Friday, March 04, 2005

Timing is everything

The second Second Hand Ska Kings show came and went. Where were you? By no means do I (David) speak for the rest of the band when I say that the show went poorly. Our new drummer, Private Ryan, did impeccably well. Bob, the bassist, only made a handful of mistakes. Other than that, I heard nothing.

Wednesday evening I decided to seek out my co-workers advice on keyboard amplifiers. I knew he was knowledgeable on the matter for he is a man so fully acculturated in the mass hysteria that is American consumerism, that he may well have written the bible that governs their religion. After an excruciatingly long discussion with this co-worker, in which every conceivable option (that requires a purchase) was covered, I formulated a plan of action. Rather than going through the typical route of ‘mic’-ing my amplifier at a gig, I thought I’d simply run a second line from my keyboard, directly to the venue’s PA system. The result would allow me to not only use my amp exclusively as a stage monitor, but also allow me turn it all the way up without being concerned about the audience hearing all of its distorted, hissy, utterances.

My plan didn’t work. Even with the amp all the way up, I still couldn’t hear myself over the rest of the band. And initial reports from the audience lead me to believe that when the rest of the band would go silent, the audience heard just as much of my keyboard through the PA system as they did from my amp. So the glorious Roland – Rhodes sound most likely resembled a drowning Casio.

All in all, this failed experiment wouldn’t be so bad, but my inability to hear compounded the amount of mistakes I made. But I digress; the mildly inexperienced audience ear (Heather) was unable to hear these mistakes (nor the majority of my playing for that matter). So from the audience perspective, the show was decent, if not good. And I suppose that is all that matters.

Speaking of shows, I’ve been watching the DVDs that my brother lent me a couple of weeks back. The Hunter S. Thompson documentary was fantastic. Though I found it rather eerie that within days of receiving the movie, the man up and shoots himself (anyone have a documentary on George W. they can lend me?). I also found it a bit eerie that within minutes of finishing the first season to the British comedy The Office I see a commercial on network TV advertising the upcoming premiere of an American re-write of this show. There is something weird going on here. Perhaps our DVD player is possessed.

Anyway, recent gig photos will likely be uploaded later today, provided that the new Macintosh-friendly software I obtained actually works. Otherwise, you won’t hear from us until Monday. Don’t worry though, there is no “nextel cup” NASCAR this Sunday, so we won’t be updating you on that.

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