the tonedef blog

Friday, for the second week in a row, Band Mom was set to get off work at 9 since she had to go in early. So, plans were made accordingly.

Pooh had plans. I had my folks’ pick the girls up from after school. Then after work I headed to Jer’s for an early practice. Scooter’s working midnights now so if we practiced it had to be early so he could get to work. He stopped at the hotel on his way to practice and picked up the PA. I then met everybody there straight from work. We actually had a drummer this week. Don’t know if he’s gonna be the drummer, but it was nice to have a drummer again. We ran through some stuff and started righting some new stuff. Around 7:30 though we had to get moving since Scooter got a call to come to work early.

He took the PA back to the hotel and I met him there. He then took off and I headed in. I quickly ran home to swap my car for Band Mom’s van. I headed back up an ordered some dinner. After I ate, Band Mom had to finish up some stuff. Then we finally headed out.

Band Mom, Cowboy and I headed up to Old Trails to check out Ruff Creek. We had a good time. Its been a long time since Band Mom and I have been out to see any bands and to see our friends in Ruff Creek was cool. Also we got to hang out with Double D and Sal again so that’s always fun.

Band Mom had to take off for a little bit to take Cowboy home since he had to go to work early in the morning. But she came back and we ended up staying until close. On the way home Band Mom decided she was hungry so we headed over to Denny’s for some late night breakfast. It was nice to have a night out not at the hotel for a change.

Thing 2 wanted a sleep over this year for her birthday. My mom offered to host the event. Well, more power to her. So it was going to be this Saturday.

Band Mom let me sleep in pretty late on Saturday morning. I eventually got up and got some grub and watched a little DVR. I took Band Mom to the hotel around 2 and dropped her off for work. Then I headed back home. While I was gone Pooh got Things 1 & 2 ready to go. I then took the 3 of them over to my folks’ for the sleep over party. We took our Wii and a few games over for the girls to play at the sleep over. I set that up and then I headed back home.

I got a text from Scooter telling me to not worry about practice. He had some shit come up. There was a possibility that we were going to audition a new drummer today, but not now. So I lazed around and watched a little more DVR. Band Mom gave me a call around 6 and said I should get ready and head up early and have some dinner before DJing since I didn’t have practice.

I got ready and headed up. As I was leaving the house I got another call from Band Mom and she asked me to stop at the state store and pick up a few bottles of stuff that they were running low on for the bar. I did that then headed up. Band Mom, Cowboy, and I sat at the bar and had some dinner. After dinner Cowboy took off for a little bit and I started DJing around 9:30.

A little later Cowboy and his buddy who we’ll call The Leprechaun came back to the bar. The 3 of us sat at the end of the bar having a few beers and bullshitting. The crowd was pretty slim most of the night and we were thinking it may be an early night. Around midnight some folks from a wedding that was upstairs came down to the bar. These 2 older guys (one turned out to be the grooms father) came in and the grooms father was a little drunk. He was mouthing off and we just sort of wrote it off as innocent drunken banter. Then out of nowhere he grabs The Leprechaun and chucks him out of his chair across the room. This was honestly completely unprovoked and out of the blue. Well Cowboy and I were having none of that and we jumped up and grabbed this cat. We got to kind of a draw just holding this dude who outweighed the 2 of us put together, when people from the wedding started pouring in the door. The first thought that went through my mind at that point was that Cowboy, The Leprechaun and I were going to be fighting the whole wedding. Luckily they all realized that this dude was the problem and pretty much an ass hole and they helped us get him out of the bar then they took him away with no further incident for us.

The adrenaline rush was insane. It was tough to calm down for a while. Band Mom got the 3 of us, and another guy, a shot for handling it without bloodshed and clearing the bar for her and to calm down. The other guy was just this dude that was sitting at the bar with a girl on their first date who didn’t know us but saw the potential of the 3 of us battling the wedding and he jumped up to help. Gotta appreciate that dude…

Later some calmer folks from the wedding came into the bar. One of them being the groom. He came up to The Leprechaun and apologized for his fathers actions. We thought that was pretty cool of the dude. He didn’t need to say anything and since it was family it would have been easy for him to side with his old man. But he was really apologetic and cool about the whole situation. Hopefully he had a better wedding night after he and his new bride left the bar and headed upstairs to their hotel room.

