band practice
i went to watch a band practice the other night. they were really good. strings and chemicals. my friend jay is the drummer, and i really went to watch him play. he really gets into what he is doing. it is really entertaining. the band is good. their sound is good, but jay makes the band what they are. his high intensity, and fun sound as he crashes around on his drums. personally i would want to learn how to play the bass. only because my favorite musician is les claypool. but my favorite instrument to watch, is the drummer. the drummer needs to be on point. all the time. if the drummer messes up, it's fairly obvious. and when the drums are very intense and diverse, the drummer has to remember so much more than the bassist. who only has a few real notes to remember. this guy jay is in 2 bands. and to think about all the songs, and different drumming that goes along with it. so, if you ever get the chance to listen to strings and chemicals, you won't be sorry. and take notice of the drummer. he's good. this takes me into another thing that i wanted to mention. band practice itself. i walked into a garage, not a very big garage at that. it had a slight mildew smell from all the late nights of sweating and heavy breathing that comes from a cold garage and sweaty bodies. then as they started to gather around and turn on the instruments, i noticed each of them had them turned up as loud as possible. now this is good at the show, but when you're just practicing, maybe turn down the volume just a little. then it was interesting to see how the band members interacted with each other. i grew up playing organized sports where there was a coach and he decided what was to happen and how. people who are in bands usually aren't the "team player" types. so, to have 5 dudes who aren't really good at being team players trying to all get along and get something done was really weird. no one wanted to take control, or lead the group, but they were never afraid to tell each other that they didn't like, or didn't want to do something. and if they didn't get their way, they would get snotty, and start snipping at the other band members. worse than chickens. one person did seem to be more in charge than the others. but not really. being in a band seems weird to me. i like that they are all trying to go in the same direction. well, i just lost my direction. stupid shiny objects...
