9.12.09 NWJ practice noon to 3pm…
Practice went well ... we figured out a few things…
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Choosing Songs for the Relay for Life Setlist Rules
1. The six member of NWJ all have one vote per song.
2. Each member also have one “force” and one “veto” for the Relay for Life Setlist.
3. If a member elects to use their “force”, that means the song will be practiced and inserted into the Relay for Life Setlist.
4. If a member elects to use their “veto”, that means a song that had previously been voted on and inserted into the Relay for Life Setlist will be removed.
5. We move forward with practicing and including a song into the Relay For Life Setlist if:
5a. 6 members vote yay.
5b. 5 members vote yay. If five members vote yay, that song cannot be vetoed.
5c. 4 members vote yay. If four members vote yay, the other two members may elect to use their veto. If they do not elect to veto the song, it will be practiced and inserted into the Relay for Life Setlist.
Note:
I’d recommend that if you are not planning on singing the song you “force”, you should clear it first with the singer you had in mind, so that they’re not put into a position where they have to sing a song they really don’t like or wouldn’t care about performing well.
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We tentatively picked 4 songs we’d like to practice and insert into the Relay for Life Setlist.
They are:
I Wanna Rock and Roll all Nite, KISS
Just Like Heaven, The Cure
Don’t Stop Believing, Journey
Smooth Criminal, Michael Jackson/Alien Ant Farm
We’ll see how things go moving forward, we have a saying where I work in design. It’s “Don’t fall in love with your lines.” Meaning that whatever we come up with is possibly subject to change, so if everyone can stay flexible we should be good.
Anyways, we should be practicing those 4 songs, as well as staying sharp on the previous songs we performed we wanted to keep in our repertoire, but not necessarily perform at RFL 2010.
I'll post those songs we chose soon.
Oh yeah, we also practiced A Million Lives for the first time.
It's a song that I wrote that Ryan developed the chords for. It went pretty well. It was good that I printed out the song with some of the chords we had figured out on them for everyone.
We basically went 4 drum clicks and just came in with the guitar and words. After the 4th time playing it, we had some stop/starts down in the chorus as well as some drum fills.
There was some time in the practice when Ryan was trying to figure out what direction we should take the chords in while Joel was just practicing the chords we had. Not sure if it's better to try and figure them on the fly or in-between practices. It's probably a little bit of both. At the very end, at Annalisa's suggestion, they took the chords up a step and a half. So I think it went from G to Bb. That led to some high harms being discovered easily in the verses. Ryan also said he had a lead on a few chord builds. J will be key in developing fills between verses and chorus. He's basically the only one that can do it. I need to figure out what I want to do on the bass. Overall, it went fairly well... we'll see I guess.
Next practice is in 3 weeks.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Are we gonna let the band die? No Way Jose!
I will have music in my life regardless of what we do as a group.
But being able to make music with all of you is a rare pleasure and honor.
It makes me want to practice very hard so that I can pull my weight and the group can put forth it's collective best effort.
The fact that a large portion of our effort can be geared towards Relay For Life and the fight against cancer is also very humbling and inspiring.
Isaiah's got soccer practice, so the earliest I can be there is looking like noon... so let's say we'll have practice from noon to 3pm.
Oh yeah, I spoke to Ryan and he said it was still okay to practice at his place.
I also spoke to J and he said that he thought we should brainstorm song ideas, figure out a process for picking songs, and maybe go over some older songs we'd like to keep around.
I spoke to Rob and Dana also just now and they both said they were still interested in participating. I emphasized the fact to them that if they want to feel involved and ownership over the group, they will need to assert themselves to carve out their own niche, and find the holes and fill the roles. I feel like that needed to be said because none of us really have the band background or mastery of their own instrument to work on their own responsibilities as well as give direction and responsibility to someone else.
So actually it's the same with all of us, we get out of this, whatever we put in.
It's also important I think to not get frustrated or lose patience. This endeavor should be fun and rewarding, but we have many years to learn about each other and how we work best together, so if things aren't going exactly how we envisioned, I'd encourage us to just stay with it, and eventually over time, the roles, responsibilities, and feeling of ownership will manifest.
Right now, it'd probably be best for all of us to brainstorm song ideas mostly geared toward the Relay For Life event or possibly even a fundraiser Relay For Life concert. I would also like to put it out there that as we move forward, we're shaping the lives of the babies that are watching us. I've spoken it over with Gary, and we can't be on board if the songs we choose have lyrics that are morally compromising or too sexual in nature. Unfortuneately, this cuts out about 85% of every rock song written... but as I listen to each song over and over in the car with Isaiah and Ethan listening and memorizing every word, I just can't expose them too much to adult concepts and mature phrases or they'll get confused. Much more confused that is than they already are. I know it's a potentially debilitating restriction, but I think if we all put in the effort to root out the perfect songs for the group, then we'll have a product that will be positive and that many families would be willing to get behind and support. So please keep all that in mind as we brainstorm.
