Whew! Well, we made it through the Railhead gig last Saturday. I would be lying, if I told you that everything went perfectly. In all actuality, it was a very difficult show.
For me, things started off on the wrong foot, as soon as I woke up on Saturday morning. My wife informed me that her cellphone had fallen off the kitchen cabinet, at some point during the night. The screen was shattered. In the grand scheme of things, this was really not that big of a deal, but we do not have a home phone, so we needed to get the issue dealt with. We packed up the kids and headed to the AT&T store. They opened at 10am, we had a full day, so I wanted to get over there and get done.
We were not up for an upgrade, so it was going to be like $500 to replace my wife's phone. The AT&T lady referred us to a place that could repair the phone. It was actually just down the road, so that was good. We headed over there, showed them the phone, they said it would be $190 to repair the phone. I did try to negotiate the price down, but they wouldn't budge. We agreed to the repair price, and the lady said it would be ready by 4pm, that afternoon. We told them that we would not be able to get back over there, on Saturday. They were closed on Sunday, so we told them that we would pick it up on Monday.
To make a long story short, they ended up calling us about 30 minutes after we arrived home, and said the phone was ready. What the heck? If we would have known this, we would have just stayed in town. My wife wanted her phone, and decided to run back into town to pick it up.
I mentioned earlier, that in the grand scheme of thing, this was not that big of a deal. The reason I say this, is because we lost my aunt on New Year's Day, to cancer. Her funeral was also on Saturday. My wife wanted me to stay home, and try and have a little down time. The funeral was that afternoon, and then we were having a family get together after that. Not to mention, I also had a show that night.
Of course, she got stuck in traffic, on the way back to Fort Worth. She made it back home about 15 minutes before we needed to leave, to go to the funeral. We made it just in time. We had a family dinner, afterward. I stayed up until the last moment, ran home, changed clothes, loaded up my gear, and headed to Railhead. I felt very fortunate that this gig was basically in my backyard. Had it been out of town, or somewhere towards the Dallas side of the metroplex, I'm not sure what I would have done.
Anyway, by the time I made it to Railhead, I was pretty much frazzled. It had been a very long and emotionally draining day. For some reason though, the thought never crossed my mind that maybe we should cancel this show.
I wasn't the only one dealing with issues. Brian, our bass player, was sick as a dog. He showed up and looked really rough. He had not been feeling well at rehearsal either. I really appreciate him powering through it. Tony, of course being brand new, was taking every spare second that he had, to go out to his car and listen to the songs. He was studying all the way up until show time, and again during our break. I'm really amazed that he was able to step in and play the show with us.
Roy seemed really laid back about all the chaos. I imagine that deep down he was probably worried sick, but if he was, he never seemed to show it.
Our main issue, was going to be staying in time with the sequencers and click tracks. Unfortunately, this pretty much all falls on Tony. He is the drummer, so when your a musician, you naturally follow the tempo of your drummer.
Using a click and sequencers is really not all that uncommon. Usually it's done out of necessity or convenience. For example, with us, Roy can't sing, play acoustic guitar and keyboards, all at the same time. The keyboards are sequenced and set to a click track. So basically, our drummer is supposed to follow the keyboards. As long as we are all in tempo with this, everything will sound great, but if we get off by a half a beat or so, it can become a mess, really quickly. What happens is the keyboard is playing a different note, then the rest of the band, if we are off beat.
Some other notable bands that use sequencers live are U2 and Van Halen. I'm pretty sure it's out of necessity. Both bands are four pieces. In U2's case, The Edge plays both guitar and keyboards. In a live situation, it would be just about impossible for him to play all the keyboard parts, plus the guitar parts at the same time. A great example of this, would be on their song "Where The Streets Have No Name". If your unfamiliar with the song, it starts off with keyboards and then Edge plays the guitar riff over the top of it. It would be impossible for one person to play both of these parts live, so the keyboard parts are sequenced. It's the same concept that we are using. I would imagine that U2's system is much more sophisticated then ours, but you get the idea. If the live musicians get out of time with the sequenced parts, it's gonna be a mess. Edge will play some keyboard parts live, just as Roy does. But, it's only on certain songs, and usually its a solo type run or piano part. For example, Edge plays the piano part for "New Years Day" live; Roy does the same thing on our song "Into The Night".
I also mentioned Van Halen. Eddie does the same thing. He plays both keyboards and guitar on their albums. Pretty impossible, even for him, to do both live. They run the keyboards sequenced, during a concert, and he plays guitar live.
