I finally got my 5G iPod in. Walking back and forth to work is actually quite enjoyable. Today, I listened to the Laporte Report
on the way home. It truly makes the time fly by.
How did I ever survive without it?
I’m not sure.
(if you are interested in my comprehensive review, check out ZenGeekery.com)
Recently, my living arrangements changed drastically. I moved in with a couple of friends of mine who happen to be professional musicians.
Now, I consider myself to be a slightly-above-average guitar player, but I have no skills that hold a candle to the two geniuses I live with. One of the guys is a sax player with the Mike Zito Band. His band plays a ton of casino gigs and blues joints. They’ll be at Bourbon St. Blues in Nashville on 12/6/2005 if that’s your thing.
David is a vocalist and piano player by trade, and makes a pretty decent take on solo gigs alone. He is also the lead vocalist for Opaque, a radio-friendly rock band that I manage. If that’s not enough for you, he also is the co-frontman for a Top 40/party band called Soul Vacation (a ‘pays the bills’ type gig).
As a fun side project, both of them play with a jazz outfit called Groove Knights. They usually practice at our house, so I’ve got to see them at thier peak, and at thier lowest. I would consider them to probably be the best players of thier respective insturments in our area. It continually amazes me how good musicians can play together, but excellent musicians can feel the music together.
I’ve seen a LOT of bands, from the biggest rock acts, to the most inexperienced garage bands you’ll ever see. I could count on one hand the number of musicians that are so ridiculously talented they can walk in and own the stage, and both of these guys would be on that list.
At a recent radio-sponsored battle of the bands, Opaque came in second. The band who came in first, Laurel and the Untouchables, put on a vey good show, and are excellent musicians. However, when the winner was announced, the crowd heartily showed its disagreement (I won’t repeat what nearly 300 people were chanting). Afterwards, the frontwoman (Laural) approached David and told him “You guys deserve this award much more than we did. There’s no way that I can ever play a gig with you guys again because your show is so much better than ours. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I feel like an amateur.”
To me, that is a mark that you’ve got it. Professionals in the music industry (and especially this area) usually don’t give unfounded compliments…and especially when you make them look like a 2-bit garage band. It give me a enormous head to know that those are my guys that I helped get together, and that they trust me with not only handling thier business matters, but a bit of creative input here and there.
Now, maybe if some of their musicianship,..or playing skills would rub off on me….