A note on timing:
We are at the beginning of September. I've been cleared to practice with the group once every three weeks for 3 hours. May sounds far away, but it's not.
That puts our practice dates at: 9/12/09, 10/3/09, 10/24/09, 11/14/09, 12/5/09, 12/26/09, 1/16/10, 2/6/10, 2/27/10, 3/20/10, 4/10/10, 5/1/10, 5/22/10
That's 13 group practices before the end of May when we'll probably have to perform at Relay.
Last year's Relay For Life setlist looked like this:
1. Fight For Your Right
2. Hard to Handle
3. In Bloom
4. Creep
5. Wherever You Will Go
6. Big Me
7. Accidentally in Love
8. Talk Dirty To Me
9. Hey Jealousy
10. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
11. Basketcase
encore - Lose Yourself
J's Concert consisted of 20 songs broken up into 3 three sets.
7 songs in the first set, 7 in the second, 6 in the last.
They looked like this:
Set 1
1. Fight For Your Right
2. In Bloom
3. Big Me
4. Hey Jealousy
5. Wherever You Will Go
6. All I Want
7. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Set 2
1. In The End
2. Creep
3. Hard to Handle
4. The Way I Am
5. Accidentally In Love
6. Lose Yourself
7. Chasing Cars
Set 3
1. Living On A Prayer
2. Talk Dirty To Me
3. Summer of '69
4. Kiss Me
5. Home
6. Basketcase
So again, 13 group practices to have approximately 20 songs memorized and mastered is no small feat. Again, a lot of individual work will need to be done on our own. Collective brainpower will need to be put in before each group practice to make sure we're maximizing the efficiency of our time and still having lots of fun.
The best way to get a lot of work done and decisions made while we're away from each other is over email. That way we have written record and history of our decisions and thought processes. So, please try and sound enthusiastic and stay engaged over email. Another tool we'll be using is the Google Spreadsheet. Both email and the Google Spreadsheet were extremely valuable in keeping Gary engaged and involved. You all know how much Gary brings to the table, so even if there is a remote chance of having him for Relay or the fundraiser concert, we should utilize email and Google Spreadsheet to give us a chance to stay organized and keep Gary in the loop.
Okay... I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all of you on Saturday at noon.... please reply to all and tell everyone that you received the email and your availability on Saturday...
love you guys....
e
below is a song suggestions email I fashioned shortly after last years Relay...
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We probably want an acoustic set to somehow play during the Relay.
We should probably brainstorm on how to get more All In team members involved.
For the most part, I’m picking high tempo songs that people will know with maybe some mid tempo songs interspersed. I think for Relay unless necessary we should avoid low tempo songs.
We should also think about slow to mid tempo songs we can do faster and rock out ie. Limp Bizkit - Faith
Or maybe put together a fun little game of Name That Tune for the crowd.
I’m also assuming Roby or Arvn will be available to work the mixing board when they’re not on stage.
We should also change the words whenever possible to customize it to the Troy Relay For Life.
Songs Dana mentioned she could sing:
Barracuda - ?
Warrior - ?
Don’t Stop Believing – Dana
Slow Songs I think we can rock out:
What’s Love Got to Do With It – Tina Turner
One Fine Day – Natalie Merchant
Madonna Songs
Michael Jackson Songs
Stevie Wonder Songs
I’m Gonna Be – The Proclaimers
Regret – Erasure?
Black Sheep
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
Hey Ya! – Outkast
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
It’s The End of the World – REM
Whip It – Devo
Senorita/Maria Maria –
Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
You Give Love A Bad Name – Bon Jovi
Jessie’s Girl
Mony Mony – Billie Idol
Brown Eyed Girl
I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night
Slower Songs I Like
Rock With You? – Heavy D and Brandy
Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees – Refugee All Stars
Rhythm of the Night
Bust-A-Move
Relax
Caribbean Queen
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m What I’m Looking For – U2
Vanilla Ice
Under The Bridge - RHCP
First attempt at a Feel Good, Rock Out, people dancing and singing along pump up set to get people excited about fighting cancer.
1. I’m Gonna Be
2. I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night
3. Give It Away
4. Let’s Go Crazy
5. Friday I’m In Love
6. In The End
7. Barracuda
8. Talk Dirty To Me
9. It’s the End of the World
10. Mony Mony
11. You Give Love a Bad Name
12. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
13. Bust A Move
14. Black Sheep
15. Hey Ya!
16. Warrior
17. Vanilla Ice
18. Don’t Stop Believing
19. Brown Eyed Girl
20. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
I will have music in my life regardless of what we do as a group.
But being able to make music with all of you is a rare pleasure and honor.
It makes me want to practice very hard so that I can pull my weight and the group can put forth it's collective best effort.
The fact that a large portion of our effort can be geared towards Relay For Life and the fight against cancer is also very humbling and inspiring.
