Greetings,

I would like to welcome everyone to the Outkold blog. As many of you know, we played our first show last week after a long......well, extremely long vacation. It's been exciting for me to get back on stage with the guys again and just get back to the basics of having fun and playing music. I was very nervous prior to the show at DJ's but the butterflies seemed to multiply as I sat down at my drum throne to pick up my pair of sticks that had been sittting still on my snare. I looked around the stage to see that Drew to my right was  twisting knobs on his Mesa Boogie stack head and adjusting his trusty starburst Gibson Les Paul as if he was getting ready for battle. Jason and Josh were to my left double checking to see if their instruments were properly tuned and in sync. Matt walked on to the stage with an almost concerned look across his face. I knew Matt was feeling it. The same dreaded feeling that we all were experiencing leading up to the first chords struck to what ever song would be unveiled first. There was that heavy sense of excitement floating in the air as we prepared to take on the challenge of playing live on stage for the first time in three years. But there was also that sense of risk, a sense of possible failure. As I struck my snare and then my toms up top to test the clarity, the thought of "Ok, let's do this" began crossing my mind. One by one, Drew, Jason, and Josh turned around to face the ever-growing audience as Matt turned to give each of us one last gaze before facing the audience himself to address them. As the seconds went by, I could feel my heart pounding inside my chest with anticipation. I could feel the warm beam of purple and blue stage lights emitting from above the right portion of the stage as I attempted to maintain my composure by taking deep breaths. "We're Outkold and this is our first show in almost three years", a now bare-footed Matt said into the wireless microphone and with one foot propped up on the stage monitor directly in front of him. "Had it really been that long?", I ask myself. For just one short moment, the universe seemed to have stood still and silent. Then, it happened. Drew struck the opening chords of The Toadies, "Tyler", with the rest of the band falling in shortly there after. Drew turned my way during the first chorus to shoot me a wide grin that almost seemed to declare, "We're back".

RICH