21. August 2008 by John Arnold.

We’ll see….  Friday night.  At the Coliseum.  Here we go.  I was putting new strings on my guitars when I thought to myself (as opposed to someone else),  I should blog about this.  We’re playing an annual summer party for a college in Snyder, Texas.  Naturally, I want my guitars to sound as good as possible and, considering that the last time I played them they couldn’t stay in tune for more than five minutes and sounded like they were being muffled by a big hairy armpit, I should spring for strings. I mean, really, nothing is too good for a paid gig.  So, here I am supposedly putting new strings on my guitars when I became distracted.  I haven’t been here in a while.  To be honest, I’ve attempted to write a couple blogs since my last - Most notably “Pickle Lady and the Rootbeer Killer” - but my heart just hasn’t been there.  Something hit me tonight though, and I think it might be a copious amount of beer.

Friday night.  We’re going to be rocking Snyder.  We play mainly classic rock.  Songs from Credence (Side Note: Pretty sad that Credence doesn’t have their own website, but I don’t google much past the first page. Dudes, see me about page rank), The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, some B.B. King, and even some sweet rocked up Dylan tunes like “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, except with some kick.  I know I’m missing a lot here, but hell, I don’t even know what the play list is for this gig.  That’s what final rehearsal is for tomorrow night, right?

It will be the first time the band has practiced together since before our last gig about two months ago.  If you’ve read any of my previous blogs about the band, you know this is no cause for alarm. We don’t believe in over-preparing.  As a matter of fact, we don’t even have a name.  One of the guys in the band keeps calling it the Joel DuffieldBand but Joel, as cool as he is, is very self-deprecating and gets flustered when we call the band by that name. We had thought about “Frostbite” because the building we practice in has no heat or air-conditioning and our fingers turn blue in the winter. Personally, I think we should call the band “The Johnsons” but I don’t want to start a gender war with the female members and end up being outvoted and playing for a band called “The Clappers.”

Are we too tight for Snyder?  Probably not.  We’re a guitar band for sure.  It’s an interesting mix though.   The guitarists range in ages from their early 30s to the middle 50s.  You’d never guess, but the youngest guitarist, Joel, is like Buddy Holly re-incarnated - plays this huge hollow-body Guild and when he kicks that overdrive pedal the thing screams.  Very nice indeed.  Mike and I, well we’re Stratocaster guys. Mike, lucky bastard that he is, proudly struts his VG around the stage with it’s blinking blue LED light while I drag my customized standard around with its EMG Active State pickups that’ll wrap some sounds around your head. We all bring a different sound and when we put it together we do a “Green River” that has to get John Fogerty hard, without Viagra.

Who would’ve guessed that the web address for Viagra was VIAGRA.com?  Did those letters grow?  What are they trying to tell us?

 So am I excited about this gig?  Hell yeah!  Just ask Viagra.

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27. July 2008 by John Arnold.

We had our first practice yesterday with our new drummer.  Considering that the band hasn’t practiced together since before our last gig in Waco, things went well - very well.  We were missing two of our singers - one was on vacation with her husband (who’s also our soundman), and I’m not really sure where the other ran off to.  I’ve been in this band for a little over a year now and if there’s one thing I’ve become acccustomed to it’s that it is a very rare occasion when all members of the band show up for practice.

Anyway, our last drummer was good and we were all very sad to see him go.  No doubt.  Luckily for us, with a major show coming up in about 3 weeks, our new drummer, Steve, is a natch.  He fit right in, had a couple of hiccups on a couple of starts, but picks up really quickly on what we want from him and he’s right there. So… for not playing together for about 6 weeks, we’re not as suck as I thought we’d be, but we have a long way to get ready for August 22nd.

Notwithstanding the concerns and the anxieties that precede any gig, it was damn nice to be back together with the guys, pumping out some tunes, getting loud and proud, and downright dirty. Three guitars, a bass, drums, keys, and friends, and a 65,000-freaking-watt sound reinforcement system. What more could you want? Life is good.

Yo Steve Holland! Glad to have you!

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