Isaiah's got soccer practice, so the earliest I can be there is looking like noon... so let's say we'll have practice from noon to 3pm.
Oh yeah, I spoke to Ryan and he said it was still okay to practice at his place.
I also spoke to J and he said that he thought we should brainstorm song ideas, figure out a process for picking songs, and maybe go over some older songs we'd like to keep around.
I spoke to Rob and Dana also just now and they both said they were still interested in participating. I emphasized the fact to them that if they want to feel involved and ownership over the group, they will need to assert themselves to carve out their own niche, and find the holes and fill the roles. I feel like that needed to be said because none of us really have the band background or mastery of their own instrument to work on their own responsibilities as well as give direction and responsibility to someone else.
So actually it's the same with all of us, we get out of this, whatever we put in.
It's also important I think to not get frustrated or lose patience. This endeavor should be fun and rewarding, but we have many years to learn about each other and how we work best together, so if things aren't going exactly how we envisioned, I'd encourage us to just stay with it, and eventually over time, the roles, responsibilities, and feeling of ownership will manifest.
Right now, it'd probably be best for all of us to brainstorm song ideas mostly geared toward the Relay For Life event or possibly even a fundraiser Relay For Life concert. I would also like to put it out there that as we move forward, we're shaping the lives of the babies that are watching us. I've spoken it over with Gary, and we can't be on board if the songs we choose have lyrics that are morally compromising or too sexual in nature. Unfortuneately, this cuts out about 85% of every rock song written... but as I listen to each song over and over in the car with Isaiah and Ethan listening and memorizing every word, I just can't expose them too much to adult concepts and mature phrases or they'll get confused. Much more confused that is than they already are. I know it's a potentially debilitating restriction, but I think if we all put in the effort to root out the perfect songs for the group, then we'll have a product that will be positive and that many families would be willing to get behind and support. So please keep all that in mind as we brainstorm.
A note on timing:
We are at the beginning of September. I've been cleared to practice with the group once every three weeks for 3 hours. May sounds far away, but it's not.
That puts our practice dates at: 9/12/09, 10/3/09, 10/24/09, 11/14/09, 12/5/09, 12/26/09, 1/16/10, 2/6/10, 2/27/10, 3/20/10, 4/10/10, 5/1/10, 5/22/10
That's 13 group practices before the end of May when we'll probably have to perform at Relay.
Last year's Relay For Life setlist looked like this:
1. Fight For Your Right
2. Hard to Handle
3. In Bloom
4. Creep
5. Wherever You Will Go
6. Big Me
7. Accidentally in Love
8. Talk Dirty To Me
9. Hey Jealousy
10. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
11. Basketcase
encore - Lose Yourself
J's Concert consisted of 20 songs broken up into 3 three sets.
7 songs in the first set, 7 in the second, 6 in the last.
They looked like this:
Set 1
1. Fight For Your Right
2. In Bloom
3. Big Me
4. Hey Jealousy
5. Wherever You Will Go
6. All I Want
7. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Set 2
1. In The End
2. Creep
3. Hard to Handle
4. The Way I Am
5. Accidentally In Love
6. Lose Yourself
7. Chasing Cars
Set 3
1. Living On A Prayer
2. Talk Dirty To Me
3. Summer of '69
4. Kiss Me
5. Home
6. Basketcase
So again, 13 group practices to have approximately 20 songs memorized and mastered is no small feat. Again, a lot of individual work will need to be done on our own. Collective brainpower will need to be put in before each group practice to make sure we're maximizing the efficiency of our time and still having lots of fun.
The best way to get a lot of work done and decisions made while we're away from each other is over email. That way we have written record and history of our decisions and thought processes. So, please try and sound enthusiastic and stay engaged over email. Another tool we'll be using is the Google Spreadsheet. Both email and the Google Spreadsheet were extremely valuable in keeping Gary engaged and involved. You all know how much Gary brings to the table, so even if there is a remote chance of having him for Relay or the fundraiser concert, we should utilize email and Google Spreadsheet to give us a chance to stay organized and keep Gary in the loop.
Okay... I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all of you on Saturday at noon.... please reply to all and tell everyone that you received the email and your availability on Saturday...
love you guys....
e
below is a song suggestions email I fashioned shortly after last years Relay...
-----
We probably want an acoustic set to somehow play during the Relay.
We should probably brainstorm on how to get more All In team members involved.
For the most part, I’m picking high tempo songs that people will know with maybe some mid tempo songs interspersed. I think for Relay unless necessary we should avoid low tempo songs.
We should also think about slow to mid tempo songs we can do faster and rock out ie. Limp Bizkit - Faith
Or maybe put together a fun little game of Name That Tune for the crowd.
I’m also assuming Roby or Arvn will be available to work the mixing board when they’re not on stage.
We should also change the words whenever possible to customize it to the Troy Relay For Life.
Songs Dana mentioned she could sing:
Barracuda - ?
