Hey, maybe this should just be for Hello Whirled stuff in general. Not just commentary about old albums. That would be healthy. Anyway, I have 3 shows left to play this month. For the next one (tomorrow), I accidentally recruited a drummer (well, not accidentally, but someone came to me asking to play and I said “ok”). I picked 5 songs for him to learn because, at the time, it was going to be a secret set.
Today I learned that an act had to drop the show, so we became a proper set. I added 5 more songs to the set, all new, that the drummer (who I should identify as John, the keyboard player in Sore Winner, and a former coworker of mine) didn’t know. The show is still tomorrow. Things could go well. However, if only to sort of speak my thoughts out loud, I’m nervous. Why?
I’m going to the venue (a basement in Audubon, NJ) right after work. I’ll be in Audubon early, but going home first is just gonna take too much time. I’m fine using someone else’s guitar, but it’s definitely not something I’m used to doing (although I have done it a few times).
What this whole post is about: I was starting to become more worried about nailing “You Hold Your Ax Like A Bronze Medal” because it goes in so many directions that memorizing the chords and chord changes was a nightmare for the longest time. Yesterday, I said “fuck it” and wrote down the chord changes on the lyrics sheet. No one cares as long as it’s played well. I ran through the song once (with the original bass and drums as a makeshift backing track) and stuck the landing, so I’m less worried about that one now. It turns out actually doing something is less stressful than thinking about doing it. Wow!
The last-minute decision to add 5 new songs to the set was a bold one. No clue how that’s gonna go. John doesn’t know those songs right now, but they don’t have drum patterns in place so he could play anything and it would be fine. It’s a good thing all the new songs are short, as are all of my new songs for a while.
It helps to write things down. It also helps that Substack isn’t blocked on my work internet, so I can do all this at my job. Maybe it’ll help. It’s cheaper than therapy.