So Saturday night marked the band’s first “official” show back. We played at our favorite bar in San Antonio (Picks Bar), and it was a pretty good show all things considered. I did a multitrack recording of the show with my laptop. And there are things about it I absolutely love – Jay and I are LOCKED most of the show, which is pretty surprising considering how little we’ve actually played together this past year. My vocals are spotty, as always, with my lead vocals almost always being 100% better than my backing vocals. I can’t fully figure out why I keep mucking them up – I did notice that when I really went for it on the backing vocals, I was more consistent, so there’s definitely a lesson there. I know that part of my vocal issues were caused by the nagging cold I’ve been fighting for weeks, so it was almost impossible to rely on muscle memory. Hopefully this Saturday’s show will go better in that department. But enough of the Monday Morning Quarterbacking…let’s get weird.

Like, it’s super weird to be out again. It’s super weird to return to a place we played TONS of times and it’s completely different (they started a remodel literally the day after our last gig there in 2020). It’s super weird to be around other vaccinated people and to feel “normal” enough to shake hands or give a hug. It’s good, but WEIRD. I’m looking forward to giving my mom a hug when she comes to visit in June. That won’t be weird – it’ll be lovely.

Back to the experience of getting back out there – another part that you forget when you haven’t played in a while is the physicality of the entire show experience – loading the gear into the van, loading the gear into the venue, getting everything set up, then the performance – every limb involved, singing, then once the show is done, unloading the stuff from the venue into the van and then driving home and unloading there. It’s all so incredibly draining. And that’s before you consider the mental toll of trying to remember everything so you can actually give a decent performance. I think all four of us were sort of wrecked for a few days recovering.

I’m happy we played, the crowd was nice (though different than before the pandemic), and we had a lot of fun. Tons of smiles on stage – fans even mentioned how much we were smiling. Little did they know half of those smiles were us laughing at mistakes.

Doing it again in San Antonio this weekend at The Amp Room. It should be weird and exciting – new venue, unfamiliar audience that’s younger and perhaps more rock-friendly…I’m pumped. But also thinking about how tired I’m going to be.

But I’m so grateful that we get to do it again. Seeing those smiling faces and watching them sing along is the ultimate analgesic.

Thanks for reading and peace be the journey!
TMS

P.S. If you’re not vaccinated, what the hell are you waiting for? GO GET THAT JAB, YO!