Recuperating

The week before was a clusterfuck of trying to pull 7 people with disparate lives together to rehearse. When you’re already in a band together you create a rehearsal rhythm. When you haven’t been a band for over a decade the scheduling tends to make you want to pound your head against the side of a Marshall stack. We actually got only one rehearsal (at soundcheck) with the entire band together, everything else was piecemeal–each rehearsal was missing at least one member. In the three days beforehand Pete (Lord Roadkill) was calling the girls every hour to post a new update on who was going to be where. Rik Rocket stepped in a measly two days before to fill in on second guitar for our friend Esko who ended up not being able to make rehearsals (Esko was replacing Bobby Gustafson who lives in Florida and couldn’t get here this particular weekend). Rik blew us all away with his guitar prowess and ability to get the songs down so quickly, and he made us look just that much cooler onstage.

So we managed to get five songs together and were completely overwhelmed by the reception we received upon stepping onto the stage. The room at Delancey is the size of a postage stamp but the roar sounded like a stadium to me.Words can’t tell you how touched and grateful I am for the love that we received. The room was so jammed with old friends that it felt like a class reunion. Our former soundman and good friend Brian “Cycle Boy” Christian came in and made the room sound amazing, and as an extra treat my sister flew in to NYC for the weekend. So she and I got to hang and be silly (i.e., drunk) like we used to, which meant a lot to me. And my AOD crew was right up front along with all the fashion kids I work with at Patricia Field, most of whom had never actually been to a rock show and who were very excited to learn how to use the devil horns properly.

As for performing itself, it was an absolute ball. One of the cool things about getting older is that you tend to feel more grounded and “in the moment”. I was able to enjoy my friends onstage and my friends in the audience much more now than then. When I was a kid every show was a cause for panic. Now it’s like, who cares–I just don’t wanna look fat in the video! And we actually didn’t screw up, it went off without a hitch. I think we rocked the place pretty fucking hard and it was well worth the effort.

So thank you, thank you to my friends that were there and to everyone that sent good wishes, and hopefully now I’ll be able to plow through the pile of mail I’ve been ignoring for the last two weeks.