Quite the day. It started out on the road to pick up Rosalie at Drew for her visit on this historic day, and I got back to town in time to shower and open up the doors for the 1 pm rehearsal with my pals in SO. Reid, Denny, Chris Hub and I set up on stage, with Jeff due to show after work at 4 pm.
I had a set list ready, and the lads had (hopefully) practiced with CD’s. Remarkably, we found our footing and started the hard work of rehearsing, leads, keys, tuning, etc. But some really funny and current ideas came up that made everything fresh, along with the incredible intelligence and humor that my friends retain. We worked out one set.
Jeff came by to play drums at 4 pm, and we went through the set again. The earlier work paid off – we replayed what we had worked on, now with drums, and it gave the lads some confidence that only a superb drummer can do. we broke for an hour til show time.
Reid and I hit the stage a little after 7 pm, and the place was nearly full. Chris had split for his Crazy Hearts country band and wasn’t due back til 8:30. Having the luxury of playing at the Sands the night before, we had a repetoire ready and we held forth.
There’s a symbiosis with Reid and myself, a confidence in each other’s abilities, that created a very nice set of my recent tunes, common SO tunes, and his set list, that created a very nice musical set, with lots of banter and audience back and forth. A major disappointment was the expected mini-set with Rudi Sefrin, of Ruff and Reddy. Rudi played with Reid in this band, and is a marvelous songwriter, unfortunately afflicted with MS. He was on board to do a two song set, but got to the club and saw the rather chaotic and full-house event and decided not to play. Drat.
The first set was a treat, and I got to explore my creative talents as a rhythm guitar player and entertainer, and Reid got to shine as the player that he is, gathering applause for his leads.
The full band joined up for the second set about 8:30, with Chris arriving from his gig. We hit with Choo Choo Cha Boogie, and we were on our way. more to follow.
I realize what made us life-long friends is the artistic nature of what we do to create music together. There is a deep bonding in the process that is almost genetic, and can be called on on very short notice to resurface in the moment. That is the essence of these reunions, and I look forward to pressing my friends into doing more.