We are very lucky...

[JohnDrum]

Ah Ha!

Willy...

Welcome to the club. You just described the band I play with. We talk about this at nearly...no wait....EVERY GIG. Especially during less-than-ideal situations of rough load-ins (no roadies), outdoors with tough weather, drunk people, requests for Brown-Eyed Girl...twice, etc...

Nuthin' better than gig day with the boys, whether it is for a small backyard party or 15,000 people on 4th of July before the fireworks.

This Thursday evening we are playing a dental office open house in a parking lot a mile from my house for probably a couple hundred people. Time commitment will be from 3:30 - 9:00pm, playing from 5:30-8:00. Fun people, the In-n-Out trailer serving great burgers, some adult beverages...and $375 each ($1500 for the band, $68.18/hour each...I'll take it). I will probably post some silly stuff on our Facebook site like I do for most gigs...
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rave ... 6682436238

...and we are all approaching or over 60 years old going on 20...really.

It will cap off a work day nicely.

Keep that feeling, Willy, it'll get you through life's shit!

Rob

Amen to that Rob.....from a 61 year-old ( as of today) teenager who still thinks he can play 2 one hour sets with the same energy as he did at 18, until the next morning that is! I wouldn't swap the feeling for anything though...love it.
John

[Josiah]

Happy Birthday!

Indeed Rob! That would be pretty sweet!


I get those great music love feelings just driving to rehearsals..!

[Da Chooch]

nice post Willy.. enjoyed the vid as well. too bad yur leaving town.

on a side note, i had recently been through sessions of psyciatric counseling and the thing he emphasized was that I needed to continue playing the drums and making music as an outlet. he told me that studies have proven (through ct scans of the brain) that any creative endeavor but esp. making music stimulated BOTH sides of the brains. said it was basically a necessity for people of our artistic bent. take it for what it's worth but it helped me out ALOT.

[willyz]

nice post Willy.. enjoyed the vid as well. too bad yur leaving town.

on a side note, i had recently been through sessions of psyciatric counseling and the thing he emphasized was that I needed to continue playing the drums and making music as an outlet. he told me that studies have proven (through ct scans of the brain) that any creative endeavor but esp. making music stimulated BOTH sides of the brains. said it was basically a necessity for people of our artistic bent. take it for what it's worth but it helped me out ALOT.

Don't speak too soon, mate- nothing (as I have learned many times the past few years) is set in stone (ahem, example: when I thought I was moving to Chi-town. Timing wasn't right and I wasn't doing it entirely for me). Kind of up in the air at this point, as I simply don't have the finances to get back out to LA (or elsewhere) yet. I've been applying for jobs like crazy trying to get my foot in the door at one of the networks as a PA or something and I've gotten a few bites for random jobs here in Austin, but nothing a go yet- sometimes it's just all about the Benjamin’s!

That being said it's easy to be content here- especially with the experiences I've had with the band. You never know when you're about to get busy or when you the phone isn't going to ring for a while, but I have a feeling that gigs may be picking up for me in the coming months.

But I'm still hanging on to the feelings I talked about in this post, and regardless of the slow times, dealing with business or flaky people or whatever, it's important to remember why you're in it in the first place... It’s easy to get down on yourself for things out of your control, but sometimes you got to let it ride and it’s okay to be content for a while in one place…


edit:

Here's the video Chooch mentioned- quality is a little rough, but you get the idea:

[Josiah]

Great playing Willy! Really nice feel there

Here's hoping that things pick up for you, it always seem to slow down around Nov/Dec and your right, you just never know what's around the corner

[willyz]

Great playing Willy! Really nice feel there

Here's hoping that things pick up for you, it always seem to slow down around Nov/Dec and your right, you just never know what's around the corner

Thanks man- appreciate it!

[Josiah]

..and ironically today a drummer buddy from here (Co Springs) told me he's moving down to Austin to play with a band I can't recall the name of just now, go figure!

[Paul Marangoni]

http://austin.craigslist.org/muc/3347077773.html

[willyz]

http://austin.craigslist.org/muc/3347077773.html

That post has been on there for a few days- waiting on a response.

[Josiah]

"Flakes and Hired Guns don't bother replying."

That's all you need to know about that "gig". Anytime anyone is unwilling to discuss budgets or pay for gigs it's a clear sign that you are now headed towards amateur land. Of course there is the possibility that 1 original band could be the "next big thing", but that's like playing the lotto with your playing.