Photos and flops

The reality of the reunion show has set in and the long grind toward becoming ready for a live show has taken its first whack at us. We’ve committed to rehearsing twice a week to get ready for the show on Jan. 30 at The Jet in Mill Creek and last night’s practice was, in a word, brutal.

Maybe the initial adrenaline of getting back together has dissipated or maybe it was just because there weren’t any of our friends sitting in to listen. Or maybe it was just one of those off nights that bands have from time to time. Whatever it was, it sucked.

On a happier note, Mike Hendricks came by and took some shots of us as we slogged through rehearsal Saturday. That’s one of them on the right and above. You can find other photos on our Facebook page. He’s got a good eye, so check him out.

Second notes

In typical attention-deficit-disorder, scatter-shot fashion for this band, we put aside rehearsing our older material for a little while Wednesday night to work on some new songs. I think we’re all excited about writing some new stuff even though we got into this for just the one show. Getting back into a room together, it’s hard not to just slip into old habits and writing is one of those. I imagine there’s years of material that we’ve all been developing. So, I guess now is the time to see if any of it works.

Wednesday was just the second time we’ve gotten together, and we still haven’t got Teague involved yet, but things seem to be snow balling a little bit. Teague will be rolling into town soon and his bass parts have been missed. It’s really the foundation and we're excited to bring him back into the fold. In any case, it’s been a blast and we’re encouraged by how quickly the songs are coming back to us.

It really helps that there are a number of friends and fans of the band who are all geeked about seeing one more show. The support, memories and stories from the glory days have been awesome to relive. The fact that our little outfit produced more than a few “remember when …” tales is really humbling. Even if they begin with "Remember when I puked on ..." So, thanks for sharing.

See you January 30, 2010.

First steps

Saturday was a bit of a milestone for us as Jeff, Matt and I set up our gear and began rehearsing for the first time in nearly 15 years. Notably absent was Teague, but he has a good excuse being a couple hours away. I think our expectations were low, but we were pretty surprised at how fast we were able to get back on the same page. It sounds like Teague will be able to join us next month, so it’ll really be interesting to see how far from performance ready we might be.

It’s funny how age and life kicking you in the teeth a few dozen times will mellow out some of the more volatile aspects of each person’s personality. Some of us have gone through some really dark times. There’s way more encouragement going on than there was 15 years ago. Most of us are parents now, so I think that has something to do with it, too. Before, we’d most likely just get drunk, hurl a couple of FU’s and stomp off into the ether. But mainly I think we’re just happy to be playing music again. Good stuff. Group hug.

Anyway, here are some the songs we ran through with varying degrees of success: So Ends Fire, Fleck of Gold, Brighter Side of Evil, Nothing, Jenny Muse and Swept Away. We plan on playing those tunes and some others, but you’ll have to come to the show Jan. 30, 2010 to find out for sure.

Cheers, Dan

Lots of blisters

The band has been hard at work trying to get their chops back. We've been practicing individually for the last couple weeks and will be getting together as a group, minus Teague, on Saturday to plug in. Of all the members, Teague is the only one who doesn't live in the Seattle area, so his local participation will be occasional.

When we decided to do this, I think we all thought November would give us enough time to get things together. We were wrong. After ripping through the songs we plan on playing, it's going to take us the full three months to get up to speed. Nobody, particularly those who plan on coming to the show Jan. 30 at The Jet in Mill Creek, want to see a bunch of dudes in their 30s who can't play together very well. Plus, it's going to take that long just for the blisters to heal.

Locally, I've noticed that there has been a renaissances of 90s rock with a number of bands of varying popularity getting back together to do reunion shows and tours. I ran across this article about local band Sunny Day Real Estate, which I found interesting. They were one of my favorites and their internal issues where similar to ours and probably any bands'. Of course, we didn't sell thousands of records and none of us went on to play with the Foo Fighters, but I suppose every band's last days follow a similar trajectory. Watch a couple VH1's "Behind the Music" shows and you'll quickly come to that conclussion.

Playing loud

It looks as if we've got many of the small details out of the way. You know, like making sure we have instruments that work and a place to rehearse. Within the next week we'll be getting together to plug in, turn it up to 11 and play some rock 'n roll music now that we have a full-fledged practice space. Matt's brother's band Vester, has been gracious enough to let us share a room with them. Thanks guys!

Since we decided to do this, we've really be relegated to practicing on the acoustic guitars or playing the drums just quiet enough not to piss off the neighbors. It's really not the same. James Taylor makes some nice music and everything, but sometimes you just want to let your freak flag fly. Wait, I think Crosby, Stills and Nash wrote that phrase. Nevermind. We just want to play loud.