I'm still a little bummed out about Saturday. You see, Becky and I went to a Halloween Party at my buddy Dan's house. The main attraction: His band was going to be performing. I love a live show, and these guys rock pretty hard, so I was very excited to go and check them out.
This is a real band here, two guitar players, bass and drums. They practice, perform at the local bars, etc. Not some two bit operation, in other words. I was particuarly excited because they had been working on a Hendrix cover of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Hendrix, being my favorite, was definitely a draw to the shindig.
When we arrived, we went through the regular Halloween stuff. Ah, look at the costumes, etc. (we, by the way, chose not to dress up. We just weren't into making a spectacle of ourselves.) Little did I know, I would be making a spectacle of myself soon enough anyway.
The band started warming up, and immediately broke into Voodoo Chile. I have to admit, it did sound awesome, despite a few small things.
1. They played it the Stevie Ray Vaughn way, which has an extra note in the intro. For some reason, I couldn't get past that.
2. Dan didn't know some of the words to the first verse. "I stand up next to THE mountain?" No, no, no!! "I stand up next to A mountain."
3. Dan didn't know any of the second verse.
That is where I came in.
During the instrumental break down, Dan calls me up to the stage. "Come on, Tony, I don't know the words, come sing it!!"
So, I did.
The problem was two fold.
1. I couldn't tell from what they were playing when I needed to start singing.
2. My mic was apparently not turned up, cause when I finally started to sing, I heard nothing, despite my screaming.
Oh, well. It was ok, cause that was my first time in front of an audience WITH a band. (of course, my birthday party had me performing by myself in front of friends and family, but this was in front of strangers WITH a full band...very intimidating.)
Well, I sat back down and the band finished the song. My ordeal was over...wait a minute...
Dan was called to the house for something, so Hiram, the guitar player, waved me back up.
"Do you know Red House?" Do I know Red House? Of course, I am a Hendrix junky!!
So, I took the stage one more time for Red House. The band had never played it before, but it sounded dead on to the original. I was ecstatic!! The time came, and this time my mic was on.
"There's a Red House over yonder....
that's where my baby stays.
There's a Red House over yonder...
lord that's where my baby stays.
I haven't been home to see my baby,
in 99 and one half days.
Wait a minute something's wrong,
this key won't unlock this door.
Wait a minute somethings wrong,
this key won't unlock this door.
That's when I realized something was wrong...I blanked the lyrics...the whole rest of the song was gone! I stood starring at Hiram, who played on as if nothing had happened. I looked at the Bass player, and shrugged "I forgot the words." He played on. It seems they didn't know the words at all, so it didn't matter. I, unfortunately, wasn't very good at improvising, so I stood there staring at the band, while they grooved out.
I was embarrassed, but not as much as I had thought I would be. Until I heard someone say
"He's not gonna sing it!" in a disgusted tone. Oh, well...I guess I made some friends that night!!
I apologized for forgetting the words, and we left soon after. So much for my first real performance. Maybe next time I will study before I leave...
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