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November 17th 2005
It was 10 degrees below this morning and we have the first show
tonight!! Don't know why I joined those two pieces of information
together but they were the first things to pop into my head!!
Wednesday was the last day of rehearsal and it was a long day but a
good one. We got 90% of our work done and we'll cover the rest
in sound check today.
It's been toughest for Willy, our drummer because he owns a club in
Oslo called the Rock In and he is totally a night person so starting
rehearsals at noon has been very strange for him!! Tonight we move
more into Willy's schedule!
We have the final set list in place, the truck is packed and tonight
we are off to Moss to play the first of these shows.
I feel really good about this band. It's very different from my Spanish
band in that it is much "heavier". That means I have to change my
thinking a bit too. I really enjoy both line-ups and they are all
great players, there's just that subtle difference in musical
heritage and "attitude". When it comes to finding great people to
work with I am a very lucky guy! Also we have four voices in this
line-up which means we have a lot of options vocally and you all
know how much I love harmony.
So... more later. I am going for a walk and I can only hope my nose
and my ears are still there when I get back!
...
(continued)
Finally it was time to set off
for Moss and our first show. It was only a short drive and the venue
was small but really cool!
Petter and Magne had done a good
job of getting all of our stuff on to a relatively small stage and
the dressing room was set up nicely… just about everything you could
ask for really. Of course my memory only has to take a short walk to
the old days when everything I/we demanded was completely ridiculous
but that was then and this is closer to reality!
Sound check went well. Magne is
handling sound and production for these shows and he has a very calm
attitude which is really necessary when you are dealing with
different sound systems every night and the problems that can come
with that. We focussed on some small things we needed to review
after rehearsals and then it was time to relax a bit before the
show.
Food was laid on and really these
people were extremely nice which helped to create a positive feeling
among us all.
The show was powerful and
energetic from the very beginning and the interaction with the crowd
was inspiring. I will need to make some adjustments to the set list
for the next show because there is a segment where we are a bit too
far from “familiar territory” for a bit too long but that will be
easy enough to fix!
The band was great, the dynamics
were right on and, though we did make some mistakes (it was our
first show) there was nothing catastrophic and nothing that can’t be
fixed in the next sound check.
At the end of the encores we left
the stage feeling good. Everyone had enjoyed themselves and there
were a lot of happy faces everywhere.
A few minutes at the merchandise
area to sign some stuff and take some pictures and then it was time
to go back to the hotel in Fredrikstad. The temperature outside was
a bit of a shock (-8 degrees!) but the guys had warmed up the cars
so we were okay.
I am thankful to everyone for all
the effort they are making and I am excited to see how the band
grows over the next couple of weeks.
I’ll keep you posted of course!
Next day...
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