Lots of Rockin’

Screamin' at Miso'sLast weekend was pretty busy for me. Not because of the holiday stuff. If Jenn would let me, I’d probably just pretend Christmas didn’t exist. No, last weekend was busy because I played a gig on Friday the 21st with my band Six Five Nine. Then on Saturday, Six Five Nine had another gig opening for a local band named Gone Shootin’. Oh, and did I mention that I also play in Gone Shootin’? And on top of playing guitar, I also provide the PA system, so a simple 4 hour gig is actually 8 hours of loading equipment, transporting equipment, unloading equipment, setting up equipment, playing for 4 hours, tearing down equipment, loading equipment, transporting equipment, and finally unloading equipment at home. If I didn’t love playing so much, the extraneous work wouldn’t be worth what we get paid for it.

But I do love playing!

Here’s a video of us playing on the 21st. This is our first time playing out as a band as well as Jessica and Bill’s first time playing out period.

More videos are available on our band’s website.

Playing out for the first time in years

Our first gig poster!

I’ve been playing guitar with my neighbor Ken and his friend Chuck since I moved in across the street 5 years ago. Within the past few months, we finally decided that we need to step up our efforts and go play some live shows. I convinced Tim Parish, an old friend of mine from high school, to come and play bass with us. Ken and Chuck got their friend Don to come and belt out some vocals. And voila! We had a 5 piece.

We’ve been playing every weekend for months now and our first bar gig is rapidly approaching. We’re opening up for another local band called Skurvy Dogs. Chuck was their former guitar player, and Don is their drummer presently. They’ve agreed to let us play a short set before they take the stage this Saturday night. Our name, for this gig anyway, is “Gone Shootin’.” It was chosen by Don at Random without really consulting us, so it’ll likely change by the next time we play out.

If you can make it out, we’ll be taking the stage (and I use that term loosely) at 10:00pm on Saturday night at a place called Crow Bar at 4001 East 106th Street in Chicago. (It’s on the far east side just over the border from Whiting, Indiana) I’m really looking forward to the show, as this is the first time that I’ve played out in a public place since I was in high school!

Hope to see you there!