A Last One (While I'm Not Away)
I'm tired.
I woke up at 4am to catch a 6:30am flight out of Albany to get back to Burbank today. I knew it was going to be a long trip, adding to the fact that I had to go straight to work after I landed.
Our band leader and gracious host, Chris woke up with me and drove me to the airport because Ubers arent much of a thing where we were, but he got me there at 5am as planned. 90 minutes from drop off to boarding is usually a pretty conservative timeline for a "small" airport like Albany and thank Buddha I got there when I did. Apparently the entire city of Albany was leaving town, so the TSA line snaked through the upper level in a zig zag, back and forth motion as if we were all in line for Space Mountain and then downstairs it was entire length of the airport... There were many annoyed faces, screaming babies and Karen's and Ken's (?) flailing about. This feeling like we are lambs being taken to the slaughter always remind me of the opening scene in Modern Times where the pigs head to the well, you know... Chaplin's comparison isn't too different than this considering how flying has lately felt more a burden more than a luxury somehow. I'll let Patton be the funny one here…
https://youtu.be/91mhUcjAQTE?si=_He1mRXMVLPRn4n1
The travel component, as annoying and uncomfortable and infuriating as it can be, is generally beyond my control and as I try to evolve or at least be curious, I aim to let those inconveniences be just that; inconveniences. Besides, all this effort was to play music and that's why I am here, and yes, if you're asking, the last two shows were great fun.
Saturday we played in Hudson, NY. It was my first time there and it was adorable and quaint. It felt like a more progressive and younger skewing quaint, rather than a small town quaint you'd see in the beginning of a horror film. It was refreshing to see rainbow pride flags in most business windows rather than what I had been seeing, at least as we traversed through counties, which were giant trucks with American Flag wraps, pissing Calvins and the cherry on top, rubber testicles. Hudson was a sigh of relief in that regard. The show was at the Park Theatre, which was a small but decent sounding, well put together room and the crowd was in good sprits, including Tommy Stinson from The Replacements (neat!) and some local artists and musicians who mostly stuck around for 36ish song, 2 hour set, many of which we had never played together before.
Sunday was a private back yard party in Amsterdam, NY. To call this property beautiful would be an understatement. If this property was in Los Angeles, it would be built UP with two skyscraper apartments and a strip mall. Instead, here we have perfect crayon green grass that seems to go forever, with sparse trees allowing the attendees some shaded respite from the sun. Not us; we were playing FOR the sun. By set two, the sun was able to hide behind one of the tress for us, but the damage had been done. I was red as a beet and beat physically. We managed to get through it, besides i had to save enough energy to play our final song, which was an absurdly fast version of "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen - a perfect song in my opinion.
Prior to that, our second set had a few more tunes we'd never done before, which is one thing I find special about this group. Yes, they're cover songs, but that jumping in and going for it in the moment is something that doesn't happen as much anymore for me. It's closet thing I get to being in a jazz combo right now and it scratches that itch of spontaneous, tip toe fear of falling apart. It is appealing to me, and I know no matter what, I trust these guys to pick me up and they trust me to pick them up.
After the set, as the sun disappeared on the horizon, we were graced with the company of fireflies, loud crickets and crisp, dusk summer air.
It was a nice goodbye to a blisteringly fast weekend in the "capital region" of New York and a much needed respite from the hamster wheel I've been on lately.
I've said it in posts recently that I am humbled and grateful to get to do this music thing. I said I wouldn't take it for granted, and I feel this weekend I didn't. I made it a point to stop and smell the pine trees and really enjoy the conversation and the time with these bandmates whom I don't see often. I am very grateful for the the hospitality of friends and strangers and the comraderie that comes with being a (semi) nomadic musician.
Breakdown: 8 hours of drumming, 5 planes, 3 gigs, 2 hour (plus) sets and 1 tired drummer.
3 posts in a week is a lot, so I hope you're not annoyed at me flooding the inbox. I wanted to try this real time perspective thing and see how it works. Maybe it does?
Thanks again for your reading and support and feedback. It truly means a lot.
Till next time...
Really enjoyed it!