Thursday, January 30th, 2003
By The Time It Gets Dark
Tonight was our first full band practice in, oh, three months? The last time I even saw Laura was in October sometime. To say we’ve been on a bit of a ‘break’ is an understatement. No matter – tonight was the whole crew. Laura’s work and school schedule should allow her to make most practices, which means we can actually properly arrange the songs for the people and instruments that’ll be playing them. How novel! Playing with her keys and backing vocals really fills things out, and allows me to hand off parts that would sound better not played by guitar. That’s right, it allows me to play less, and that suits me fine.
I have officially lost my slide, it wasn’t at the rehearsal space and it’s not at home. I tried to compensate at practice by using the edge of a 9-volt battery. It actually worked better than I expected, but I’m still going to have to buy a proper slide at the earliest opportunity. Leaving me around 9-volt batteries is dangerous, I always have the urge to lick the terminals. Other radical new techniques I tried tonight was playing one tune completely pick-less. All fingers! Not any fancy Travis picking or anything, just thumb and forefinger plucking. Sounded surprisingly good and definitely suits the song.
Funniest moment of the evening – the band next door was going to town on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” just as we were trying to run through our quietest number. It was impossible to start, they were so loud. Naturally, the only thing to do was to break through the wall between us, charge into their room and strike illing poses. It would have been classic, if only the microphone stand had been tough enough to smash through the wall. Alas.
Got my copy of Yo La Tengo’s Little Honda mini-album in the mail. I could spend the rest of my life listening to Yo La Tengo do covers. I can’t wait for the show in April.
np – Yo La Tengo / Painful
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