Warrior - ?
Don’t Stop Believing – Dana
Slow Songs I think we can rock out:
What’s Love Got to Do With It – Tina Turner
One Fine Day – Natalie Merchant
Madonna Songs
Michael Jackson Songs
Stevie Wonder Songs
I’m Gonna Be – The Proclaimers
Regret – Erasure?
Black Sheep
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
Hey Ya! – Outkast
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
It’s The End of the World – REM
Whip It – Devo
Senorita/Maria Maria –
Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
You Give Love A Bad Name – Bon Jovi
Jessie’s Girl
Mony Mony – Billie Idol
Brown Eyed Girl
I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night
Slower Songs I Like
Rock With You? – Heavy D and Brandy
Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees – Refugee All Stars
Rhythm of the Night
Bust-A-Move
Relax
Caribbean Queen
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m What I’m Looking For – U2
Vanilla Ice
Under The Bridge - RHCP
First attempt at a Feel Good, Rock Out, people dancing and singing along pump up set to get people excited about fighting cancer.
1. I’m Gonna Be
2. I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night
3. Give It Away
4. Let’s Go Crazy
5. Friday I’m In Love
6. In The End
7. Barracuda
8. Talk Dirty To Me
9. It’s the End of the World
10. Mony Mony
11. You Give Love a Bad Name
12. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
13. Bust A Move
14. Black Sheep
15. Hey Ya!
16. Warrior
17. Vanilla Ice
18. Don’t Stop Believing
19. Brown Eyed Girl
20. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Relay For Life Team All In Band - Lessons Learned
Okay… I just wanted to capture some thoughts on the night with respect to the band… any comments or feedback, negative or positive, from anybody would be very much appreciated as well as any general or specific thoughts from the band members should be captured, internalized, and we should grow from them…
10:30pm - Setup – Luminaria started at 10pm… roughly around 10:30pm we peeled off from the walk to start setting up…. 10:40pm was around when Kelsey let us start to bring equipment on the stage…
Ryan did a REALLY good job of labeling EVERYTHING and all that hard work paid big dividends for the RFL gig… and will pay even more dividends in the future….
Ryan took point and basically told everyone what to do from helping J set up, or organize cables, or help assemble mic stands, my set up was relatively simple, and so was Joel’s so we ended just doing whatever Ryan told us to do to help expedite. Setup still took a long time. From 10:40pm to about 11:40pm we were setting up. A little too long for my liking, but it was our first time, and there is definitely a learning curve.
11:40pm – Sound Check – Rob was surprised to learn that other than the ear monitors that, me, Ryan, Joel, and Dana have, there would be no monitors. This made it difficult on Rob, Dana, and Jon who didn’t have monitors to work with, but they got through it really well. For the concert, we’ll have monitors I think, so that won’t be an issue. Ryan did all the sound checks in his headphones. J, me, Joel, himself. I planned on doing part of Home to do a real sound check, but I was already tuned down for Fight For Your Right and we didn’t have time for me to tune, run home, then tune again for Fight. Ryan mentioned in retrospect that he forgot to tune his own guitar in all the madness. It should be noted that the night was beautiful with no rain. There were stars in the sky and some of the Luminaria bags were still lit for a nice candlelight effect. But it got very cold and by the time we were about to start, I couldn’t feel my fingers. Also, J plays his drums barefoot, so he must have been freezing with his feet on steel.
Midnight - We ran Fight and that was essentially our sound check because I think Roby needed to be turned up as well as Jon. Arvn was one of the main people who was paying close attention to how we sounded and gave very good feedback mid song as to what needed to happen. That was communicated to Ryan and he adjusted levels on the fly while having a large part of the lyrics. Now that I’m thinking about it, Arvn was so important in that first song and throughout the whole set. He’s a big guy that we can all see from stage, he’s good at getting our attention, he cares about how the music sounds, and he knows how most of the songs go inside and out, down to the nuances of the guitar solos. If he can be one of the main people to communicate with us from the audience AND if he knew how to manipulate the board so Ryan wouldn’t have to, that would be a huge asset. It would free up Ryan mentally where he could just worry about performing, and it would help ensure that the sound we’re putting out is quality. After they got the kinks out, the rest of the song went well. I stepped on my bass tuner twice in this song while moving around because it was behind me. Stepping on the tuner cuts my feed so I had to slide the tuner further back mid song. J did a good job stretching out the rock ending for me to tune for the Hard to Handle intro and vamp.
Hard to Handle Intro and Vamp – This I thought went well. Rob did a good job. J’s fill was the key to signal coming out of the vamp and into the song.
In Bloom – Clean and strong and fun to play. Vocals were excellent. But I heard a few comments that the slower pace of this song slowed down our momentum. It was cool to see so many people singing along though.
