We had a show at Rock City last weekend. Despite all the problems, it was a blast! My bass went out during the second song. It was a problem with my instrument cable. Jared lends me one of his and it doesn't work either! This made me second guess my theory and start ripping shit outta my rack to just go direct. Anyways, I never recovered.
We get set up in the garage, i hook it up, and find the problem was originally as thought. Jared unknowingly lent me a broken cable! What're the chances of THAT. Cool thing is.. in practice, he thought his pedal was going out.. but it was just the cable. We cut our set short, but it ended up working out because the show was running 45 minutes behind because the sound guy didn't show up on time. Even with my bass going in and out, we won Rockstar Ending Competition - ANGERKILL vs DEADPOOL round 1! Doctura even got up in that shit... ya just can't beat "Eye of the Tiger"..(yes,we did). We ended up getting really drunk that night. By the end of the night, Jared and I were chugging Limon 7 (sal con limon packets we got from La Michoacana across the street). Lame! It was a lot of fun for me because I finally got to go to a show with the guys instead of showing up late, leaving early. Our baby is now 8 months old, totally weaned and sleeping through the night. Anyways, Rockstar Ending Competition round 2: AK vs DP commences on May 12th! I have a feeling we're gonna have some stiff competition that night. I saw the flash of determination in Guitarlos' eyes.... anyways, thank you, as always, to everyone that went to the show.
There's not much to report besides getting ready for studio still - it's almost time! We're moving along.. trying to get Jared to write all of his parts. Man.. lemme tell ya. He is a very indecisive writer just like me.. and his parts are taking him a long time (like mine do) but I work at them more than he does so he has a lot more to go. Dave and I nagged him all last week to be here writing solos and it took him like 3 hours for one solo.. but that shit sounds GREAT! Absolutely reaching full potential. We were sitting in the jamroom last night until 2:30 or so just listening to the solos on "Signs of a Storm". It went like this: "rewind it, Jen. I RULE! rewind it, Jen. I RULE! rewind it, Jen".. well, you get the idea. I always told him he could write badass solos!!
We got a call Monday night from a local producer about going into Melody Ranch for some free studio time as a learning session for some recording students. Hell yeah, we took it! I had 48 hours to finish up basslines for this song, but they're done. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous though - we played it for the first time together yesterday - and it wasn't even full band. We didn't have a sitter so I went in and did my parts with Frank and Jared and Dave watched the kids, then Dave went in there, Frank played my bass and I watched the kids.. but we still have yet to play it all together. We're doing an acoustic song, named "Abrasions", that Jared wrote for our friend Jesse after the accident. I've always loved it.. even when I first heard it. The irony of it all... we had a birthday party for Jesse after he passed here at our pad.. and Jared played the song. I recorded it on video to send to Jesse's brother in Iraq (not that I ever transferred it to file.. computer problems) and a friend of ours, Krystal, says on the tape "you guys better not take it!" Well, it's an AK song now! We had no idea back in 2001 that Jared would be in the band, much less that we'd all be recording that song.
Jared and I had a great night last night. After practice, he went with Frank to have some drinks, then Frank dropped him back off here where Dave, our friend big Lou and I were sitting in the garage (where I was writing my basslines). Kids were way asleep by then so we had the monitor out there just bullshitting. Jared came back and I stayed talking to him until about 2:30 about all sorts of stuff.. all of it therapeutic. We got to talking about just how amazing it is that we're all together.. and what a perfect fit he is for the band and how close we've all become. I told him he is "perfect for the band.. (the pessimist in me) unless he stops caring". He looked straight at me and said he never would. I believe him. In the past, we've become good friends with the 4th member of the band.. but not like this. This is always what we strived to attain - total equality, complete faith - and it's here! 6:30 and we'll be recording our first stuff as ANGERKILL.
Back to listening to those basslines. I don't want to look like a fool tonight.
Jen
