Vallejo

The morning and early afternoon on Tuesday were spent in an exhausting search of the internet for contacts, open mics and locations. After nearly five hours I prepared to collapse into a fitful nap for an hour or so. As I turned off the computer the screen saver came on. A rectangle with the words “No Signal” that bounced around the screen in a rhythmic fashion. As the bouncing started a car with it’s bass booming pulled up on the street in front of the house and idled there for nearly a minute. I watched fascinated as the bass and the bouncing rectangle keep perfect beat until the car drove away.

After resting and eating the second to last piece of lasagne I climbed in the car and even at seven in the evening was able to enjoy a bit of twenty mile per hour stop and go on the interstate for ten or more miles. Do people really do this every day?

In an effort to save my voice I decided that I should listen to music instead of practicing. All of the cd’s were carefully selected to fill a book before I left so my method of music choosing is to reach in and blindly (with out looking) pull a cd from the case and install it in the player. It took many attempts to find one that would play. I think that our cd player in the car is starting to tell us what music it wants to listen to. Finally, “Steal This Album” by System of a Down played. Good choice, I said to the player. I took the exit for Vallejo, the town where Tuesday night’s open mic was held, and as I pulled up to the intersection the traffic lights were flashing in a strange fashion, as if they didn’t have long to function properly. Then I noticed the light that was flashing slowly was matching the bass drum of the song and the light that was stuttering at high speed matched the guitar lick. Cool! Kind of like multiples of 11, a sign that things are going the way they are supposed to.

The other day I commented to my sweet wife that it was fun singing at these shows but I was focusing on my hardest hitting songs for each one, that meant a lot of repeats. I told her it would be nice to sing a longer set and share some of the other pieces. Tonight would be just that night. The MC and I waited a full half hour past start time to begin. We alternated sets for the three people at the bar in the other room. I got my request. Maybe I should be a little more clear in what it is that I want next time.

Set list: Grey Haze, we’ve WON!, Day of the Warrior, Ask Them to Leave, Purge, Stand