Thinking Outloud:

Great rehearsal yesterday. We could actually hear everyone!!! No more fighting over volume levels. I used to come home totally exhausted from rehearsal and I'm now realizing that much of that was from stress, and not physical exertion...even though my black T shirts are totally white with salt the next day...
Congratulations on your new, stress free addition!
With band mates that are not arguing it becomes fun again!
Cheers Mitch
 
Am I the only one who would have loved to have seen that?! :p
I could see Robert at first clear his throat, and then in a mellow and sweet voice say: "Golly-Gee-Whiz guys! Let's all get along, and I'll make waffles in the morning! OK?"

So, we made some changes. After a lot of discussion, we agreed that the lead guitarist had to go. From day one, we realized his charisma and "wildcard" nature was going to be difficult to deal with, but his dynamic playing and stage persona was advantageous to our overall stage appeal. However, it seemed as though everything we suggested would trigger a barrage of texts - or phone calls - to complain about how this "wasn't the right way to do things." For me, the straw that broke the camel's back came when he recently refused to play an outdoor "street festival" in a mountain community complaining that "I'm not playing on a sidewalk. If I don't have a legitimate stage, I'm not going."

I think he will do well as a bandleader, but it just isn't in his personality to be a part of the team.

Guitarist #3 was also dropped. He just wasn't putting in the effort to get the songs nailed down and there were a significant number of mistakes that kept being repeated week after week. I think he is a great dud and all, but we simply must have people who are "100% in" and this wasn't the case. I've also evaluated our sound and we agreed it's best to just stick with twin guitars.

Today is first rehearsal with new lead guitarist... :)
I HATE SOAP OPERAS... :BH: ... :bash:
 
The direct evening sun gave me some tuning issues. Not too bad on the Les Paul Replicas, but the real Gibson Les Paul was greatly affected by the sunlight. I rotated the 1987 Squire into its place, since I was playing only rhythm today...
 
What a fun event and such a cool crowd. We were setup at the roadways' edge and people were honking and giving thumbs up as they were driving past. I've never seen more older people throwing horns and singing along to Judas Priest. One petite grandmother was shuffling past, with what I would assume was a granddaughter on her arm. As I was changing guitars, and when our eyes met, this quite regal - albeit saintly - little woman threw me the horns and said, "Bitchin Les Paul you got there!" Her granddaughter's jaw literally dropped as if she had seen a ghost.

That was the high point of my night!!!!

So many favorable comments on the Les Paul's from everyone there. No questions about what year any of them were, no time to explain that two of them are copies, just comments like, "Beautiful Les Pauls, Man!" and "Fookin' killer tone, Dude!" over and over again.

I'm sure we had a few real "guitar guys" there, because more than once I would hear someone shout "Lemonburst!" as they passed by.

Between songs, a young guy walked by (in a group) with a rocker jacket and hat, emblazoned with various (more modern) band patches and he looked really bored. I recognized the "G" and crucifix from the band Ghost B.C. and shouted to him "Ghost!," then proceeded to kick off the intro to "Rats!" by Ghost. This kid spun around suddenly throwing horns and headbanging as if he had been stung by a swarm of wasps.

Just one of those really personal venues where people could walk right up to you.

A very cool time for everyone there...
 
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What a fun event and such a cool crowd. We were setup at the roadways' edge and people were honking and giving thumbs up as they were driving past. I've never seen more older people throwing horns and singing along to Judas Priest. One petite grandmother was shuffling past, with what I would assume was a granddaughter on her arm, as I was changing guitars and when our eyes met, this quite regal little woman threw me the horns and said, "Bitchin Les Paul you got there!" Her granddaughter's jaw literally dropped as if she had seen a ghost.

That was the high point of my night!!!!

So many favorable comments on the Les Paul's from everyone there. No questions about what year any of them were, no time to explain that two of them are copies, just comments like, "Beautiful Les Pauls, Man!" and "Fookin' killer tone, Dude!" over and over again.

I'm sure we had a few real "guitar guys" there, because more than once I would hear someone shout "Lemonburst!" as they passed by.

Between songs, a young guy walked by (in a group) with a rocker jacket and hat, emblazoned with various (more modern) band patches and he looked really bored. I recognized the "G" and crucifix from the band Ghost B.C. and shouted to him "Ghost!," then proceeded to kick off the intro to "Rats!" by Ghost. This kid spun around suddenly throwing horns and headbanging as if he had been stung by a swarm of wasps.

Just one of those really personal venues where people could walk right up to you.

A very cool time for everyone there...
Sounds as if it was a great way to kick of a excellent gig, to bad about the heat and tuning issues, but that would have been the case with anyone who is using hard tail guitars!
Cheers Mitch
 
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