Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
Oh man, last night was great.
Me and the band with the genius guitar player (Adam) were getting together to practice. They just got back with my bass friend (Robbie, also the bass player of the band) from Hulaween in Florida, a music festival. I wasn't able to go due to short notice but Adam knows a lot of people in that festival scene and got them all free tickets. They went with the intention of playing an informal show in the camping area by plugging into someone's trailer or something, which they did and ended up with like 300 people totally getting down. Afterwards they got all kinds of compliments, one person said it was their favorite set from everyone playing music there for the whole weekend (they played on the last day). Then the booking agent for Dumpstafunk told them that she really wanted to book us to open for them and Booty Band (Yo Mama's Big fat Booty Band) in the next few months. She's supposed to be getting in touch with us. I found that out last night when I met back up with them, pretty fucking cool. 
Then we ended up not being able to practice because the bar we have for a practice space (which we're basically the house band for at this point and play shows there regularly, and she lets us practice/do mini informal shows whenever they don't have something else booked) was having open mic night, there was a miscommunication and so we packed all our shit up and went there only to have to turn around. But what we did instead was go play at Tuesday night funk jam. We're playing a day festival on Friday with Telekinetic Walrus and Ryan Barber, and he was there so he got us right up there and even got us introduced as a band (the funk jam is notorious for being hard to get up there for). The house band is led by the keyboard player from The Fritz (link to a Youtube video), who's an inspiration of mine and lives in the town I live in. I went up and had never played on either of his keyboards and he was so cool, he showed me how enough that I could play and was super nice and supportive and told me good luck. We played and it went so well, it reinforces how important it is for me to get a good keyboard with synth and a good organ. My keyboard kinda sucks except the piano sounds good, so I use piano mostly. it actually works in my other band but this band is like hard rock/funk festival music led by a musical phenom, so I desperately need to up my game. At the end of the 2 songs we played (unfortunately not enough time to really jam them out, just short jams), we even got plugged for the day festival on Friday.
Afterwards, we got SO many compliments, particularly Adam which is nothing new, part of playing in this band is accepting that Adam is the star here and I just feel great to be a part of it. I mean people were freaking out, we got a photographer who photographs Grace Potter and others who took photos of us playing offering to give them us for free and asking if we would let him photograph for us sometime. We had people telling us about how they wanted us to play other places. The highlight for me was when a keyboard player from another band, I forget which one but they play around regionally, complimenting me and conversing with me. I told him about myself and that I had classical training when I was younger but didn't play for 12 years and started back up less than a year ago. He had the same path except he got started again a number of years ago from now. He was really impressed and told me to keep at it because I was doing great and I'm gonna "slay" in a while. That's how I feel about it too but it was really nice to hear it from someone else who's been there.
Feeling good about music.
The only issue is that I am in 2 bands and I have band practices 6 days a week, not to mention shows (well a show will take the place of a practice so I have band obligations 6 days a week). That leaves 1 single day of the week to spend in other ways, Sundays, which I certainly will always spend with my girlfriend. But things have picked up since she's been out of town. I'm using the opportunity to focus really hard on music since other than my job I have nothing else I care to regularly spend time on except for her. I'm really happy to be spending this much time on it, it doesn't feel like too much to me, and it's how I will keep getting better fast, and how we can keep getting more opportunities. But 1 day a week isn't really enough to see your girlfriend. I mean I can get done with practices at 9 (at least for the other band who is a lot more regimented and less wild) and go home and see her, but that's like, probably not enough for her, I would guess. I dunno, we'll see how it goes when she gets back. I certainly don't want to lose her but I am not going to quit any of my music stuff. Not exactly sure what I'm gonna do about that.
The other thing is that as this band with Adam keeps picking up steam (and it certainly is), me and Robbie may have less time for the other band. Some egos are a little bruised already (well the drummer's anyway) because originally he was told he going to be the drummer of this band and he introduced us to Adam, and now he really hates Adam and that band's drummer because Adam went back on his word to him and he wasn't the drummer after all. But Adam thought his drummer (also his best friend in the world) wasn't coming back when he went to New York, but then he decided to come back. I understand his feelings at the time, but it's been almost a year and it's causing some friction, like he gets all huffy if we even talk about it at all, and if we start regularly cancelling practices because of obligations with that band it is going to be a real issue. And the thing is, I think this band with Adam has the most potential, and also Adam really puts it all out there, every day all he thinks about is music and he plays every chance he can get, whereas with the other band we have played a few shows (we have one on the 9th, it'll be our third) but mostly people just talk about it. Half the members only play during practices and I don't know if they even think about it much outside of that, but me and Robbie and/or the other guys from this band get together whenever we have free time and just jam together and try to play music as much as possible, and play at funk jam, and so on. But, the other band allows me a lot more creative freedom personally, and the styles of music we play are more unique and varied. My favorite things I've done are with that band. In that band I take a big lead a lot of the time and in this band, Adam is always the leader. Over time I'll be able to hang with him a little more but it's always going to be the Adam show to some extent, and that's how that band SHOULD be, IMO. So it's a bit of a quandry. Or, it isn't yet, but I predict it will be. And that band is made up of all my best friends in town so I don't want any decisions that might be made to impact important friendships.