We finally closed the bar a little early and got everything torn down and headed out. Band Mom and I dropped our pal B off at home and the bartender D off at the club. Then we got a phone call from security and our boy Cowboy locked himself out of his room and couldn’t find his key. So we headed back up and tried to help get him into his room. The security guard finally found the right master key and let him in and Band Mom and I got to head home.

What fun…

Saturday has come yet again. Band Mom headed to work around noon. My folks picked up Things 1 & 2 around 1 for the day (and the night). Pooh was heading back to her dad’s later. And after a couple weeks I had a scheduled band practice again. However, we have no drummer. I talked to Scooter the other night and he let me know that Trav had to leave us. His schedule has become to hectic to even think about being in a band. Oh well…

The 3 of us left still got together at Jer’s place to work on some stuff. Scooter picked me up a little before 5. We stopped at the hotel to pick up my PA. We then headed to Jer’s. We went through the songs we already have written. We missed Trav a bit especially on 1 song that I relied heavily on drum cues…WAH WAH poor us…Any way we did start writing another song. Jer is full of these cool little hook lines and we started putting them together for another song. (Side Note: Anybody know a drummer?) After a couple of hours we packed it up and called it a day.

Scooter took me back to the hotel so I could get some grub and set up for DJing. He stayed for a beer, then headed home to put away his gear and pick up the old lady and her sister. After a while the three of them came back up and hung out with us. Scooter has been working crazy hours and hasn’t had a chance to hang out with us in a while. And he made up for it. We tied a nice one on before closing down the bar and heading home…

Saturday I slept in sorta…We all got moving eventually. Pooh had to leave early as she was taking ACTs. Band Mom got showered and headed to work around 2. Not long after that I got Things 1 & 2 ready and took them to my folks’ for an overnighter. I then hung around the house did a little cleaning got ready and then explored a little in Playstation Home. Finally around 5:30 Scooter picked me up.

We then headed to Jerod’s for a little practice. Trav couldn’t make it, but we got together anyway to just jam a little. We did that for a few hours, then Scooter dropped me back at the hotel. I had some dinner (I just made it before the kitchen closed). I didn’t have to set up and DJ/karaoke this week because of an event that was being held. So I got to just hang out and drink for a change with no responsibility.

We hung out til closing then headed home and to bed…

Saturday started slow. Everyone got up and got ready to go. Had some breakfast, and even some lunch. Around noon my folks stopped and picked up Things 1 & 2. Then around 2, Band Mom, Pooh and I headed up to the hotel. Band Mom had to work, Poohs dad was picking her up there around 3, and Scooter and Trav were meeting me there around 3.

Scooter and Trav showed up and I got the PA and we loaded up and headed to practice. Practice went well again. We finished up our 4th song and went over the other 3 just to keep them fresh. After we practiced for a couple of hours, we started talking about how we were going to start recording some of this stuff. Not professionally or for public consumption, but just for us so we can remember the stuff we’re writing. We kinda came up with a plan of attack to start next practice. Around 6:30 we headed out.

Scooter and Trav dropped me at the hotel. They weren’t hanging out tonight. Scooter had ordered the UFC fight and Trav was heading home to the fam. So I got set up for karaoke and then I went home to feed the dogs and let them out for a little bit. I headed back and sat down with Band Mom and had some dinner.

Finally we did the karaoke thing. We had a smattering of singers. Some from the film crew. Some new folks. We finally go the bar closed around 2 and got everything packed up and headed home.

Friday night we were going to practice again. But Pooh had plans already to take Band Mom’s Mom to the store and to dinner so I wouldn’t have a sitter until later. So we planned on Scooter and Trav to head to practice and then I would join them after Pooh got back. They decided to meet up at the hotel to take a single car and ran into Band Mom. Band Mom then called me and said I should drop the kids off to Pooh and head out with the guys. Gee that Band Mom is smart. I never even thought about the girls going with them.

So I dropped the girls off to Pooh at Giant Eagle and headed to the hotel. I got the PA and we loaded it into Scooters truck and headed out to practice.

