Saturday night's gig was a blast

For me, it was maybe the most memorable moment in the band. We're ending our second set, telling the crowd we're going to break, and this drunk guy comes up and has a request. This often happens - "just one more song!" - but drunk guy wants the Star Spangled Banner.

Dean, our singer, told him no and jokingly suggested the guy should be yelling out "Freebird!" The bar has a great laugh. Well, we've never played the damn song... nobody actually plays Freebird. But then our keyboard player, just for fun, doodles out the first few bars of it... AND OFF WE GO, like we don't have a choice.

Whoa. Dean tells 'em, "Hey we've never played this before, but, OK!" I'm grinning my big grin. Of course we all know the damn song! And we're playing it 100% perfectly, note for note... truly, never having rehearsed it once.

It seems like a joke that everybody's in on. But then the crowd gets into it. We get three minutes in, and we're near the hottest part of the song, the crowd is all flashing lighters and cell phones... when suddenly... the PA and all the amps go dead!

After a few seconds of confusion it becomes obvious we've blown a circuit, and it was all I could to to lift my bass over my head and shout power outage woohoo!!

And we all laughed. Someone in the crowd said "That's god telling you never to play that song!!!"

The song needs work, but I'm totally happy with the groove we manage. For a bunch of white guys much more ready to play Enter Sandman, it's James Brown's Sex Machine, in the blurriest YT video ever posted:

[youtube]d1ihwLab2Bs[/youtube]

Way to lay it down whitey! When preparation turns into fun it really feels good.

got them people dancin!

People respond when you sing

GET UP!
get on up
GET UP-A!
get on up
GET UP-A!
get on up
GET UP-A!
get on up

best FreeBird story evah.

Hey Cool! I had a hard time not dancing around the living room just watching the video!

yay woohoo

Is posting your schedule out of the question?

That was great UT

themembranes.com

January 30th The Bier Garten - Telford, PA
Feb 13th The Crossroads Tavern - Hilltown, PA
March 6th The Jug Handle - Cinnaminson, NJ
March 20th The Bier Garten - Telford, PA
May 14th The Jug Handle - Cinnaminson, NJ
June 12th - The Crossroads Tavern - Hilltown, PA

Actually plays "Freebird": Fail. ;)



Ut's full of funk! Who new? Awesome.

TOMORROW we're at R.P. McMurphy's in Holmes, PA, MacDade Blvd, three miles up from the 476 exit. We go on at 9 and do about 45 minutes. It's a showcase for the manager and if we do well we'll get bookings out of it.

This is our first thing in Delaware Co. and so I mention it for the Delco people in case they are interested.

Then on Saturday night it's the full 4 hours at Crossroads Tavern in Hilltown PA.

I'm still holding out for a Center City show...at the Khyber, perhaps? ;)

:D That's an "A room", and we are still playing at "D rooms".

[youtubewide]A9xtXsPJ97I[/youtubewide]

Full of Funk indeed! stay tuned in until the end!

I beat my bass like I caught it cheating me at poker.

LIKE A RENTED MULE!

Damn, you remind me of a bass player I used to know.....

...yes, that too....

You guys sounded great last night, UT.:shred::keys::drummer::bass:

Well thank you!!

looks good :)

D-Train is back at R.P. McMurphy's this Friday night.

Undertoad;664957 wrote:

D-Train is back at R.P. McMurphy's this Friday night.

I'd come, but I'll be at the beach. :drunk::jig:

Good times!

Yeah this one we go on really late, at 10:30, and play two longer sets - it's a weird setup for us, but McMurphy's is also a little more pro than the places we normally play.

The owner said we were great and set us up for regular rotation in the fall.

Excellent!

Sweet!

Well done, that band!

Nice! Post your schedule.

Undertoad;666695 wrote:

The owner said we were great and set us up for regular rotation in the fall.

When do you start?

Unfortunately the owner didn't set us up for regular rotation in the fall.

There is a bigger issue which the band will have to deal with, which is that our lead singer has taken a position in a pro wedding/event band and will be treating our band as a side gig. This will lead to much fewer gigs and I'm thinking we will have to figure out whether we want to continue. I'm thinking this is why he didn't go back and follow through at McMurphy's...

Band drama. It never ends. I sometimes wish I could anonymously blog about this stuff. It might make for interesting reading.

You can try.

Unless this is where the story ends, in which case it's fruitless. I guess.

That sucks. Can you get a new singer?

It's a tremendous pain in the ass. It took us nearly two years to find this one.

audition for months ->
find somebody not bad ->
after two months he's not a good match ->
audition for months ->
find somebody great ->
after two months he's got lead singer disease ->
audition ->
find somebody good ->
figure out he's not arrogant ->
hire and work for a year and a half making progress

If we drop this act, the current lead will take with him several parts of the PA system. Which is no big deal, we could replace it, but I don't know if I want to keep going through this process. We're all getting older, and there are fewer and fewer places open that take bands, much less loud ones.

On the other hand, ya gotta do something.

The same scenario plays out a thousand times a day, in many languages.

Undertoad;683844 wrote:

It's a tremendous pain in the ass. It took us nearly two years to find this one.

audition for months ->
find somebody not bad ->
after two months he's not a good match ->
audition for months ->
find somebody great ->
after two months he's got lead singer disease ->
audition ->
find somebody good ->
figure out he's not arrogant ->
hire and work for a year and a half making progress

If we drop this act, the current lead will take with him several parts of the PA system. Which is no big deal, we could replace it, but I don't know if I want to keep going through this process. We're all getting older, and there are fewer and fewer places open that take bands, much less loud ones.

On the other hand, ya gotta do something.

What's the name of his new band? It might get as bad an on-line reputation. If they don't get any gigs, he'd might as well play with you guys.;)

It's not so much a band, as a corporation. But with a corporation you get paid: he'll get nearly FOUR TIMES the amount per gig that he gets with us.

Sure I asked him if there are bass auditions. But mostly they play with a drummer, guitarist and vocalist, and a DJ; and the bass and keys are a track that everybody plays along to. :lame:

Undertoad;683885 wrote:

It's not so much a band, as a corporation. But with a corporation you get paid: he'll get nearly FOUR TIMES the amount per gig that he gets with us.

Sure I asked him if there are bass auditions. But mostly they play with a drummer, guitarist and vocalist, and the bass and keys are a track that everybody plays along to. :lame:

Like a Milli Vanilli Bass!

I'm surprised they use any musicians, not a karaoke and singer.