emale

First off I want to say I just got home from seeing Million Dollar Baby and holy fucking shit...Go see it. I'm not going to say anything else because I don't want anyone who reads this (Probably not an issue) to know anything about the big secret and such. Just go see it. If this movie doesn't win the Oscar I will...Well, probably just curse my television or the webpage I read the winners off of but still...I'll do it with ardor and zeal.

So, Saturday night we played the Grog. Here's a Special Features set list with commentary from the author.

Chompin' At The Bit (Totally forgot the second verse and chorus and sang the third verse twice and the first chorus twice. Granted, no one would know but the band, but it still was not a good way to start. I also could swear I heard someone boo as they walked out the door but no one else heard it they SAY. )

No Rest

Glenn Henley (Missed the first chord. Played the verse chords differently than I had ever played them because of this. So the whole song seemed off kilter.)

If You Don't Want Love

Broken (Voice cracked on first word. This song involves channel switching with the foot switch and for some reason I'm not very good at that. But on the plus side, my guitar wasn't out of tune too terribly on the part it usually was.)

Like To Know (Changed the words just a few days before we played it so I of course couldn't remember them and just sang nonsense for parts of this. Not nonsense words, just noises like "Gahbledeeayyy" and "veeberstaffen".)

B (Still working out the foot switch. Gonna have to start practicing that at home. Maybe my feet are too big.)

Boxed In

Hotel Bar (Played bass on this one and felt surprisingly loose. Fucked it up of course but still...I was loose man. I rule!)

Katie Did (Switched to acoustic guitar. Got strap hung on stand as I tried to pick it up. Forgot my backing vocals and the chords. Yay! Also kept hearing imaginary distortion from something but no one else heard it. Just like the guy booing us as he exited.)

I Don't Want You Happy (Forgot chorus chords. And this is probably my favorite song to sing and play. Fucking idiot.)

The Last Of Me (Gave this one a good shot. Sang the chorus with roughness like it's meant to be when a good singer sings it. Forgot half the last verse though. At the end said "You probably wish this was the last of me, but it's not." I thought that was hilarious. But my sister and her friend gave me shit about the self-deprecating remarks after the show.)

By Definition (Paul broke a string on this one. So instead of the regular words, I sang "Where's Paul?" and he said "Here he is!" when he got his other guitar strapped on.)

Your Town (Paul is still not too familiar with this one. He starts playing the solos before their time has come. In practice I usually call out "Chorus!" and "Bridge!" and "Solo!" to him so he will know. But didn't do that Saturday so he cut loose for a few seconds and I started laughing as I was singing. And then he remembered.)

Bedford (This one was the toppermost of the poppermost. Our old bass player showed up to watch us so I said this song was for him because he said it was always his favorite one. It has some picking at the beginning and in the middle that intro section comes back and changes keys too. I play it and I just got totally fucked up on it. I mean I was playing SOMEthing in order to keep the song moving but it wasn't at all what it should have been and was just really awful sounding. Steve said "All ten fingers!!!!" as I was doing it. I was laughing so hard. But anyway, after the picking ends the last note hangs briefly and we all come crashing back in. I hit my chord about a full second before the rest of the band and that's like the most powerful moment in the song...Uhhh...It didn't sound very powerful that night. At the end I said the song wasn't for him after all because I fucked it up. He told me later that I used to fuck it up in practices with him all the time so it wouldn't have been right if I'd played it flawlessly. Thanks, ass.)

Happy Hour (This probably sounded better than anything else all night. Ha ha. Maybe we should be a cover band too. Steve said "This is a little song by the Housemartins." right before we started and Andy and I looked at each other like "What the fuck?" I don't know about you but I don't tell someone the big surprise cover song we have in the set. You just play it and hope someone recognizes it and likes it. I assume that's what Andy was looking at me for.)

Paul also stepped on his cord and unplugged his guitar about three times that night. I just can't place which songs it happened during. So this was the worst show I've been involved in. It was a train wreck from the first song but we kept on trucking along and laughed it off so that was cool. I was glad no one felt the need to leave the stage or start crying or anything. I guess practice makes perfect. One of my sister's friends said I shouldn't be so hard on myself since it was only the second time I'd ever done it and that made me feel a bit better. Hopefully the next shows will be flawless. Is that too much to ask?