Old stuff from the box-o-crap

One of the more interesting things about this exercise in band reunion is sifting through the box-o-crap filled with old band stuff that I’ve been moving around with me for the better part of two decades. Tapes, CDs and ticket stubs bring to light just how long it has been.

About 18 years have gone by since we first starting playing together and it’s documented through a lot of the flyers and junk I’ve kept throughout that time. I’ve posted a few of them here. And by the way, the flyers that are created these days make these look like cave drawing. Yikes.

The Melvins show was particularly funny/embarrassing/sad since there were maybe two dozen people who showed up to the show that would have seated at least 1,000 concert goers at the fairgrounds. I’m pretty sure the musicians outnumbered the festival crowd.


The Love Battery and Sweet Water gigs that we were fortunate to be a part of were some of the best. Lots of people turned out for both shows and the sets were pretty great. Getting to knock back a bunch of beers with Love Battery’s Jason Finn (who now plays for the Presidents) while being a total star-struck dork and asking him a million questions was a highlight for me. A very gracious guy by all accounts.

Anyway, we’ll share some more stuff from the box-o-crap as it gets dusted off. If you have photos or stories from back in the day, pass them along.

Cheers, Dan

Date is set: January 30th

That’s the date we’re working toward. It looks like we’ll be opening for Rane Stone, a really talented musician and friend of Matt’s at The Jet in Mill Creek. Mark your calendar, or BlackBerry or whatever you kids are into these days and come out to see a good show.

There’s a better than even chance that we’ll try to put together a small tune-up gig before then, so stay tuned.

Why?

It’s an inevitability that someone will be asking, “Why are you doing this.” Then again, maybe nobody will, but I’ll try to answer it anyway. In fact, I’ll answer it in the most annoying way that one could answer a question. With another question.

Why do people go to rock n’ roll shows? I’m positive there are music dicks out there who go to judge and scoff. They get off on it and that’s fine. But I think most people go to have fun. Have a couple a drinks, forget about the dog shit week they may have had at the office and listen to people who enjoy making music. Pretty simple.

So, there’s your answer – gonna have some fun with it. We were pretty much double dog dared by a longtime friend of the band Shane Cline who plays for a group named Vester. His band opened for Rane Stone Friday night and Jeff, Matt and myself went to go check them out. We also ran into a lot of people at the gig who seemed to know more than we did about our soon to be Divided Sky 2.0 show, which was very cool. It was overwhelming to see the support and offers of assistance to help us get off the mat and make this thing a reality. It’s nice to know that when the show actually happens there will be more people in attendance than just the wives and girlfriends.

Cheers, Dan
(Photo: Matt is running through chords and words with Jeff for "So Ends Fire" Friday night.)

Logistical nightmares

When you haven't played together in a long, long ... long time, there are a number of logistics that need to be figured out. There's the gear, rehearsal space, time to rehearse, etc. While all that is getting hammered out, life goes on and the bills have to be paid.

Case in point, I met up with Matt tonight to go over a few things while we was doing some engineering work for a death metal band at his home studio. So, between click tracks and bass drum arrangements, we got in a few words. Mostly, it was just me talking to the back of Matt's head (pictured). We haven't had much contact with one another in many years, but we're all slipping back into our old roles. Me talking and everyone nodding while they pretend to listen. The good news is we've got a line on some new gear, rehearsal space is pretty much locked up and now we just need to figure out if we can all come together as a band and produce.

We're still gathering some dates for when this show might take place and we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, buy a t-shirt or something.

Cheers, Dan

One more time...

This is the story of a rock band that formed in 1992 and gathered a small, but loyal following. The Ellensburg, Wash.-based group disbanded a few years later, after recording two albums of music and performing dozens of shows throughout the Northwest. After nearly 15 years apart, and a little prodding from fans, Divided Sky is reuniting for one last show this fall.

This blog will bring you along every step of the way as the guys struggle to make the show a reality after not even being in the same room together in more than a decade. Part “This is Spinal Tap” and part “This is Your Life,” you’ll learn what the members of Divided Sky have been up to and where this project is taking them.