theme song of the night, as we played it over and over again - “Wild Thing.’ We do this one well and it never hurts to mess around with it. Next we played “Bittersweet” which is one of our favorites and it sounded great.

Then there was a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” reference. I would love to play “Time Warp.” Seriously. I would love to play it. I’m just saying.

Back to the real world, we played “Good” and it worked out well. We rocked it out and worked out a great new ending.  We had some strange feedback monster that kept showing up and we had to spend some time trying to find it. As a bonus, we got to play a little diddy about “Jack and Diane” as we tried to fix it. Sadly, it was elusive. Just to make sure, we played “Help Me Make It Through The Night” trying to find it.

Let’s not forget the surprise attack wood block maneuver from Dave, which was quite disconcerting. But then we played Bang A Gong (Get it On) and it was a little slow and dark, which Rodney and I agreed was not necessarily a bad thing. It was soon jacked up to tempo and we played it right. Wes and I decided that I would go high and he would go low on the chorus.

Then it was time to play “Dave’s Monitor Game.” Too much fun.

Tainted love came after we got everything figure out, but by this time, Dave’s flu was kicking his ass and the song got more difficult than it should be. But he got it straightened out and it sounds great. “Layla” followed and it was quite nice. It sounds really good the way the guitar and bass are together.

We played “All Along The Watchtower” and I don’t think anybody missed a beer or a note. We nailed the ending and all was well. It was at this time that Dave had to take his leave, as the flu had well and truly kicked his ass. I’m surprised he made it as far as he did.

We did some messing around without drums a little bit. We played “Layla” again, and she didn’t mind. We played “Save Tonight” and Wes and I did our high and low chorus thing again. We did “What’s Up?” and it actually sounded pretty good. Then we did a soft, slow, percussion-free version of “Walking in Memphis” which sounded really good. Wes commented that it was one of those times you wish you were taping just to be able to play it back and see what it sounded like. We finished up with “I’m Gonna’ Be (500 Miles)” which is tough without some kind of a beat, so I banged on my tamborine.

The quotes flew about the place.

“Damn! PJ spent some money! I didn’t see the paper. It’s probably on the front page!” ~Dave

“Where’s my fucking bongos? I’m still waiting. I got nothing.” ~JD

“I time myself on the ‘blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’” ~Dave. (Sadly, he’s talking about me and my vocals.)

(There was lots of tech talk, which bores me to tears…) “tech talk, tech, tech, tech, tuner, tech, tech, amp, tech, tech, cable, tech, tech, tech, high end, tech, tech…” ~PJ and Rodney.

“I wasn’t trying to be cantankerous!” ~Wes

“Can I bring my lamp?” ~Dave

“So it’s just bass in this song?” ~Wes

“That can’t be right.” ~Rodney

“Don’t smile at me.” ~PJ

“Don’t worry!”  ~Dave

“Did anybody hear something that sounded like an English siren?” ~PJ

“You want to add that to every song we play!” ~Wes

“I’ll turn your lamp over!” ~PJ

“I got a solution to that shit!” ~Wes

“Here, I’ll lock the door. That’ll keep him out!” ~PJ (talking about Dave)

“I put the knobs where the lines are! See! They’ve got tape on them!” ~Dave

“Fuck it, I don’t need to learn that song.” ~Rodney

“I used to get a Pinto bean!” ~PJ (From the tooth fairy, for his teeth. It’s very sad.)

“Go ahead and edit my fucking post then tell me that I’m the feedback bitch!” ~Dave

“It wouldn’t be right without the beer in his left hand.” ~Wes

“Synchronize your watches!” ~PJ (It’s like we’re rock and roll spies!)

“You’re awfully quiet over there tonight.” ~JD (To Rodney, and he was.)

“I know it’s only four chords, but what are they?” ~PJ

“What you were doing was atrocious!” Wes

“I thought I was lying down on the job, but actually I was on it!” ~JD

And the most bizarre quote of the night:

“I can’t do my elephant!” ~PJ