lowquality.net

Awhile back I had made yet another destined-for-failure attempt at working with some people to form a cover band and make a little extra money this summer. At the time I didn’t think it would totally derail, but it seems like my experiences with cover bands have never been very fruitful. It’s not the end of the world, I hate the songs people play around here anyway.

I didn’t completely waste my time though, I befriended the second guitar player in the band, a guy named Geoff, who is not only a great guitar player but also works at damned fine microbrewery in Williamsburg.
We’ve seemed to hit it off both musically and personally and have plans on the horizon to do a project together.

Two weeks ago, though, Geoff calls me and asks me if I want to play a gig with him and a singer friend of his at Scotty Quixx in Norfolk.

“Of course,” I say. “when is it?”

“It’s on the 28th but I am going out of town next week so we won’t be able to get together until after next weekend.” [long pause and then, finally] “Are you still interested?”

“Dude, no one does that shit in Virginia! If you guys know what we’re playing I’m down.”

So that was basically it. I agreed to do a show I knew nothing about, other than a few songs he emailed me at the very last minute and rehearsed only days before the actual gig. It’s something I haven’t done since Berklee and it feels fucking great. It’s business. No time to vex and worry and complain and self-judge and wonder if what I am doing is what the song calls for. It’s totally cut and dry: “show up to the venue, tune the bass, play this song, play the next song, don’t stop to wonder if this particular bass line defines you as a player, play the next three or four songs without fiddling with your amp, tear down, watch the next acts, move on with life.”

This set up would be totally fine with me, but the even better part is that Rianna (the singer) and Geoff are part of this cliquey circle of musicians that revolve around this recording studio in Virginia Beach and they seem to making some great music. Not only does Rianna have a decent voice, but she has excellent taste in music (even making fun of Sara Barielles’ stupid “doot-doot-doot” adlibs mid rehearsal) and she loves soul, funk and classic R&B. Her dad owns this studio (which is still being built and looks fucking great so far) and has apparently been kicking her in the ass to performing more and she seems to want to start a band. I expect that Geoff would be involved but since he lives out Williamsburg I also expect that there could be some issues with that, though I hope not.

It just seems like there is a situation here that I could easily take charge of and get something really awesome together, but I won’t get too antsy until this first gig is under my belt.