Creep – Also clean and well executed. I really enjoy the vocals where Ryan has no choice but to go for it. I also heard a few comments that because of the particularly slow pace of this song, that the crowd started to lose interest. Kind of makes sense since we were in a celebratory mood, and the song is slow and completely self-deprecating. I could see the energetic aura of the crowd dwindle significantly.
Wherever You Will Go – This song began the madness. The way that I saw it, when Joel started this song with the nice guitar picking, his lower strings were causing resonant frequencies somewhere in the system. J’s snare drum was adding to this issue but he was trying to stop it and I honestly think that was only 20% of the problem. I spoke to Gary afterwards describing the issue and he said that in his experiences what he would have done was have somebody turn down the lower to mid frequencies of Joel’s amp if it had an EQ. But this issue had a deep effect on the overall song as we were all visibly scrambling to make things right. To me that hurts because the beginning is so beautiful and the crowd did not get to experience how awesome the guitar picking was. Also, I’m not sure, but I think it was at this point that Ryan discovered that he might not be in tune since this was the first time he needed to play the guitar for a song. He had lead vocals on Fight, piano on Hard to Handle, and lead vocal on In Bloom and Creep. So he was looking down and tuning while Arvn was trying to send signals on what needed to be adjusted, I think he was hoping for Joel’s mic to be turned up. I was whispering to Ryan what Arvn wanted, but since Ryan can only hear what’s being spoken into the mics, he couldn’t hear me. So I eventually needed to kick his calf, communicate what Arvn wanted, and then he adjusted the board accordingly. This tells me that I really need to also know how to manipulate the board and gain Ryan’s trust in that I’m doing what’s right for the song based on visual feedback from the crowd. It also tells me that ear monitors are great but also rather detrimental when band members are trying to communicate by surreptitiously whispering on stage. Also the location of the sound board was based on proximity to the main mixer we were plugging in to. It could have easily been on the other side of the stage where it would have been up to Joel to see the audience cues and manipulate the board accordingly. This would all be remedied with a wise and dedicated sound man, but we don’t have that. Maybe Arvn could be that for the concert. Taking that responsibility off of Ryan’s plate will help him focus on just having to perform. But watching the other bands earlier in the day, none of them had sound people and they all had band members manipulating the board on the fly also. So we just have to be able to adapt to anything, and if there are people available to help, use them well.
Big Me – I thought this went well. Before the performance, J mentioned that he wanted to change the words, “.. I fell into..” that’s repeated a lot in the chorus to , “I’m All In too…” to just show that we were part of the All In Team. But, he forgot on the first chorus and I didn’t. But that reminded J and he did it on the next chorus but I thought he changed it back so I reverted and we were off again. That basically happened throughout the rest of the song, us switching on the fly and only singing it the same a couple times. We should probably say when there’s a mess up like that, that we should always default to what we’ve been doing in practice. J also mentioned that he was blanking on the words right before the song started. That’s when I’m happy we practiced so hard because really we need to be working from just muscle memory during the performances and allowing ourselves to adapt to different situations when possible.
Accidentally In Love – I thought this went well. Very very empty without the beginning piano and harmonies. Not sure if Ryan had to adjust my vocal levels at all. Handing the bass to Ryan was a little awkward because of all the wireless wires hanging about. He ended up just plugging in his wireless guitar input into my bass I think. I can’t quite remember now. Spencer said he’s never heard the song before. Mid song, I vaguely recall that my ear monitors fell out and dangled to the floor. I think Ryan picked them up for me and I ended up just holding the ear buds in my left hand while I sang the song in the mic in my right hand. I think for the concert I might tape the buds to my shirt so they don’t go too far if they fall out.
Talk Dirty To Me – This was a tragedy. Not in that the song didn’t go well, it’s just that when Joel had to switch to J’s tuned down guitar, he took J’s guitar out of the holder, then put his guitar in, but when he turned, his ear monitor wire caught the holder and pulled the guitar down. Joel picked up the guitar and holder and went through with the song. At this point in time, we didn’t know the extent of the damage.
The song overall went well I thought. The vocals were nice and J’s harmonies were nice. I can’t remember if Ryan may have come in early on the vocals for this, but I do remember J and I making eye contact and being a little confused.
Hey Jealousy – When Joel switched back for Hey Jealousy he showed me the scratch at the neck. I thought that it was just a scratch at that point. We got through the song well. I think the crowd liked it.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – At this point I’m not sure if Joel knew that his guitar neck was cracked. I think Ryan playing rhythm probably covered up the fact that Joel’s guitar might be getting slowly out of tune. I messed up the high harmonies very badly. I couldn’t hit them and it showed. Halfway through I just gave up on trying. I need to practice a LOT more before I could play and sing the harmonies well for that song. The notes are on the very edge of my range.
