Softrock in Hardwick

Well, ok, School For the Dead isn't soft rock, but when else am I going to be able to use that? (we're proudly mediumrock).

Hey look, it's Klon from Klondike Sound (on the right) with Bill Friggin' Clinton!!! Dayamn!!

Well then, what happened at this show? I'll tell you what happened, that's why I'm here sweatin' my ass off tellin' you what happened!

Ok, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm counting to ten and starting again.

I picked up Henning and Max at Wrongways HQ on a Saturday marked by heavy drizzle. Heavy drizzle makes one thankful for intermittent windshield wipers. Not having intermittent windshield wipers because for some reason, one's wipers just decided to only work on the "superfast" setting, also makes one appreciate the intermittent setting. (note: since then, as mysteriously as they stopped working on all 3 speeds, my wipers started working just fine.)

So I pick them up. We stuff everything into the car sausage. It's delicious. I put the iPod on shuffle, and we're off. Damon Rd. Rt 9. Rt 47. Bay Rd. Rt 9 again. A stop to pee at the Sunoco. No bathroom. Henning buys a snack nonetheless. Directed to Dunkin Donuts. Pee. No snack. Running late. Through Belchertown, through Ware, take that left off rt 9 that leads to Hardwick. It's colder in that direction, and they seemed to have gotten slush snow when Noho just got rain.

We find our way to the familiar grounds of Eagle Hill School, where Mr. Westcott teaches. The brand new student center looks great. We're met by Tony, some of his students, and Klon from Klondike Sound. He's famous. He's a cooperative, soft-spoken man who's been around the world and back again thanks to his sound expertise. He loves what he does and understands that he, the room, the audience and the musicians are all parts of a whole, and if we all are harmonious, everyone goes home happy.

After loading in, we were shown a green room where we could hang. Ain't no time to hang. Barely time to sound check, woah oh... but we did. Come hear Uncle Ning's Band.
The room is small-ish, with about 20 round tables, and a balcony/catwalk type thing, from where, Henning sang "Dayjob". A gimmick, logically challenged, but it was fun.
We had two full shows ahead of us: one for students, one for the general public. First, the kids. A sold out extravaganza.

Max (I think) had the idea to go on one by one, but I was a bit wierded out by the thought of walking on and starting the beat, knowing the others weren't there. So Max and I went on first, started the "Thinking of a Time" intro, and waited for Henning and Tony. And waited.
After 3 hours of that intro, Max and I stopped and had dinner and broke up the band.
The End.

Joshing. I josh.

Show went quite nicely. The kids loved it, the Westcott offspring danced the night away, the Soup of the Moment survey was a hit, and yadda yadda.
When Henning introduced the band, he got to Tony and said "and I'm not even going to introduce this guy..."
"Henning!" an angry little voice yelled from 20 feet away. Hannah Westcott sat frowning, furrowed brow, arms folded. She didn't think that Henning ignoring her Dad was very funny at all. So Henning grounded her for 2 weeks.

Breaktime. Dinnertime at Green Room. Klon joined us and we talked and had a fun time. The food, the food. Amazing rolls, cheese tortellini, salad, asparagus, and some sort of steak tips or meaty some such. Cake that "tasted like Christmas", said Henning. He's so cute. I should just write down all the cute things he says.

Klon complimented us on our tightness and vocal arrangements. That's pretty high praise coming from him.

I drank a can of Coke. I probably drink one can of Coke every year and a half. Tonight was the night. I had coffee too.
I was desperately trying to rid myself of a dull sinusy headache that I'd had for about 24 hours.
Lo and behold, somewhere just before the second show, it went away.
Maybe it was the beer.

There was a bar set up in the foyer for the second show. max and I had a quick brewski and got ready to rock for the adults. (instapoll: do you say A-dults or a-DULTS?. I'm the latter.)

Second show was less nerve wracking. It was not quite sold out, but very close.
We did 2-35 min sets for the people. In between sets, a woman said "you know, you should try to look like you enjoy playing drums a litle more.." (sarcastic, because I was pretty smiley that second show, as I suddenly snapped out of headache/bummed out-ville)
I don't think we did the Dayjob balcony trick the second show, did we?

Show ended, we set down, hung around, and retired to the green room for a night cap and some further conversation.
I went to get my car and saw that it was disgustingly slushy, windy, rainy, you name it. Henning was gonna drive home to be safe.

We got paid, Henning took some cake, I took some beer and the ride home was slow and steady. We talked about literature and politics and sports.