Well that sucks, moving forward

As I walked down the long narrow hallway, my fingers were eager with anticipation to set up my gear and begin practice. Once I entered the room, I began to unzip my keyboard bag. Dave announced, "No need to do that tonight, we need to talk." Ah yes, those favorite words that you know are going to lead you into a discussion you would rather not partake in.

He then proceeds to say that he can no longer play in our band, and goes in to all the details, which I will not go into here. Suffice to say, now we have no bass player/lead singer/guy with all the sound gear/guy with all the live sound knowledge.

The fact that he plays the bass, and does 85% of the vocals…. That is going to be difficult, if not impossible to replace with one person. That was what made us unique in my mind, it was 4 guys doing about 8 parts simultaneously. Also, we built our entire "stage methodology" around his sound system, which involves using no on-stage amps, but rather everyone (Except drums) plugging-in direct to the mixer. Making set up and take down really simple, while providing maximum sonic punch in a live setting.

We soon found ourselves discussing options over dinner. Confronted now with the purchase of sound reinforcement gear and a wireless audio system for each of us… we’re talking a major unexpected expenditure. The plan is to continue on as a 3-piece and do what we can as the search begins for most likely 2 new musician’s.

You spend a somewhat significant portion of your life with a group of guys in a band dedicated to a cause… you develop a certain camaraderie. I have so much respect for those guys, because they are not only amazing musicians who kick tail, but are also great individuals. I am really thankful they let me be a part of this adventure, because I am no where near their level. It's like I said at one point, "I'm here to learn, so I don’t care what we play, as long as it’s incredibly difficult."

Let the search commence for a bassist and vocalist who knows these songs, or would like to learn them.

This is our first set as we do it today:

1. Genesis - Turn It On again (4:00)
2. Rush - Spirit Of The radio (5:00)
3. Joe Satriani - Sufing With the Alien (4:30)
4. Deep Purple - Knocking At your Back Door (7:00)
5. Joe Satriani - One Big Rush (3:30)
6. Rush - Limelight (4:30)
7. Steve Vai - For the Love Of God (6:00)
8. Triumph - Magic Power (5:00)
9. Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers (5:30)
10. The Police - Synchronicity
11. Led Zeppelin – Kashmir (8:40)
12. Yes - Love Will Find A Way (4:40)
13. Dream Theater - Pull Me Under (8:10)

And we want to add these to make set 2 and 3:

1. Dream Theater - These Walls
2. Dream Theater - Learning To Live*
3. Dream Theater - As I am*
4. Rush - Tom Sawyer
5. Rush – Subdivisions*
6. Peter Gabriel - Salsbury Hill*
7. Peter Gabriel - Shock The Monkey
8. Yes - Roundabout
9. Yes - Starship Trooper
10. Boston - Foreplay/Long time*
11. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody*
12. Journey - Escape
13. David Lee Roth - Crazy From the Heat
14. Saga - On The Loose
15. Led Zeppelin - Battle of Evermore
16. The Police - Message in a Bottle
17. Blue Oyster Cult - Don’t Fear the Reaper

* already working on these

Two years ago, if you told me that I would be playing songs by Dream Theater, Rush, and Steve Vai out in public, I would have said you were insane. Even today, I can't believe that we're doing this. All we need to do now, is get over this one small hurdle.