"Our Set Tonight Is...Not Exact. It Could Go A Lot Of Different Ways. So Just Hang With Us. We'll Get There."

Love that line. Recently (yesterday) I pulled out my copy of my last band's live recording so I could play along with it. I did this a lot 2 or 3 years ago, especially after the band split, mostly because I still wanted to play but had no band to play with. Like the Rhesus Monkey, I created my own surrogate band to deposit my creativity and emotion (but unlike the Rhesus monkey, my band mates weren't remade with terry cloth. They weren't remade at all. Also, I didn't have that much terry cloth on hand). That recording provided hours of listening and playing even after the death of All Else Fails...

Anyway, I pulled it out yesterday, popped it into the DVD player in the living room, set up my bass, amp, and pedals, and went ahead to relive the dream. I'm already beginning to forget some of the parts. Still, most of the lines are still intact in my brain.

BUT THE LINE....focus on the line...Mike Bay (Our Guitar Player/keyboradist/singer of the time. Not the creator of such popcorn flicks like Transformers and Armageddon) opens the whole set up with,

"Here's the deal. We're kind of a rock/jam band. Uh...we like to jam...so uh...our set tonight is, uh...not exact. It could go a lot of different ways. So uh...just hang with us. We'll get there".

It sounded awkward then, and each and everytime I listen to it. But it's the best opener for us or any other band. Seriously, it would be a great opener for life. It's so humble. It's so brutally honest too: "We are just a rock/jam kind of band. A handful of kids whacking on drums and waving our hands up and down the necks of guitars and basses. This sound could go a lot of different ways. This may not be what you expected. You probably won't get your money's worth. You may hate us. But please, just sit down, listen. This is a ride. We're going to get somewhere. We will find someplace. Together". How proper.

I generally have this problem of romanticizing the past (The band being one of those past moments I render in my mind as something far more beautiful than it actually was). I've started to do that lately. Remembering the good parts of high school and college. Which is bad. It means I'm not engaged in the moment, in the current times, in reality. I'm bored and I look to past events as missed and gone opportunities. Thinking through the "What-if's". It's self damaging. Self-loathing to some degree. When you get bored, when you get trapped, that's sometimes all you can think about. A time when you know (or think you know) things were much better and happier than what is currently happening. It's not, but the brain likes to fool itself. Focusing solely on the beautiful rather than the crap that it mistakenly misplaced in the ol' memory bank.

Another line from our band. From a song entitled, As It All Falls Apart:

"I wish it could all come back. I need it to all come back. When will it all come back, before I fall apart?"

Never. It's said and done. Move forward.

A modern day sage once said, "Nothing good happens without choices". I guess if we want some good we're going to have to make a few decisions.

I've said my peace. Until next time.