Basketcase – It was at this point we all discovered how badly broken Joel’s guitar was. His guitar went way out of tune because of the broken neck. Since he started the song alone and because we practiced it so much, we all could kind of tell. We got through the song and I think the crowd enjoyed it. I think all of the band was worried about Joel’s guitar though. This should have been the end of the set. We played 11 songs and that only brought us to 12:35am I think. It’s either we were rushing the songs which is likely based on adrenaline. Or we allotted too much time for intros. I was of the opinion that we should have gotten off the stage because I didn’t want to play Home, or All I Want, or Chasing Cars because they were too slow and we have a broken guitar. I think Joel mentioned that we should do Lose Yourself, the rest of the band agreed, and it was a great call.
Lose Yourself – All the kids knew the song and could sing along. Ryan did a really good job performing it. With some goading the kids came right up to the stage and yelled and screamed and jumped. When I got a little crazy jumping up and down, my ear monitors ripped out of the receiver and went flying. Afterwards, the crowd was fine with us not playing anymore.
Big Lessons Learned
Labeling everything is HUGE.
A reliable sound man would free up Ryan and be a big asset. We would need that person to assess what the mix needs and adjust the board accordingly. I think Arvn might be able to do this.
Protect our gear. I spoke to a co-worker today and he said that Epiphone would probably not help with Joel’s guitar. (Even though I think they should.) He also said that insurance would probably not cover it unless there was a specific rider. But that rider would probably cover the gear wherever it went. Hmm… Now that I think about it, maybe we should declare all band gear is Ryan’s, have him put it on his insurance, and pay him yearly…. Might be worth talking about if Ryan was down…
ALWAYS always have more songs ready to play for an encore.
We should have an acoustic set to play all throughout the day by the tent. Ryan made some money playing requests and not playing at all.
Eric Lessons Learned
Tape your ear buds to your shirt in case they fall out. Or something so they don’t just dangle to the floor.
Move your tuner far far away behind you so you don’t step on it.
On cold nights, have hand warmers in your pocket maybe so you can still feel your fingers and the strings.
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Relay For Life Setlist - MidnightEric Tuned Down
Fight For Your Right – Ryan, Rob, Jon
At rock ending, Eric Tunes to Regular Tuning
Hard To Handle Vamp and Intro
J Drum Starts
Rob thanks Jon and introduces band
When Rob says, “…. Team All In…”, instruments cut…
J starts Hard To Handle and instruments come in normally
Hard to Handle - Rob
In Bloom – Ryan, high harms - J
Creep - Ryan
Wherever You Will Go – Joel, high harms - Eric
Big Me – J, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Eric for Accidentally In Love….
I’m going to say something like, “Hey guys… my favorite lines from the song I’m about to sing is, ‘These lines of lightning mean we’re never alone, never alone’… They’re my favorite because they remind me in the fight against cancer that we’re all in this together, we’re not alone, and together we can beat this thing. I’m honored to participate in Relay with all of you and I’m proud to be a part of the best Relay in Michigan!”
Accidentally In Love - Eric
Intro Ryan for Talk Dirty to Me because Joel needs to switch to a tuned down guitar or needs to tune down
Talk Dirty to Me – Ryan, high harms – J, Dana’s in the hole (two songs away, she needs to be close to the stage)
Hey Jealousy – Ryan, Dana’s on deck (her song is next, she should be just off stage and ready to go)
Short Intro Ryan to Introduce DanaHit Me With Your Best Shot – Dana, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Ryan for Basketcase to thank Dana and also because I need to tune down my bass
Basketcase – Ryan, high harms - Eric
10:30pm - Setup – Luminaria started at 10pm… roughly around 10:30pm we peeled off from the walk to start setting up…. 10:40pm was around when Kelsey let us start to bring equipment on the stage…
Ryan did a REALLY good job of labeling EVERYTHING and all that hard work paid big dividends for the RFL gig… and will pay even more dividends in the future….
Ryan took point and basically told everyone what to do from helping J set up, or organize cables, or help assemble mic stands, my set up was relatively simple, and so was Joel’s so we ended just doing whatever Ryan told us to do to help expedite. Setup still took a long time. From 10:40pm to about 11:40pm we were setting up. A little too long for my liking, but it was our first time, and there is definitely a learning curve.
11:40pm – Sound Check – Rob was surprised to learn that other than the ear monitors that, me, Ryan, Joel, and Dana have, there would be no monitors. This made it difficult on Rob, Dana, and Jon who didn’t have monitors to work with, but they got through it really well. For the concert, we’ll have monitors I think, so that won’t be an issue. Ryan did all the sound checks in his headphones. J, me, Joel, himself. I planned on doing part of Home to do a real sound check, but I was already tuned down for Fight For Your Right and we didn’t have time for me to tune, run home, then tune again for Fight. Ryan mentioned in retrospect that he forgot to tune his own guitar in all the madness. It should be noted that the night was beautiful with no rain. There were stars in the sky and some of the Luminaria bags were still lit for a nice candlelight effect. But it got very cold and by the time we were about to start, I couldn’t feel my fingers. Also, J plays his drums barefoot, so he must have been freezing with his feet on steel.
