No judging my choice of fuel for the show last night!! That waffle friggin’ rocked 🙂
As silly as this will sound, getting to finally play Shortways Barn in Hawthorne was truly awesome. Yes I toured with TM Stevens and accomplished great things but why am I so happy to have played this room? I always liked the vibe, and it looks like it was renovated. The floors and tables looked new.
Best part? It was 14 minutes from my house!
I will explain the title of this blog later. But for now, let’s dive in to my debut performance at this place, shall we? Good crowd, lots of energy, and have to say that my guitar tone was BEEFED up due to the hardwood floors. I had my amp on a milk crate (so punk!) to alleviate the bottom end from being swallowed up. Dialed in the right amount of delays to let the notes bounce around. Rubber Duckie Riot sounded really good too, and I have to give the singer Jay a lot of kudos. He was getting over a fever and dealing with a toothache but he powered through the show like a champ. Bravo!! He had guest singers come up to do some numbers so he could chill, and three different bass players came up to jam out. One was from Kentucky! He did “For Whom The Bell Tolls” with us and it rocked!!!
And people seem to like when we do heavier music 😉 Isn’t that peculiar! Threw down Sabbath, Ozzy, Metallica, RATM, Limp Bizkit, Dope and Papa Roach alongside the more traditional covers that every band basks in. As one person told me last night, “You really come alive with the heavy shit!”
Guilty as charged!
So what is with the title? Okay here we go…
After the show, the drummer Myke paid me some nice compliments and I said “I always bring my A-game.” To which he replied “I do too but it’s not like we’re playing the Garden, it’s Shortways.” Well, I had to say that I treat EVERY gig like it’s MSG. Nobody will see me stand there and do the “dad pose” (tap my foot all night and stare at the ground). Nobody will hear sloppy playing, and I always make sure to dial in the right sounds or close to them. Nothing worse than people looking at each other going “WTF song is this?!” No going through the motions with me, that’s for sure. I ain’t bragging…I can back my words up. Whether I am doing my own songs, or juggling Tom Petty and Sabbath, I can walk away knowing I did a great job.
Did I play my best last night? I played well, some parts eluded me but the most important thing is that I make the band sound good. I flubbed some stuff and had to learn the piano part on the spot for “Don’t Stop Believin'” but that’s the beauty and chaos of live performance. If the crowd responds in kind, that’s all that counts.
And as I was packing my car up, this little fella wanted to roadie for me…
Was a nice surprise to see this mantis hanging on the back window. I opened the trunk and it didn’t move. I said “You can hang there, it’s cool with me.” It was like the universe saying “Ya done good, Bello. Now enjoy your break!”
And how!
