I've had a long, troubled history with trying to start a rock band.
In junior high, I made my first failed attempt at starting a ska band. We were going to call ourselves Wal Toed Hailuem, which is, of course, an acronym for We All Love the One-Eyed Doll Head and It Loves Us Even More. (Don't blame me, the name was Mike's idea.) We wrote a few songs. Well, they probably weren't really songs, but they seemed like it to us at the time. We had a lineup, although they didn't all know they were in the band. (Kordik was going to play bass even though I didn't really know him and had only met him once at Mike's birthday party in seventh grade.)
There were a couple practices in my living room and garage, but the thing never took off.
The idea kind of fell by the wayside until about junior year of high school, when I tried to start another band. It was made up of myself, Mike, Nick Janowski on bass and Dave Burke. And I think Nick Pulikowski was supposed to play keyboard. We practice a couple times in Nick J.'s basement. We were maybe going to play a show at a graduation party, but that didn't happen. The band died out after that. We also didn't really have any songs. And this time, I don't think we even had a weird name.
The last failed attempt was attempt seemed like it was the one. We had a pretty solid lineup. Myself and Mike splitting the duties on drums and percussion. Kordik on bass. And best of all, we had Matt Good. He could sing and play guitar and recorded his own music in his basement. We even had a name: Numo. But again, we didn't really have any songs. We almost had a show at Enchanted Castle, but we backed out because we were too nervous (and didn't have any songs to play). Our name even appeared on an add for the show in Skyline.
My interest in being in a band, while it never really went away, remained dormant for most of college. But it's be reawakened.
On Saturday, I played my first gig ever. Matt Good agreed to play at High Anxiety Music Label Launch Show. And he needed a back-up band. So I worked my connections (asked my brother) to get the gig as his drummer. And it was awesome. I didn't play my best and we didn't have that much time to practice, but it was still tons of fun. And I got to play at the Canopy Club.
And now I want to be in a band again.
SONGS OF THE MOMENT:
"You Know Where I'll Be" - Conrad
Opening day is tomorrow for the Cubs, and once again, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior won't be there for it. I want to be optimistic about the team's prospects for this season, but I don't really know what to think. They spent tons of money in the of season, so it will be interesting to see where it gets them.
I'm just excited to have baseball back.
SONG OF THE MOMENT:
Running to Stand Still - U2