Midnight - We ran Fight and that was essentially our sound check because I think Roby needed to be turned up as well as Jon. Arvn was one of the main people who was paying close attention to how we sounded and gave very good feedback mid song as to what needed to happen. That was communicated to Ryan and he adjusted levels on the fly while having a large part of the lyrics. Now that I’m thinking about it, Arvn was so important in that first song and throughout the whole set. He’s a big guy that we can all see from stage, he’s good at getting our attention, he cares about how the music sounds, and he knows how most of the songs go inside and out, down to the nuances of the guitar solos. If he can be one of the main people to communicate with us from the audience AND if he knew how to manipulate the board so Ryan wouldn’t have to, that would be a huge asset. It would free up Ryan mentally where he could just worry about performing, and it would help ensure that the sound we’re putting out is quality. After they got the kinks out, the rest of the song went well. I stepped on my bass tuner twice in this song while moving around because it was behind me. Stepping on the tuner cuts my feed so I had to slide the tuner further back mid song. J did a good job stretching out the rock ending for me to tune for the Hard to Handle intro and vamp.
Hard to Handle Intro and Vamp – This I thought went well. Rob did a good job. J’s fill was the key to signal coming out of the vamp and into the song.
In Bloom – Clean and strong and fun to play. Vocals were excellent. But I heard a few comments that the slower pace of this song slowed down our momentum. It was cool to see so many people singing along though.
Creep – Also clean and well executed. I really enjoy the vocals where Ryan has no choice but to go for it. I also heard a few comments that because of the particularly slow pace of this song, that the crowd started to lose interest. Kind of makes sense since we were in a celebratory mood, and the song is slow and completely self-deprecating. I could see the energetic aura of the crowd dwindle significantly.
Wherever You Will Go – This song began the madness. The way that I saw it, when Joel started this song with the nice guitar picking, his lower strings were causing resonant frequencies somewhere in the system. J’s snare drum was adding to this issue but he was trying to stop it and I honestly think that was only 20% of the problem. I spoke to Gary afterwards describing the issue and he said that in his experiences what he would have done was have somebody turn down the lower to mid frequencies of Joel’s amp if it had an EQ. But this issue had a deep effect on the overall song as we were all visibly scrambling to make things right. To me that hurts because the beginning is so beautiful and the crowd did not get to experience how awesome the guitar picking was. Also, I’m not sure, but I think it was at this point that Ryan discovered that he might not be in tune since this was the first time he needed to play the guitar for a song. He had lead vocals on Fight, piano on Hard to Handle, and lead vocal on In Bloom and Creep. So he was looking down and tuning while Arvn was trying to send signals on what needed to be adjusted, I think he was hoping for Joel’s mic to be turned up. I was whispering to Ryan what Arvn wanted, but since Ryan can only hear what’s being spoken into the mics, he couldn’t hear me. So I eventually needed to kick his calf, communicate what Arvn wanted, and then he adjusted the board accordingly. This tells me that I really need to also know how to manipulate the board and gain Ryan’s trust in that I’m doing what’s right for the song based on visual feedback from the crowd. It also tells me that ear monitors are great but also rather detrimental when band members are trying to communicate by surreptitiously whispering on stage. Also the location of the sound board was based on proximity to the main mixer we were plugging in to. It could have easily been on the other side of the stage where it would have been up to Joel to see the audience cues and manipulate the board accordingly. This would all be remedied with a wise and dedicated sound man, but we don’t have that. Maybe Arvn could be that for the concert. Taking that responsibility off of Ryan’s plate will help him focus on just having to perform. But watching the other bands earlier in the day, none of them had sound people and they all had band members manipulating the board on the fly also. So we just have to be able to adapt to anything, and if there are people available to help, use them well.
Big Me – I thought this went well. Before the performance, J mentioned that he wanted to change the words, “.. I fell into..” that’s repeated a lot in the chorus to , “I’m All In too…” to just show that we were part of the All In Team. But, he forgot on the first chorus and I didn’t. But that reminded J and he did it on the next chorus but I thought he changed it back so I reverted and we were off again. That basically happened throughout the rest of the song, us switching on the fly and only singing it the same a couple times. We should probably say when there’s a mess up like that, that we should always default to what we’ve been doing in practice. J also mentioned that he was blanking on the words right before the song started. That’s when I’m happy we practiced so hard because really we need to be working from just muscle memory during the performances and allowing ourselves to adapt to different situations when possible.
Accidentally In Love – I thought this went well. Very very empty without the beginning piano and harmonies. Not sure if Ryan had to adjust my vocal levels at all. Handing the bass to Ryan was a little awkward because of all the wireless wires hanging about. He ended up just plugging in his wireless guitar input into my bass I think. I can’t quite remember now. Spencer said he’s never heard the song before. Mid song, I vaguely recall that my ear monitors fell out and dangled to the floor. I think Ryan picked them up for me and I ended up just holding the ear buds in my left hand while I sang the song in the mic in my right hand. I think for the concert I might tape the buds to my shirt so they don’t go too far if they fall out.