EDIT: You guys should listen to that link to a set by The Fritz in the 2nd paragraph, those guys are amazing.


Then we ended up not being able to practice because the bar we have for a practice space (which we're basically the house band for at this point and play shows there regularly, and she lets us practice/do mini informal shows whenever they don't have something else booked) was having open mic night, there was a miscommunication and so we packed all our shit up and went there only to have to turn around. But what we did instead was go play at Tuesday night funk jam. We're playing a day festival on Friday with Telekinetic Walrus and Ryan Barber, and he was there so he got us right up there and even got us introduced as a band (the funk jam is notorious for being hard to get up there for). The house band is led by the keyboard player from The Fritz (link to a Youtube video), who's an inspiration of mine and lives in the town I live in. I went up and had never played on either of his keyboards and he was so cool, he showed me how enough that I could play and was super nice and supportive and told me good luck. We played and it went so well, it reinforces how important it is for me to get a good keyboard with synth and a good organ. My keyboard kinda sucks except the piano sounds good, so I use piano mostly. it actually works in my other band but this band is like hard rock/funk festival music led by a musical phenom, so I desperately need to up my game. At the end of the 2 songs we played (unfortunately not enough time to really jam them out, just short jams), we even got plugged for the day festival on Friday.
Afterwards, we got SO many compliments, particularly Adam which is nothing new, part of playing in this band is accepting that Adam is the star here and I just feel great to be a part of it. I mean people were freaking out, we got a photographer who photographs Grace Potter and others who took photos of us playing offering to give them us for free and asking if we would let him photograph for us sometime. We had people telling us about how they wanted us to play other places. The highlight for me was when a keyboard player from another band, I forget which one but they play around regionally, complimenting me and conversing with me. I told him about myself and that I had classical training when I was younger but didn't play for 12 years and started back up less than a year ago. He had the same path except he got started again a number of years ago from now. He was really impressed and told me to keep at it because I was doing great and I'm gonna "slay" in a while. That's how I feel about it too but it was really nice to hear it from someone else who's been there.
Feeling good about music.

The other thing is that as this band with Adam keeps picking up steam (and it certainly is), me and Robbie may have less time for the other band. Some egos are a little bruised already (well the drummer's anyway) because originally he was told he going to be the drummer of this band and he introduced us to Adam, and now he really hates Adam and that band's drummer because Adam went back on his word to him and he wasn't the drummer after all. But Adam thought his drummer (also his best friend in the world) wasn't coming back when he went to New York, but then he decided to come back. I understand his feelings at the time, but it's been almost a year and it's causing some friction, like he gets all huffy if we even talk about it at all, and if we start regularly cancelling practices because of obligations with that band it is going to be a real issue. And the thing is, I think this band with Adam has the most potential, and also Adam really puts it all out there, every day all he thinks about is music and he plays every chance he can get, whereas with the other band we have played a few shows (we have one on the 9th, it'll be our third) but mostly people just talk about it. Half the members only play during practices and I don't know if they even think about it much outside of that, but me and Robbie and/or the other guys from this band get together whenever we have free time and just jam together and try to play music as much as possible, and play at funk jam, and so on. But, the other band allows me a lot more creative freedom personally, and the styles of music we play are more unique and varied. My favorite things I've done are with that band. In that band I take a big lead a lot of the time and in this band, Adam is always the leader. Over time I'll be able to hang with him a little more but it's always going to be the Adam show to some extent, and that's how that band SHOULD be, IMO. So it's a bit of a quandry. Or, it isn't yet, but I predict it will be. And that band is made up of all my best friends in town so I don't want any decisions that might be made to impact important friendships.
EDIT: You guys should listen to that link to a set by The Fritz in the 2nd paragraph, those guys are amazing.
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