Gig/weekend report w/usual goofy-*ss pix

[Eric***]

I dunno - it's not that it's scary to rock out or what other people might think - it's just that it makes me personally feel stupid.

You know, I think you touched on some decent points in there as to why you are the way you are (practical, fear of failure, etc.), and I think there's something else that might be at play in all of this: cynicism. It's possible you don't want to really let loose or try because you're afraid of the judgment, which sometimes is a reflection of how you would view yourself or how you view others. I feel that a lot of the time, and a lot of your words sound familiar to me (well, except for the atheism part). I mean, you already kind of touched on it with the part about being afraid to commit yourself to something 100%.

Dunno. Just an idea. I like your idea of embracing the difficult times and the bad parts of life. It's too easy to forget the contrast and appreciate the present when you have been through crap, much less when you haven't. I think embracing things like loss, hardship, etc. really bring the blessings of life into focus that much more. It's something I'm trying to realize more as I get older, particularly now when life is kind of tough.

[Eric***]

Sorry to go all philosophical and drift from the original thread, BK. I think it's my lot in life to be a thread derailer.

[Brian Krashpad]

No worries Eric, I think it was very interesting. Have been super busy with work and the band or I'd have joined in.

I think people have to be natural on stage, For some people that entails standing stock still or whatever. Back in the day I certainly didn't move around the way I do now. I wasn't yet comfortable onstage at that point. That said, even at my first show ever I did a duckwalk, haha!

For me, I don't kid myself that what I'm doing is high art. Nor in my view was rock and roll ever meant to be. It's about cutting loose and having fun, or maybe cutting loose and getting angry, but either way I wanna see some abandon. I want a berserker. If I am onstage, that means I'm performing, and if I want anyone to give crap, there'd better be something there that distinguishes my performance from clicking on a file in an MP3 player, putting a CD in a changer, or putting a record on a phonograph. People can hear the music in those ways, but to me that's not the full rock and roll experience. I want something communal, something joyous, something wild. My favorite rockers bring that, and that is what I aspire to do.

[Katastrophe]

For me, I don't kid myself that what I'm doing is high art. Nor in my view was rock and roll ever meant to be. It's about cutting loose and having fun, or maybe cutting loose and getting angry, but either way I wanna see some abandon. I want a berserker. If I am onstage, that means I'm performing, and if I want anyone to give crap, there'd better be something there that distinguishes my performance from clicking on a file in an MP3 player, putting a CD in a changer, or putting a record on a phonograph. People can hear the music in those ways, but to me that's not the full rock and roll experience. I want something communal, something joyous, something wild. My favorite rockers bring that, and that is what I aspire to do.

Well put, Brian!

[sunvalleylaw]

I think people have to be natural on stage, For some people that entails standing stock still or whatever. Back in the day I certainly didn't move around the way I do now. I wasn't yet comfortable onstage at that point. That said, even at my first show ever I did a duckwalk, haha!

For me, I don't kid myself that what I'm doing is high art. Nor in my view was rock and roll ever meant to be. It's about cutting loose and having fun, or maybe cutting loose and getting angry, but either way I wanna see some abandon. I want a berserker. If I am onstage, that means I'm performing, and if I want anyone to give crap, there'd better be something there that distinguishes my performance from clicking on a file in an MP3 player, putting a CD in a changer, or putting a record on a phonograph. People can hear the music in those ways, but to me that's not the full rock and roll experience. I want something communal, something joyous, something wild. My favorite rockers bring that, and that is what I aspire to do.

Yep, lawyer rock hero! Giving it for the people! I hope to get into a performing situation some time where I can do some of the same. It doesn't need to be pretty or artistic or super skillful, but I would love to be able to give it up on stage and let it rock.

[Brian Krashpad]

Yep, lawyer rock hero! Giving it for the people! I hope to get into a performing situation some time where I can do some of the same. It doesn't need to be pretty or artistic or super skillful, but I would love to be able to give it up on stage and let it rock.

Go for it! So much fun.

As guitarists many of us obsess over our playing (OK, I don't but I'm old and set in my ways), and while it's good to do your best, you don't have to be EVH to put on a great show. From TH-SUN of this week (as opposed to last week, the subject of this thread), I had three public performances:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.ph...ics-of-course)

As crap of a guitarist as I am, I was easily the best guitarist at any of those performances (including other bands and my own bands). Which is unusual, haha! The bottom line is not how good a guitarist you are, it's whether the performance, in toto, is any good. Stage presence and song quality is way more important to most people than whether a band has a hotshot guitarist.

For example, of the 2 bands we played with Saturday night I didn't like the openers, liked the closers. Neither of them did anything particularly "involved" on guitar. But the second band had the more memorable songs. The first band also had the handicap of a "tortured artist" singer who was too over the top even for me (which is saying something). The guitaring simply wasn't an issue in my opinion of them.