Roy advised us that if things started getting off tempo, then he would kill the sequencer and we would just finish the song, without the keyboards. This happened quite a few times throughout the night. When it did, he cut the keyboards and we finished out the song. The nice thing though, was that we were able to get right back into time, together. My wife, and parents noticed it some, but honestly, I think it's just because they have seen us so much, that they know what we are "supposed" to sound like. It wasn't bad, it was just kind of "raw" sounding, when we finished a song without the keyboards. The two biggest glares, to me, were "Carry Me Home" and "Tailgate To The Beach". They didn't sound bad per se, but they just sounded kind of empty.
You might be thinking, "Well heck, this is all on Tony", but that's not the case at all. Again, I thought Tony did a phenomenal job, under the circumstances. He had one audition, that was comprised of maybe a dozen songs, and then we had one rehearsal. At the rehearsal, we did run through every song that we played at Railhead, but still. Throwing 20 something songs at a guy, and then asking him to play with a click on top of that, was probably a little much. Long term, I think Tony will be just fine, and I'm really looking forward to working with him.
One more note about sequencers and clicks. When you use those, you are pretty much stuck to a rigid structure. In other words, there is really not any room for improvisation. You pretty much have to get all the notes in, to the space allotted. We've ditched the sequencing, for most of the covers that we play. What we've found, is that we have a lot more space to improvise and put on more of a "show", so to speak. We can break the song down, and let the crowd sing along, or whatever else we want to do. We noticed that we were able to do this same thing on the originals, when we had to cut the sequencing.
Now, ditching the keyboards on the live versions of our originals is not an option. While we want to have the freedom to improvise, we do not want to do it at the expense of our sound. So our options are to either continue with the sequencer and the click tracks, or bring in a live keyboard player. After the show, Roy and I both decided that we wanted to bring in a live keyboard player. Even though it will hurt us on the financial end, we think it's the best decision for the band, long term. It will free Roy up from having to worry about the keyboards, and all that entails. He will have more freedom to work the crowd, during the songs, plus it will allow us to continue to sound like us.
So, with all that out of the way, we are officially looking for a keyboard player to play with us live. If you know someone in the DFW area, who you think might be interested, please send them our way. Here is our ad. This is also posted on Craigslist. Have them check this out:
Seeking keyboard player for live work. You'll need a good basic library of synth sounds and basic B3 and piano knockoffs. We use Roland gear quite a bit in the studio. So, if you've got a Roland model from within the past 10 years or so, you'll probably have most of what you need. Something as simple as a Juno Di works fine. USB stick input is a big plus, as is sampling if you want to just sample our original sounds direct. USB/Sampling not a requirement, though.
For the past year, we've been running sequencing and the drummer plays to a click. We're looking to get away from constant sequencing to have more of a "live" feel. For the most part, there are multiple keyboard parts running at all times, not possible to re-create without sequencing. What we're looking for is someone to cover the key elements -- the main recognizable parts, not every part that's on the studio versions.
Basic requirements are: Have your own gear and transportation for local gigs around the metroplex and a few miles farther out, no drugs, 25-45 age range or around there, easy going personality, be available most weekends. I believe we played about 40 shows in 2013, pretty much all weekend dates. While it's not a full-time job, it's a little more than a casual commitment. We generally do not play free unless it's a really good cause, so yes, you will be paid. The studio version of the band is a duo. This is for a position within the live band - no writing/recording involved, just looking for someone for stage work.
Another big thing is the ability and discipline to practice on your own. With the amount we normally play, there's not a lot of free time for rehearsals. I've got to have someone willing to access our Drop Box, download the songs and the set lists, get familiar with them, then we'll get together a couple times before we bring you into the full live show. Most everyone in the band works during the week, so being computer literate and able to work on your own is very important.
I list Alt-Country / TX Country as our genre because it's the closest fit. We sound closest to country. However, we're kind of a hybrid. We're a little odd for the local country scene and use a lot of electronics. Sometimes we'll go into beach mode. Sometimes it sounds like rock. When we play covers, they're usually 80's songs, TX Country or Trop Rock. It's an odd blend, but it works.
You can listen to some of our songs and find out a little bit more about us on the following Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/sanddollarrodeo/app_2405167945
If interested, please email Roy at roy@sanddollarrodeo.com and he will get right back to you.
Ok, we are off this weekend, so Roy and I can hole up in the studio and work on acoustic arrangements for our songs. Yikes! We will be playing at Big Star 97's Campfire Jam on January 15th. I'll get you all the details for that, in the next blog post. Here's a hint though, it's an all acoustic show! Talk to ya soon, and thanks for reading!
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