GIG REPORT - Slightly Offensive @ Fat Sams

This past Sat night I played with my old band SLIGHTLY OFFENSIVE. My “new band” (its OFFICIAL NOW) is LIFE IS DRAMA!!! They asked me to rehearse with their new drummer last Sunday. The new drummer is a young 21 year old who reminds me of a Travis Barker type of drummer and he was LOUD!!! I had to use earplugs, my ears were just RINGING. We ran through the whole set from 7pm-11pm and honestly...I really thought that Sat night was going to be a trainwreck. I had the impression walking in that they've been practicing as a band for a while now and it was quite apparent after Sunday night that that was not the case. So we decided to get together again on Thursday night.

On Thursday night I received a text that another guitar player who they were looking at was going to come out and “listen” to us. He was going to bring his guitar and practice amp and maybe play along with the songs he knew. I think his idea was that if he knew 80% of the material he would be asked to come out and play with us Sat night. I have NO IDEA why he thought this would be a “good idea” but ok. He came out and he was really cool and tried to play every song we did, watching my hands for the chord changes and the ones he “knew” he either didn't know well or he played it before in a different key. Either way, I thought the rest of the band sounded better than we did on Sunday night and by the end of Thursday night it was obvious that the other guitar player would just come out & hang with us.

Sat night was a picturesque night, absolutely BEAUTIFUL & we played outside in the beer garden just like we did this time last year. :D We loaded in and I was all setup and the drummer was late. It was his first “real gig” so it was understandable. Then he gets there and he says “I forgot my rug”. Well we are playing on a wood deck so he asked “should I drive home to get it?” Uh no, that would take over an hour so I asked the owner if we could use one of the front door runners. He said sure and I'm sure he won't forget his rug next time (he's still learning). :D He asked me to que him for the endings and honestly after a couple of songs he was doing so well on his own that I forgot he asked me to do that. Only a couple of songs ended long so I helped him out with those.

Before we even started the WHOLE BEER GARDEN WAS PACKED, not one seat was available!!! :D Just like last year and I haven't seen that big of a crowd in a couple months!! I saw the owner come outside a couple of times Sat night to see how the crowd was. We played 2 long sets and I thought the band played ok, I was less than stellar with my leads. I don't know what happened, I always run through the songs/leads before I leave for the gig but I screwed up my first lead and from there it kinda cascaded into the next 2 songs and from there I had some that I played great but I really only remember the ones I didn't. Not a good night for me and I'm sure no one in the audience noticed some missed notes.

Our old drummer came out to support us so we opened up with our old version of “Ice Ice Baby” and we KILLED IT!!! The crowd just LOVED IT!!! Then later on during the 2nd set (around midnight) the neighbours (1/4 mile away) called the bar to complain it was too loud. So we turned it down and played for about another 45min or so.

Overall it was A LOT better than I thought it was going to be for a band with a new drummer and only 2 practices since June. My next gig is SAT 9/10 with LIFE IS DRAMA @ Exit 197 (952 W Reynolds St Pontiac, IL). We play from 10:00pm-1:30am.

Thanks for reading and all the great comments & KEEP ROCKIN' !!!!

Tommy Gunz