the_new_scum

In a way I dislike revelations, by which I mean the sudden realisations of things, not the especially crazy last book of the bible. On the one hand there's the good feeling of having an epiphany and the odd sense that maybe you've got your thinking cap on for a change and that it was damn impressive of you to have thought of that.

On the other hand you realise that for a small amount of time before this revolutionary thought occurs to you, you were being a giant cretin.

For a little while now I've been umming and ahhing (not literally, I'm not in a Werthers Original advert) about looking at joining a band. Every time I start to put any kind of effort into this, I stop myself, because I'm not nearly band-ready, let alone in a position to convincingly thrive in a gig scenario. For some reason I'd got it into my head that I'd need to be ready before I went looking for a band. OK I could do with practicing a bit more and getting more confident at playing, but what the fuck made me think I'd need to be awesome before I make a start? Was there ever going to be a situation where I blag my way into a band without them having met me properly, booking a gig before they've ever seen/heard me play, and then just giving me some sheet music to play with a few minutes notice?

That's what Grade exams are like. They give you music and you play it. Being in a band is different, you have a fair amount of notice to practice a few specific pieces before anyone has to see it. I can't believe how fucking stupid I've been in not realising that before, like one morning I was suddenly going to wake up and decide I'm ready to start a band.

Of course the real challenge will be finding people in the area who don't just want to play bad Machine Head covers