Watch us wing it at the Wild Wing!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATHEE!
Thanks for being there, thanks for the food, extra shelter, transport, loot and the girl! You've made the last hunk of my life a heck of a lot easier than it otherwise would've been. 'Tis appreciated and I hope you have a good 'un.
Besides today being the birthday of someone very important, it's also April Fool's Day (I hope everyone's gotten our little podcast ridiculousness and not everyone thinks that Bill Berry from R.E.M. has joined us - WATER U THINKIN?).
For me, today SUCKED! Really. It was just one thing after the other. And on a show day no less just to add extra drama and trauma - and a show day when we haven't done a full show in months, too, so I'm already nervous.
First off, I plugged in my guitar in the morning to run through some stuff. Good thing I did. I played about 20 minutes before it started crapping out on me. All indications were that my pedal board wasn't working. Now don't get me wrong, I can get through the show with no effects but it would be so boring and dry by comparison. And I'm used to the comfort and luxury of sounds I've personally created and built for certain songs.
I called Mike to ask if he could bring up a soldering iron just in case. He said sure but to open it up and see if I could see any obvious places. Easier said than done. I couldn't even find the right tools in our collection to get into the pedal board. Then I had an idea. I've got my Dad's truck outside with his tools. I dug and dug through those old oily things and guess what, I found it! I got in and I just couldn't see anything.Thanks, Dad but I don't know nothin' about nothin' about this here stuff.
Then I got the first call from Mike. He was broken down a few miles outside of Elgin. He thinks he bought bad gas at a store in Lugoff. He doesn't know how he's gonna get here or what he's gonna do. And I can't make my equipment work. Yep, tonight's gonna be good. Then the second call, he got his parents to come pick him up and they got it running. He's headed home on backroads and they leave him. As soon as they do, his car goes out again. He's trapped for a second time by noon. And I don't know how I'm gonna play!
Third call, he's packing up his stuff and his parents are taking it all back to Lugoff. The car's being towed. He checks with the gas station. Apparently several other cars have had the same problem. Mike was right. He gets use of his company truck but couldn't get it around in Athens anyway. Then I started thinking. Who could help us? I figured we were just plain screwed. Then it dawned on me. Who has saved me since I was a baby? My Grandmother. She's got a car in Lugoff and she doesn't drive it all that much. I called her and she said it was okay with her. Mike goes over, grabs the Grandmamobile and starts heading this way. By now, it's about 3. I still haven't been able to fix my problem and by the time Mike gets here, he won't have time. And I've got a photo shoot with Elf Power at 6 and I'm supposed to do one with Sun Domingo after that and before our soundcheck. Yeah - no stress at all. But at least Grandma relieved the biggest burden...just like the old days. I can't tell you or put into words how thankful I am.
But I don't have time to be thankful now. I started calling music stores. Nope, no one can help with a digital effects board - too complicated. Then Chick Piano says that if it's something simple, they can absolutely do it on the spot. I rush down there with some hope. I plug into one of their amps and guitars and it plays fine. I figured like this morning, it just needed a little time and it would go out. I played in that store for an hour. It was perfect. Well, I got some practice in anyway but now I'd pretty much given up on fixing the problem.
4:30, I'm back home. I plugged in my guitar and (big surprise here) nothing happens. So I unplugged the Hamer, plugged in the Strat and (VOILA!) I have sound. It works perfectly. So it's not the pedal board, it's the GUITAR! Now, I'm not stupid. There were many reasons why Mike, Frank and I all thought it was the pedal board...but now I know it clearly wasn't. So now I really start to panic. I can have my sounds but the Strat doesn't even have enough frets to do some of the stuff I do these days. Ah, screw it. At least I'll have a guitar and my sounds. That's an improvement. Still, I took the back off the Hamer and just touched all the connections, looking to see if there was something obviously loose. Nope. It all looked good. Then I plugged it back in. It worked fine. I was cautiously happy. At least it was working...but for how long? Still, I was gonna try and use it. Hey, it's a Wild Wing gig. No one'll probably even notice!
I had to get out of there and go shoot Elf Power. So I dashed down to the Georgia Theatre and met up with Andrew and crew outside. We had to wait a bit for Laura to get there and they kept apologizing but I was like, "Nope. I don't care. I'll wait all night. This is the most relaxing part of my day!" They found that a bit amusing. Laura soon arrived, I took a couple of dozen very non-artistic photos as my head just wasn't in it. At one point Peter Buck from R.E.M. walked up (his other band The Minus 5 is who Elf Power were opening for) and started teasing them for posing. This is historic to me because it's the first time I've ever seen Pete Buck in Athens. I've seen the other 3 guys several times but never Pete (he's lived in Seattle for years). So it's kind of cool to complete the collection.
No time to think about it, though. I got back home and Mike was waiting. He was exhausted and as stressed as I was. He also had a falling out with the girl he calls his "psychologist" and they'd apparently broken up...partially over travelling over here for the gig. What a crappy, crappy day.
Still, everything was in place for the show to go on. The first break came when Edgel from Sun Domingo called and said they'd prefer to just wait and do their photos some other day. Cool - that buys me a little more time.
By then, we had to get on down to the venue. We were there and setting up by 8:45 or so for a projected start time of 10. The place was jam packed full. We got in and set up on their teeny, tiny new stage while the patrons watched basketball. I ran around, talked to the few friends that had made it out, went out for my pre-show screeching, wretching and leaping and got back in just in time to go on at a bit after ten.
For the show report, you'll have to click here.
Mike came back and crashed at our place. I was just glad the day was over and we made it through. What a friggin' nightmare! If what doesn't kill you makes you stronger is true, we could give the circus strong man a run for his money right now.
By the way - while I was "rockin'" at the Wild Wing, Berry, Buck, Mills & Stipe reformed once again for a surprise appearance at the Georgia Theatre. They only did one song, "Country Feedback" and Berry played bass ("Mama sang tenor") but it happened. And I missed it again. Last time R.E.M. reformed in Athens was the night of our CD release party in October. Oh well - I always miss 'em for one reason or another.
