JW - 8/26/2012

We had everybody at practice this time, and went over the first two sets (with some adjustments).  Sounded good this time.  A couple of songs hit that particularly good groove that only happens when everybody gets everything right.

Since we went over most of the same songs as we did for the vocal session, we were able to see whether or not the changes stuck.  Results were mixed, to be honest, though I'd say there was improvement overall.  I know I messed up a couple of times, getting my part right by the end of songs after making some mistakes first.  It's one of those things we're going to have to keep working on.

"The Boys Are Back in Town" continues to shape up, with the guitars tightening up each time.  While we were playing a recording of the song for other reasons, I noticed an alteration I need to make to the bass part to make it work better with the drums.  Subtle, but it matters.

We'll have seven songs we didn't play in the last show for the next one.  Not quite as many as I'd hoped, but it's still enough to let the audience know there will be new material if they come to see us more than once.  We touched on "Lights" by Journey again, but it's a toss up as to whether or not it will come together quickly enough for us to play next time.  I'm not terribly concerned with that, since if we don't add it this time, that's one more new song for the next time.

Really congested again this time, which didn't help my singing.  It's my own fault, since I was feeling good and undermedicated early last week, and I haven't been able to clear up since then.

Andy brought another different guitar, this time one that was never sold in the U.S., just Japan and Europe.  When someone who owns that many guitars tells you that this was the best he has ever played, you pay attention.  Sounded good to me, though I was paying more attention to what everyone was playing than the tone of one particular instrument.  We won't be hearing it on a regular basis, though, because it's also a partiuclarly heavy guitar and hard on the player's back after a few songs.  Wish I could remember the brand, but it's slipping my mind at the moment, so I guess I wasn't paying that much attention after all.  :-)