Holy shit. I’m kind of rusty.

Rusty vocally. Rusty on bass. Rusty rhythmically.

Shaking off that rust is tricky when you’re by yourself, especially when you’re trying to be ready to play shows – not that I imagine shows are happening any time soon, but I don’t want the rust to get so thick that it takes too long to shake it all off. The people who come to see the show deserve my best every time.

But, you see, rust never sleeps.

Every day that you don’t play, you get behind, and it grows.

Gotta stretch those fingers out.
Gotta clear that throat, fill those lungs.
Gotta keep that time.

We have some serious rust to knock off with the band. But with COVID cases spiking, it’s not the best time for in-person practice, so to keep everything moving, I made the multi-tracks for Pat and Alon that remove their guitars and vocals. So they can work on their rust individually.

One thing that’s also interesting is the communication rust that we’ve been through with the band. Since we haven’t been playing shows, we haven’t spent a ton of time physically together. At most shows, the majority of the time spent is hanging with each other. Setting up, eating, tearing down…the 2-3 hours we spend on stage are just a small part of the whole picture. The connections, our priorities, all got kind of disjointed and hazy. And we weren’t being particularly effective in sharing what we wanted. Thankfully, we’ve been more active and engaged, with TONS of new ideas for things, so that rust is mostly gone. Now just getting back to the music part and sounding like “us”.

We have had a couple of in-person rehearsals in the past couple of months, and they’ve definitely improved the communication and vocal rust. But damn, the rhythm rust is there. It can only be shed by actual time together playing, unfortunately.

Thankfully I have the best not-rehearsing-but-able-to-play-with-the-band resource: MULTITRACKS!

Yes, at our last full show on Leap Day 2020, I recorded the band. Separate tracks for every microphone and input, so each guitar, voice, and drum had its own mic, and I can make mixes for the other band members that are missing their parts so they can play and sing their parts along with the band. For me, I just mute the channels in the session in REAPER, my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) where I record and mix all my audio.

Now that technology is where it is, many digital mixers have multi-channel computer interfaces. Chandler and The Bings runs a Behringer XR-18 mixer that features a USB output that I plug into my laptop which enables me to separate out all the parts. It’s actually the mixer that runs our in-ear monitor systems. We have a bunch of splitters that enable us to send a separate set of cables to the PA system at the venues we play so we have complete control over our monitor mixes. But I’m getting off track.

The point is, I’ve been playing my bass every night, and playing guitar, and really trying to get everything back moving and keep that persistent rust at bay. We shall see if I’m successful through this next spike. But I am very excited for the future when we can get together and play shows and have drunk people sing their respiratory droplets in our direction safely.

Until then…STAY THE FUCK HOME. WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS. QUARANTINE IF YOU’RE EXPOSED. And stay safe out there. Apparently the cult of 45 is now resorting to violence to prop up their cult leader and wannabe dictator. What a tiny, pathetic loser he is. I sincerely hope, dear reader, that you are not so stupid as to think for a minute that the little piggy deserves your respect or consideration. Let him go away and let’s focus on moving to having a decent society based on facts, evidence, love, and kindness instead of avarice, ego, tribalism, and anti-intellectualism.

Peace be the NON-journey. Go listen to your favorite album for me. And tell me what it is in the comments if you so desire. Maybe I’ll love it, too.

TMS