Peace. Hope. Love.

The holiday gigs are, for the most part, completed. It's a tough month and a half for me and my band. Most of the corporate gigs we do are for people/companies I've known for some time, and though they normally treat us very well, it still becomes a bit exhausting - mentally and physically - playing a large amount of gigs in a short amount of time with four guys in a band who alternate between liking and wanting to kill one another.

My band and I did our last "official" holiday performance last Saturday (we've got a handful of club dates left in the month, followed by a New Year's celebration). After a pretty tough six weeks of corporate gigs, I was looking forward to finishing up the holiday gig checklist and winding down a bit.

This last gig was for my hometown of Laguna Hills, California, and was literally within a one-minute walking time from my house. We performed in the middle of a huge park (part of the reason I bought the house in this particular neighborhood), for an event the City of Laguna Hills puts on every year - their "Holiday Hay Ride." Families from all over town - close to 1,000 people - come to see Santa, play games, sit on haystacks by warm fires, eat a bunch of great food, take in some live music and take a ride in a huge hay cart pulled by two enormous horses.

The band's stage was decorated with Christmas trees, packages, candy, you name it. It was really, really festive. Before we played one note - even when we had a few small problems with the electrical (which the staff fixed and did a terrific job of it) - I had this amazing feeling. What brought it on? Especially at the end of a tough stretch of gigs? It was a combination of playing for the home crowd, seeing so many of my friends and neighbors, taking in all the decorations and doing something really cool for my home town.

When the sun went down, the lights went up - every single tree surrounding the stage was lit with beautiful Christmas lights. That was it for me. Everything that playing so many gigs in such a short time brings - sore knees, raw throat, aches and pains, band tension, fatigue and the prospect of playing the same songs - melted away.

I was, truly, awash in the pure joy and all the wonderful things Christmas brings with it. Community. Unselfishness. A child's sense of wonderment and awe. Peace. Love. I felt this amazing joy, a happiness that just kept building. I could NOT wipe the smile off my face - and frankly, I didn't want to anyway.

We live in cynical times. Our leaders are liars and inept, our world burning down like a candle, things cost too much, we don't trust one another and it seems like there's no end in sight to the sorrow we ourselves have created and encouraged. But on that Saturday night, in and for the City of Laguna Hills, California - for those moments, when I sang and stared out at the trees lit with a million tiny stars - when I looked at my community being together, laughing together, celebrating together - when I watched the children who danced and sang with no preconceived notions about skill level or who they needed to impress...they danced and sang because they just couldn't contain their happiness...

...I was filled with a hope and love more powerful than I can ever describe.

Thank you, Laguna Hills.

Lexicon, Part Deux

And THIS is what I meant to blog today - more lexicon additions:

Who's that?
Bitch or snitch.
How much per minute?
Flatsky and Spubes.
I know all but three.
Vino it up
Rudy the Red D--err, BEAKED Reindeer
You're not a member of the club!

And of course, we're spreading the holiday cheer among one another:

"Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? We didn't, falcon falcon!"

Back Up to See Closer

Like every year, as the holiday season presses on (and why, oh why can't we just have peace on earth and goodwill towards men 365 days a year? Is it THAT big a deal?), I start figuring out my approach for the new year. Normally this means getting the gigs lined up, blocking out the "dibs" section on the calendar for gigs not yet (but will be) booked, reviewing the song list to see what to scratch, what to keep, what to work on and what to add and deciding how to best open up new frontiers. Busy time, considering I'm juggling the day gig, playing the night gigs and somehow squeezing in Christmas shopping and the inevitable (and welcome) socializing the holiday season brings.

This year's a bit different though. As I look to a fresh, new year, I'm pretty jacked up about trying something new. So, in addition to my current cover band I'm putting together a second cover band to play in '08.

It's been eight years since I put a band together from nothing, but back then it was more nerve wracking. I mean, not only did I make the choice to walk away from a financial and musical powerhouse with A-list players (one Grammy-nominated, one currently touring with Carly Simon and who'd recorded with Rod Stewart), but I'd made up my mind to start from scratch. I wouldn't use ANYONE I'd played with before, so no one could tell me what MY band needed to be or sound like. No arguments. No preconceived notions. Of course, I also got all the stress and extra work that comes with singlehandedly putting a new band together.

All of this, while I was booking gigs for a band that didn't exist. Yikes.

