The last time we played a show was March 29 at The Milestone opening for The Young Livers.  Our long-promised LP/CD was finally out so things should have been looking up for us, but things were way down instead.  Most of our local friends had been aware that our guitar player Luke Warm had not been having the best times of his personal life for the last year or so, but instead of our band being a beacon of hope for him in the darkness it was more like the darkness engulfed the band and he couldn't find the inspiration to play anymore.  Although Luke was not quite a founding member of this band, he was the first person I asked to be in it back in September 2005.  He finally joined in September 2006 when our original guitar player Eric Seitlin could no longer fit the band in with his busy life.  The Luke Warm/Keith Barnes era that existed from April 2007 until earlier this year is the line-up of the band that most people know, so replacing Luke was not going to be easy.  Keith and I agreed to continue but only if we found the right person.  We tried out a couple of friends of ours first, but either they did not really click with us musically or they didn't have the time to commit to doing the band.  We were about to give up until...I sent Mike Earl a myspace message. 

I think I had met Mike once at a show.  Keith knew him a little better than I did, but he wasn't on Keith's radar as a possible replacement for Luke.  I'm not sure what made me think of him.  I do know that I kept going back to his myspace page and reading over his list of music and being way fucking impressed with his list.  After kicking the idea around for a couple of weeks with Keith I sent Mike an invite and waited patiently.  It turns out that Mike does not log onto his myspace every day so it took about five days before I heard back, but to my surprise he was interested.  We've been rehearsing with him since early June and we can make our way through 8 songs now.  Of course, the curse of being a Rogue Nation continues in that both Keith and Mike have had to find new places to live since we've started rehearsing and we've also had to find a new practice space, so there has been no shortage of obstacles trying to trip us up. 

It was obvious at the first practice that Mike was clearly the right guy musically for this band, but since I did not know him well I could not help but wonder whether or not he would be a good fit personality-wise.  I found out the answer to that question soon enough though.  One Saturday Keith was late for practice and  Mike and I were just sitting around shooting the breeze when I said "I don't want to waste your time.  If you want to rehearse with just me we can go ahead and get started."  Mike said he was in no hurry and that he wished more of the bands he's been in were into hanging out instead of being so professional all the time.  That was all the proof I needed to know that, no matter what happens from here on out, we definitely got the right guy to help us carry on.  As all of you should know by now, The Rogue Nations are way more interested in being a rowdy punk rock band and hanging out and having fun than we are in being professional.  We do want to play as best as we can, but if the crowd isn't having fun and we're not having fun then a key ingredient is missing.

I want to thank Keith for sticking with me through all of this.  Over the last year we have experienced some adventures together that would have been game-enders for a lot of musicians, but not for him.   So, I really appreciate his dedication and I hope that you will all reward him (and Mike and me) with your rowdy, out of control selves at our upcoming shows.   And I want to thank all of you for sticking by us through this transition.  We really appreciate the fact that people haven't forgotten us while we've been away.

Come up to Mike at our shows and introduce yourself or friend him on myspace.  He's on our Top Friends between Keith and Luke. 

See you soon!  (first show is Sun Aug. 16th at The Punk Rock Picnic at Tremont)
Chris