Speaking of Rock and/or Roll

Speaking of rock and/or roll, I had a great experience the other night. My band played at the House of Blues in Anaheim, and it was awesome.

My favorite local venues to attend concerts at here in the LA area are the House of Blues venues. The one in Hollywood is my favorite, and the one in Anaheim is a close second. When I go to shows at these places, the vibe is so awesome. I have always wanted to have the experience of playing a show on one of those stages.

It wasn't a traditional concert in the sense of being an opening act for a bigger band. It was a private party for homebuilders association here in So Cal. Our bassist is a member of the association, and the entertainment for the evening was provided by members of the association. There were several horrendous interesting bands that played lame nice covers of classic rock and roll. We were the only band with original tunes.

So, we didn't get to play a full length set or anything, but we did get to experience the venue from the stage. It was incredible. The sound was the best of any sound system I've ever played through. The stage crew was great. The audience loved us - especially after they all tossed back a few beers.

The only problem was, of course, with the drum set I was playing. It was a stage kit (not my own), and I just brought my snare, cymbals and kick pedal. The problem was that I didn't inspect the cymbal stands before we started playing. Our opening song which sounds sort of AC/DC-meets-Bon Jovi starts out with a punch to your face of cymbal crashes, kick drum and strong guitars. Well, I count off to start the song, hit the crash cymbal on the first note and the cymbal stand collapses. It was brass carnage. Fortunately we had stage hands there, so one of them ran out to fix it all for me - all while we were still playing the song. I don't think that the other guys even noticed what happened. I had to improvise a little since one of my cymbals and toms was out of commission, but it still sounded great. After that the night went off without a hitch.

Oh, how I long to be a rock star....