DFW Drums Blog

Mike's blog of things relating to Dallas/ Ft. Worth's Live Music Community and especially Drums!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

No one to blame but me...

It's a typical Saturday and I'm just knocking around the house nothing on the agenda, except for some pre-season football on TV (yawn). Then the phone rings. Unfamiliar number. I answer. The voice on the other end asks if I would be interested in coming over for a jam. I think, but not too seriously. "I'm not saying no, but I would like to know more about what you're doing".
He tells me there is an e-kit set up for me, that this is a regular bunch of guys, pretty close to where I am, gonna jam to some tunes from Woodstock seeing this is the 40th anniversary. I ask him to send me a list of tunes and he does, only a fraction of which I have heard before.
I write him back and say I'd like to jam, (since I'm not real interested in Seattle at San Diego) but I just don't know the songs. "That's OK", he says, "we don't either and will just kinda plug away."
That might be cool. It is close, there's a kit there already. Sounds like a bunch of guys that just wanna have some fun. It might be cool.
I get there and everything is cool. Nice people, nice house, the kit is very small... a TD-6. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to monitor and how to edit in the TD-6. I only bring a throne and some sticks and I don't even set up the throne, choosing to use the one on the kit.
The first thing they want to do is something by "The Band"...not a big fan. I didn't follow them at all. But it is straight down the middle and I'm just tapping out a rhythm. No one seems to mind. I wonder if they hear me at all. the song finishes and no one says anything about anything, so I presume they're happy with just about anything I do. This will be good, since they continue to play song after song after song that I've never heard before in my life.
I continue along with this progression and after about an hour, I'm starting to work on my escape plan. It turns out no plan is needed.
Someone is singing a "hippie" song from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young" or some such and replaces a line near the end by singing "..and Obama is all to blame".
That's it for me. I threw my sticks in the bag, got up, said a few good-byes and made for the door like a thief in the night.
Where does one go to enjoy themselves without someone ramming politics down my throat?