Talk Dirty To Me – This was a tragedy. Not in that the song didn’t go well, it’s just that when Joel had to switch to J’s tuned down guitar, he took J’s guitar out of the holder, then put his guitar in, but when he turned, his ear monitor wire caught the holder and pulled the guitar down. Joel picked up the guitar and holder and went through with the song. At this point in time, we didn’t know the extent of the damage.
The song overall went well I thought. The vocals were nice and J’s harmonies were nice. I can’t remember if Ryan may have come in early on the vocals for this, but I do remember J and I making eye contact and being a little confused.
Hey Jealousy – When Joel switched back for Hey Jealousy he showed me the scratch at the neck. I thought that it was just a scratch at that point. We got through the song well. I think the crowd liked it.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – At this point I’m not sure if Joel knew that his guitar neck was cracked. I think Ryan playing rhythm probably covered up the fact that Joel’s guitar might be getting slowly out of tune. I messed up the high harmonies very badly. I couldn’t hit them and it showed. Halfway through I just gave up on trying. I need to practice a LOT more before I could play and sing the harmonies well for that song. The notes are on the very edge of my range.
Basketcase – It was at this point we all discovered how badly broken Joel’s guitar was. His guitar went way out of tune because of the broken neck. Since he started the song alone and because we practiced it so much, we all could kind of tell. We got through the song and I think the crowd enjoyed it. I think all of the band was worried about Joel’s guitar though. This should have been the end of the set. We played 11 songs and that only brought us to 12:35am I think. It’s either we were rushing the songs which is likely based on adrenaline. Or we allotted too much time for intros. I was of the opinion that we should have gotten off the stage because I didn’t want to play Home, or All I Want, or Chasing Cars because they were too slow and we have a broken guitar. I think Joel mentioned that we should do Lose Yourself, the rest of the band agreed, and it was a great call.
Lose Yourself – All the kids knew the song and could sing along. Ryan did a really good job performing it. With some goading the kids came right up to the stage and yelled and screamed and jumped. When I got a little crazy jumping up and down, my ear monitors ripped out of the receiver and went flying. Afterwards, the crowd was fine with us not playing anymore.
Big Lessons Learned
Labeling everything is HUGE.
A reliable sound man would free up Ryan and be a big asset. We would need that person to assess what the mix needs and adjust the board accordingly. I think Arvn might be able to do this.
Protect our gear. I spoke to a co-worker today and he said that Epiphone would probably not help with Joel’s guitar. (Even though I think they should.) He also said that insurance would probably not cover it unless there was a specific rider. But that rider would probably cover the gear wherever it went. Hmm… Now that I think about it, maybe we should declare all band gear is Ryan’s, have him put it on his insurance, and pay him yearly…. Might be worth talking about if Ryan was down…
ALWAYS always have more songs ready to play for an encore.
We should have an acoustic set to play all throughout the day by the tent. Ryan made some money playing requests and not playing at all.
Eric Lessons Learned
Tape your ear buds to your shirt in case they fall out. Or something so they don’t just dangle to the floor.
Move your tuner far far away behind you so you don’t step on it.
On cold nights, have hand warmers in your pocket maybe so you can still feel your fingers and the strings.
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Relay For Life Setlist - MidnightEric Tuned Down
Fight For Your Right – Ryan, Rob, Jon
At rock ending, Eric Tunes to Regular Tuning
Hard To Handle Vamp and Intro
J Drum Starts
Rob thanks Jon and introduces band
When Rob says, “…. Team All In…”, instruments cut…
J starts Hard To Handle and instruments come in normally
Hard to Handle - Rob
In Bloom – Ryan, high harms - J
Creep - Ryan
Wherever You Will Go – Joel, high harms - Eric
Big Me – J, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Eric for Accidentally In Love….
I’m going to say something like, “Hey guys… my favorite lines from the song I’m about to sing is, ‘These lines of lightning mean we’re never alone, never alone’… They’re my favorite because they remind me in the fight against cancer that we’re all in this together, we’re not alone, and together we can beat this thing. I’m honored to participate in Relay with all of you and I’m proud to be a part of the best Relay in Michigan!”
Accidentally In Love - Eric
Intro Ryan for Talk Dirty to Me because Joel needs to switch to a tuned down guitar or needs to tune down
Talk Dirty to Me – Ryan, high harms – J, Dana’s in the hole (two songs away, she needs to be close to the stage)
Hey Jealousy – Ryan, Dana’s on deck (her song is next, she should be just off stage and ready to go)
Short Intro Ryan to Introduce DanaHit Me With Your Best Shot – Dana, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Ryan for Basketcase to thank Dana and also because I need to tune down my bass
Basketcase – Ryan, high harms - Eric
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