|
I signed up two months ago to participate in the Weekend Warrior program at Zeagler’s music in Baton Rouge.
Weekend Warriors is a program that connects amateur musicians that aren’t in bands but like to rock in their garage and want to try to take the leap to a one night live show.
In my case I signed up with 3 nephews Chopper, Dago and Freaky John. Zeagler’s hooked us up with Roy and Tim.
We practiced eight weeks and sharpened our musical skills to rival the edge of a dull rusty garden hoe.
In reality, during practice, we actually played the songs we chose with a respectable resemblance of what they were supposed to sound like. That is to say a person could recognize at least the name of the songs by listening to us.
The big event happened at Phil Bradys Blues Bar on Government Street.
We named ourselves ‘LA REBELS’ and named the night,“Let the Bleedin’
Begin Tour”.
We arrived at 8pm and were to start playing at 10pm. Since we had two hours to kill we proceeded to act like rock stars. We took shots, drank beer and partied with the 30 some odd family and friends that came to support our effort.
Let it be known we all had arranged to have designated drivers. Also let it be known this is when the ‘LA REBELS’ started to make all the mistakes an inexperienced band may do.
First, one of our guitarist decided to drink a pint of whiskey before he got to the club. He then proceeded to get Axel Rose drunk.
Second, the singer decided to tune the guitars down a half step. Now I know this works in theory but we had trouble playing songs in tune much less playing them out of tune.
We stumbled on stage and plugged in. The concert was on. The fans began to scream but not for us. The feedback from the microphones was piercing everyones ears.
It was time to start our 10 song set. It was loud and we were about to rock.
To start we played some Lynard Skynard, ZZ Top,and Grand Funk Railroad. We were on a roll. Everyone seemed to be having fun. You could almost imagine all those fans screaming weren’t our mothers, brothers and girl friends.
We then worked through some songs from Mountain, Jimi Hendrix and Metallica.
Our last two songs we were to play are in Drop D tuning. As we tuned down a string our lead guitarist’s guitar broke. He was handed a guitar from back stage. Now he is playing a drop D song in standard tuning when all of the other guitars were tuned down a half step. Needless to say the song sucked and we were asked to leave the stage.
Like a real rock band. We were kicked off the stage. We got roaring ass drunk and stunk up the room. It was great!!
As we departed the stage Chopper asked me, “When are we playing Sharp Dressed Man?” I said, “2 songs ago.”
|
Contact Us
