Carnivore Party

What you ask? This was what made me lose sleep the night before-- a once a year party (my first) that I would be playing for in front of some old USM friends and a huge number of people I didn't know.

How did it go? The lead singer, Gerry Shannon called it a "train wreck". But we did pull off a great rendition of "Here I go again" by Whitesnake!

Basically, we had 2 sets planned with 10 songs each going from Ska with trumpets to punk rock and hardcore music (I hate labels). I knew a few of the songs but these were versions I didn't know. I was the only one working from a notebook that had improper keys and none of the dramatic "stops" listed.

Here I am with an 80's monster guitar (made of several parts). That got some attention. I couldn't get the sound write with my B-52 amp and the pickups currently in this guitar are less than caviar-- little sustain and tone.

So eventually, after some great natural food and seasoned meats, we got to play... I do want to mention that the crowd was of the college grad, intellectual, role-playing (you say Geek) variety-- perfect! Great food, great conversations, and the music could be considered an experiment!

Our mistakes were just not knowing tempos, who should come in first, and what chord went where. Reel Big Fish have some easy songs-- we only played one of those, then we played the songs that shift the chord structure. My jazz backing couldn't help since bass and piano looked at me for harmonies. Someone kept telling me to turn up, then turn my amp, then turn it back. I hated the tone and it became a mess. Well, in the end it is all documented-- but please don't look for it.

A student of mine did play a great rendition of "Careless Whisper" on sax-- just the theme over and over like 15 times.

The strap on my guitar ( as high as it can be) is still too long so I had to put my foot on a paint bucket for leverage. That must be fixed!