2/22/09

spent the day wrapping up loose ends, writing the previous day's blog, and recovering from the odd sleeping cycle i've been permitting (if not nurturing). mid-afternoon or so, i got to listen to Wes and his latest local project rehearse -- they are tight! if you get a chance, you can catch them performing at Coach House (somewhere off of 5 or 405, maybe -- i'm not even sure. hopefully, any of you so cal locals will know what i'm talking about) -- they're opening for Martin Sexton, which is pretty f*cking cool! it's on March 26 -- go mark your calendars :)

after they were done rehearsing, it was time for me, Wes and his buddy Tom to rehearse for our show that night. Tom, the drummer in Wes's other project, has been friends with Wes since high school (or earlier?). anyway, he's a typical surfer dude, complete with laid back 'tude and goofy smile -- of course i liked him immediately. his story charmed me even more...

a short while ago, while performing a ocean rescue -- he's a lifeguard (of course) -- his hand was caught in the unpadded handle of his rescue board when a wave flipped it, dragging his hand with it. this resulted in two of his fingertips being sliced off. from what i gather, he performed some sort of stopgap solution, but this eventually required attention. so, about a week ago, he scheduled an appt. with a doctor to repair the damage. the dr. told him that it would be a quick fix -- in and out in 15 mins. or so. but, when he got there, the dr. took one look and said, "uh... we'd better get you on the table..." so, stitches and skin grafts later (oh, i forgot to mention, what prompted the appt. was the fact that his finger bone began growing out the middle of his shortened tips!), he's got heavy duty casts and bandages on two of his fingers on his left hand. he was supposed to play with Wes and me on thurs night, but there was no way he could play any sort of hand percussion like that (the surgery was wednesday, btw). but, he assured Wes that he'd be much better by sunday, in time to rehearse and play with us :)

so, back to sunday. he's just finished rehearsing with Wes and the other project, and now he's gonna tear through all of MY material -- which he's only heard some of off of CD's we dropped off for him two days prior. after popping number x (i've lost count at this point) vicodin, he's said he was good to go. we focused entirely on originals, playing through each twice -- Wes was fantastic at giving cues about dynamics and stops and stuff. we decided to let the covers remain unrehearsed, so as to spare Tom's hand. btw, he'd been rehearsing for several hours with bandages still on his hand.

we wrapped up, and packed up, and headed out. Tom left ahead of us, as he had to stop somewhere along the way to get the bandages cut off (imagine me shaking my head right now, as i'm writing this, with an amused look on my face). We regrouped at The Bitter End in SD, and walked into a deep, dark space with about 12 people in the room. the way this showcase was to operate, apparently, is that there'd be two solo acoustic acts, respectively 8pm and 8:30pm, followed by an open mic forum at 9pm -- each performer playing a song based on the theme "the big picture" -- and then we'd follow this, as headliner for the night.

we had met some great people at our show at Lestats a few days prior who had suggested that they were excited to come see us again (as full band) this night, as well. during the day, however, i was receiving messages from folks lamenting an illness they fighting, or an unexpected injury or various other unique conditions which would keep them from attending -- i blame the Oscars ;) regardless, i was thrilled to see my great friends, transplanted from Boston (Somerville, really): Jim and Caroline! they had moved to SD a short while ago, and came out this night to see me -- very cool of them :) a few others to specifically see us eventually drifted in, as well, and i was getting excited to tear it up.

went to the bar to procure a glass of some Patron Añejo (part of my new pre-show ritual these days) -- i tried to make sure Tom was well quenched, as well, as nothing quite enhances the numbing effects of narcotics like beer ;) i won't bore you with other tedium, so suffice to say, we waited about an hour and a half til we got to take the stage. by 10:30/10:45 or so, we were set-up and ready to rock. so as to not segue too harshly from that which preceded us, i played "heaven" solo acoustic to start, followed by my version of radiohead's High and Dry on acoustic, with Wes and Tom joining me midway through the song. then, we were off and jamming :)

we bounced back and forth between originals and covers -- none of the covers had been rehearsed, but they all went great. some of the highlights... went from a straight-fwd version of Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes) -- which Wes and Tom were expecting -- right into Add it Up (VF) -- which they were not expecting. still rocked. a funky version of 500 miles (Proclaimers) that got everyone singing. originals "deny" and "don't" rawked (that's an obnoxious way of writing "rocked", but it really fits ;)

we drew in some dancers amidst our rocking out -- drunk dancing people, of course. they were all so friendly with the people who came to see us that i assumed everyone knew each other. there was one woman, in particular, who was dancing crazily to us, and at one point i shouted out to her to really go nuts -- she proceeded to squat down, in preparation i presume, and fall backwards onto the floor (funniest thing i saw that night)... then, of course, at the conclusion of the song, she jumped up on stage and hugged me, with my guitar strapped in front of me, of course. guess i inspired her ;)

after we finished, Cathryn (gal who booked us) gave us high marks, and invited us back :)

we wrapped up everything there, and went across the street to Patrick's (?) for some more beers, and to catch up with my friends Jim and Caroline. i'm pretty sure we covered some pretty broad topics -- mostly world travel, though, as they've lived all over, and i've tried to ;)

we closed that place, and said our goodnights, and drove back to Encinitas, to catch a few hours of sleep before i had to catch a plane back to Boston. i knew i'd be making a last minute call about whether or not i'd be getting on that plane...

next morning, had an amazing omelet -- our host is a phenomenal chef, apparently. drove back to Long Beach airport and actually got on the plane -- it was difficult though. 60's and sunny in LB, with the promise of 20's and snow back in Boston...

all in all, an amazing time! Wes and i are gonna get started plotting out the next (more extensive) tour of CALI, including most of the west coast, up into OR and WA -- maybe as soon as this summer :)

stay tuned...

peace on, - damian