JW - 8/30/2012

Everybody on board for a rare Thursday night practice, though we're also going to practice the next two Thursdays due to everyone having other obligations at the same time we have an upcoming show.  Not much to say about this session, and probably nothing much for the next two, as I'm sure we'll be focused on polishing up "The Boys Are Back in Town" and the planned set lists for the 9/29 show rather than adding anything new.

Individually we played well enough, and it was a joy to play again after a terrible week at work, but we seemed to have problems keeping track of the structure of some songs, especially those we haven't played for a while.  Group vocals sounded pretty good on the whole.

Dale has been moving some songs around on the set lists, which is a Good Thing.  "Boys" will almost certainly open a set, but I think the guitar players are concerned about opening the night with something relatively technically challenging.  The problem with putting it too late in the night is that we'll play it best when we are least tired, so it really should lead off the first or second set.

Journey's "Lights" is still a bit of an outside chance to make the 9/29 list.

I played the Rick through most, if not all, of the session, because that's just how that set list happened to work out.  The guys were asking why I hadn't been bringing "my little friend" (the Ashbory).  The reason is that I wanted to work the Rick into what we were doing, which I've now done. 
I don't really need the third bass.  Strictly speaking, I don't need two, though there are a few songs particularly suited to each of those two, and I really like having a back-up in case of catastrophe.  The Ibanez and the Rick both sound at least okay on everything I play with JW.  The problem with the Ashbory is that it either suits a song or it doesn't.  I'd still like to use it here and there because I like the unusual look of it for stage purposes, and it really does have a unique sound.  I'll play around with it again once we're past the upcoming show.