But that's the benefit of looking back at that stressful time. I can now avoid the bumps and pitfalls - this isn't "wing and a prayer" time anymore. Grinding it out eight years ago means I now know exactly what the clients want, what I think is going to work and what the band's temperament should be.

So, in '08, I'll be talking to you a bit more about the new twist on my old theme. It's gonna be a blast.

Decking the Halls w/o Decking One Another

The holiday season is crazy busy for a good cover band. This is the time of year every company, city, club and group of friends throw a holiday celebration, and they're looking for a good cover band to entertain the gang. Luckily for me, my band's pretty good - and I've made such great friends who're also great contacts over the years, and they consistently come to me for entertainment (THANKS everybody!) - that our holiday time is pretty busy.

Of course, the downside to this (and I'm sure it applies to any group- not just a band) is spending TOO MUCH time with the same people for about six weeks. When you factor in added pressure (a cover band has to REALLY be on its game for the holidays) with fatigue (I work 50+ hours a week in addition to running the band) with the sort of contempt that familiarity brings (four guys with four opinions seeing one another more often than any other time of year) you come up with a tasty holiday treat (aka toxic brew) called Band Tension.

And that's the irony of playing gigs at this particular time of year. I mean, the holidays are supposed to invite peace, love, patience and goodwill towards one another, right? Not always - at least not on a bandstand. One player gets pissed at another for playing too slow or too fast. Meanwhile, the slow/fast player is pissed at the complainer because he keeps screwing up the same changes in the same songs over and over. Meanwhile, another guy's pissed at the first guy because the transitions aren't quick enough, and the first guy's pissed at THAT guy because that guy pushes the transitions only when it's convenient for him. Meanwhile, EVERYBODY'S pissed at another guy who's being a bit too spontaneous with changes, and that guy's pissed at everybody else because they sound sloppy or are bitching about random things.

Granted, that last paragraph's chock full of gobbledegook, and is a (mostly) fictional account of a band's holiday dynamic, but believe me when I say those grumblings, gripes and cold-dagger stares are multiplied to the nth degree this time of year. I know I'VE been pissed off, and I'm sure the guys in my band have been pissed at me and with one another (it's like getting little ice slivers shot at my shoulder blades). Anyway, I'm kind of basing this theory on empirical evidence, mind you - just what I see with my eyes, hear with my ears and feel with my body.

So, what to do? Just grind through it, man. Do the work. Be professional. Give the client the best you have, no questions asked. Eventually, it all shakes out anyway - December passes and a new year begins with new challenges, new sounds/flavors and new vibes and personalities. It's all good.

The Worst Blogger in the History of Blog Kind

Yes...I'm THAT bad.

"Gee," you guys mumble at a gig, "why aren't you blogging anymore?"

And it's true - I haven't come near this page for about three months (!). Why? Well, it's the old "the devil you know is worse than the devil you don't" - it's all about the day gig, running my band, working to finish my first completely solo record, writing on the side, etc. Plus, I spend nine hours a day writing - that's what my day gig IS.

In short, it's about TIME - that is, finding time to put my thoughts down in an entertaining and coherent way.

Plus, I guess I'm not your average blogger. Although I have no problem discussing my spin on the comings and goings of running a cover band, or how certain books/movies/songs/etc. can always translate into metaphor about being a musician, I don't want to dig too deep about certain things. It comes across as narcissistic and pathetic, y'know? Besides, some of my REAL bitching and gripes regarding bands, music and musicians are better off NOT being made public. I can be opinionated and assertive, but I'm no fan of public castrations.

(Yes - that means when I'm pissed at someone, or if someone in my band's acting like a primadonna, jackhole, rock star, hypocrite, fake or a combination I won't spill the specifics. Maybe in a general way, but that's as far as I like to go on the internet.)

Which means...what? Well, it means I'll still document what happens in a cover band, what my expectations are and how to keep things moving forward.

I CAN tell you this: beginning in '08 I'm probably going to start a SECOND cover band, and use that one for certain gigs. Why? Well, I need guys who all want to do and play the same type of music without any eye rolling or mumbling "if you say so." Who understand what he or she is supposed to do and embrace that role. Who appreciate the work BEFORE the gig.

OK - so, my promise to get out here a few times a week and give you the blurb. I hope you enjoy it, and if so don't be shy - comment, and let me know what you think.