Wondering About The Truth

      Getting an early start today. It’s not even noon yet. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen this afternoon, so I figure, get this out of the way now. I had to reflect on why I had chosen Thursday for this, since Friday seems like such a better day. The end of the week. The beginning of the weekend. Friday seems like a more appropriate time. Then I remembered: I used to have band practice on Thursday. When I have band practice, I make a recording, so we can hear how we did. It usually takes a couple of hours for me to make it sound good. Well, better than the raw copy. Anyway, that’s why I didn’t choose Friday because I was usually busy. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been so long since I had practice that I had to “remember.” It’s sad. My punk band is doing great, but my prog band, not so much. I know people get busy, but this is getting ridiculous. I was very excited because on Monday I got confirmation that we were all good to practice. I couldn’t believe it! Then on Wednesday afternoon, I got the text that the guitar player couldn’t do it. I was bummed. What made it a little worse was that the guitar player texted the group, and I’m the only one who responded. Not a word from anyone else. Making it a little worse, last week, when I sent out my weekly “are we going to practice text,” (yes, I have to send one) the drummer said he couldn’t, and it was the same thing, silence. The other 3 of us usually get together, even if the drummer doesn’t want to. But they didn’t say a word. I canceled the studio, and no one ever said anything. Not even on Thursday. What the hell is going on?

     I know in the guitar player’s case it’s football season. This is his child’s first year playing full contact football. One of the parents need to be present at practice, just in case. He told us ahead of time, so there’s not much we could do. Apparently, his wife keeps getting scheduled for work on Thursdays, so it’s understandable. The drummer is a whole other issue. He often blames it on his wife’s schedule, but some of us have our doubts. Their wives have been friends since they were little, and have girl getaways often. Last one they had the drummer’s wife said something to the guitar player’s wife that made her think that it’s the drummer’s issue, not the wife’s. It’s not really anything that can be confirmed, there was drinking involved, and everyone has their own story, but something got said, and passed on, at least in part, that has made some of us wonder what the truth is. I spend a lot of time searching out the truth. I don’t like spending any time wondering about the truth. In my experience the truth is usually fairly obvious, and if you have to wonder if something is true, you probably already know the answer. He says “no” to pretty much every gig. Over the past month, we’ve been offered at least 3 gigs, and it has been “no” every time. That by itself is one thing, but he doesn’t even seem to want to practice. Actions speak louder than words, and right now it seems that his actions, and his words, are not saying the same thing. It’s frustrating. I often feel like moving on, but it’s been a long time. I know no other drummer will be the same, but something needs to happen. The guitar player thinks we should wait. But I feel we have been. He thinks the drummer should quit instead of being let go. I’m not so sure.

     In happier news, last week’s gig with the punk band was awesome! We played with a band called Daikaiju. They are a heavy surf rock band from Alabama that wear Kabuki masks. It sounds weird, but they were awesome! I don’t want to get too much into it, YouTube doesn’t do them very well, but live, my mind was blown. If you like live loud music, I’d go see them. I doubt you’d be disappointed. The place was packed. We got to play just before them, people as far as the eye could see. We killed it! Although, I will say, our guitar player was out of tune for an entire song. I tried not to draw any attention to it, but I was a little embarrassed. People seemed to really like what we were doing. We had a lot of people asking about our merchandise, and of course, wouldn’t you know it, this was the one time we didn’t bring any. Oh well, hopefully they’ll remember the good times we had. There’s a punk rock festival tomorrow up in the North County. Out of the 9 bands playing I would like to see 4. I suggested we all go, you know, to be part of the community. No one wanted to. What a bunch of winners! I’m going anyway. I guess I’ll be the sole representative, again. Funny thing, one of the bands I was going to see, actually had to cancel because their bass player got Covid. They reached out to us and asked if we would take their spot! Are you fucking kidding me? This would have been epic! A 7 pm spot, at one of the largest gatherings of groups we should be associated with, at one of the coolest breweries in the county, it was like a dream come true. But of course, we had to say “no,” because the guitar player is on call. I know people say, “there’ll be other ones,” but we’re not getting any younger.