Even though we got there a little later than planned, practice went well. We put some polish (including my newly finished lyrics) to the 3 songs we’ve been working on and started work on a fourth. The nice thing about the fourth is that Jer already had some lyrical ideas written down, so I don’t have to write all the lyrics, I just need to tweak them and put a melody to them. We practiced for a few hours then headed back to the hotel.

Scott didn’t hang out since he had an early morning. Trava hung for a quick drink then headed out. I stayed with Band Mom til close then we headed home.

Friday night after work I headed to the school to pick up Things 1 & 2. Then we stopped at home and picked up Pooh. We then headed out to the hotel to have dinner with Band Mom again. After dinner, Scooter and Trav picked me up at the hotel and we headed to practice.

Practice was cool yet again. We went through the 1st song that we’d been working on and it just sounds better every time. We also polished up the 2nd song. I still need more lyrics (repeating the same verse 3 times works for practice, but makes for a pretty lame song…) Then we started on a third song. We were taking a break and were all out on the porch when Jer headed back in and started playing this new piece he’d been working on. Trav almost instantly headed back in with a drum line in his head to add to it. Scott and I headed in soon after with a bass line (Scott) and I have had a song idea bouncing in my head for the past week or two and this song fit my lyrical idea perfectly. We worked on that for a while and its coming along. Then we finished practice by going back and playing the other 2 songs again just to keep them in our heads.

We need to start recording these things, because as we add more they are going to get jumbled in our heads until we really have them down. We’ve got some tools to do it, so maybe next practice we’ll give that a shot.

We finally left and Scooter and Trav dropped me at home to pick up my car. Then we all headed to the hotel to have a couple of beers. Those two took off after a couple, but I stayed to close with Band Mom then we headed home.

Friday Band Mom started her new job. She’s now officially the restaurant and bar manager at the hotel. This is gonna make things interesting around here with schedules and the kids and what not. But today wasn’t too big a deal. Band Mom was doing the 3 to close shift so she was home during the day with Things 1 & 2 who had no school. Then around 2 she headed to BFE to pick up Pooh from school. Then Pooh (who luckily now has her license) dropped Band Mom at work and took the girls with her to go shopping.

I got home from work got a quick bite for myself for dinner and got ready. Trav and Scooter got to my place a little after 6. We were car pooling it to practice. We made a quick stop at the hotel so I could pick up the PA. Then we headed to practice.

Practice went well. We actually got the first song we were working on last week finished off and were able to play it from start to finish with vocals and actual lyrics a couple of times. So we started on a second song. By the time we finished for the night that second song was say 90% structured and I had a melody and some partial lyrics already. I think things are going pretty well with this. I mean Trav and I just met the guitar player last week and we’ve been able to in 2 practices (say 6 or 7 hours) get almost 2 full songs.

After practice we headed back to my house. I checked in on Pooh and the girls, Trav got his car and I got Band Mom’s car and the 3 of us headed up to the hotel to have a drink. We hung out there for a while. Trav left the earliest and Scooter left a while later. I stayed till close so that I wouldn’t have to come back to pick up Band Mom since we only had one car between us.

Saturday, I got together for a new band project. A buddy of Scooters plays guitar and has a place to practice. Scooter and He have gotten together a couple of times over the last couple of months and wanted to start a new original writing project. Scooter asked Trav and I if we would be interested in coming on board. Well seeing as how we both are just sitting around not playing we both said sure.

So Scooter offered me a ride and Trav met up with us at my place a little after 2. I loaded my little PA into Scooter’s truck and we headed out. We took a short detour and dropped Pooh at work then headed out. Scooter and Jer had already worked out a partial song so that’s where we started after everyone was set up. After a couple of hours we had a solid structure down and I was already working on lyrics. Things were pretty smooth. I tried to sing a little, but my voice still isn’t all the way back so that was kinda disappointing. We all decided to get together again, so it looks like this will keep going for a while.

After practice, I had Scooter drop me at the hotel. Band Mom was already there. I got the PA set up and then helped Band Mom with some computer stuff. Finally we sat down and ordered some dinner. Then it was time for karaoke. We didn’t have too many singers all night so it was mostly DJ and drinking. At close I tore down and packed everything up and we headed home.