Sorry artober, I am being such a butt BUT I’ve been sooo busy busy, well kind of. Saturday we played two shows which took up the entirety of my day. The first one was a flea market, Made and Found Market off Creek Rd in Mount Laurel NJ. It was a beautiful day outside. In my typical fashion, I was getting stressed out that we wouldn’t make it there in time because we had to pack the PA and all of our equipment as well as bringing enough power chords to supply us. We were told we’d be playing on an outdoor stage with a few outlets so had to prepare! We had to pick up a battery for my snark tuner on the way to the show. When we got there, the vibes were super chill and we were stoked. However, when I went to change my snark battery my demeanor changed. I stuck the new battery in the snark before inserting the snap on closure which had a designated spot for the battery to sit in. Instead though, THAT piece was in my hand and the battery was shoved into the snark, unable to function. I panicked immediately. Even though I have this super long pinkie nail (lol the other long nails on my guitar strumming hand broke but the pinkie nail remains strong!!!) I couldn’t even. I just freaked out. So I handed it off to someone else to deal with because I was seriously losing my temper. It’s crazy to observe yourself in that state and realize you are being completely unreasonable but still not be able to keep those negative emotions from spewing out of you like you’re some kind of loch ness monster sea creature who just wants to be beautiful but you’re hideous and you can’t help but ravenously eat every creature who shows you any bit of attention or awareness. I knew that in order to get the battery out of the snark, I had to NOT be the one handling it because I couldn’t handle my temper. It got passed around by all the bandmates, there were tweezers involved (thank you Steph) and still no luck. Sam literally gave up, then looked down at his hands and the battery was OUT, in the tweezers he had been using to wedge it out. Of course it would happen that way. The lesson I got from that, surrender. SURRENDER.after at was like one sugary pink frosted cupcake after the other. We loved playing there & afterward we got to SHOP! I love love LOVE supporting crafters & anyone who is brave enough to go out there with just themselves and their product. You have to REALLY believe in yourself and I really admire that about others- especially when their ideas are kooky and out of this world. Steph and I ran into an old old man who carved tiny flowers out of oak tree twigs and collected pieces of driftwood he shellacked and hand carved tiny roosters onto. It was the most precious thing. We indulged in many crafts that day and it felt so GOOD. It’s a beautiful feeling, being able to DIRECTLY support someone and get something good out of it yourself as well. It’s an exchange of love. It’s as if you were saying “I love this- I want to buy it”.....to the person who made it saying “I’m going to make this because I love it..”
ANYWAY, after the flea market, we went home and unpacked some gear and then got some pho, laid down a half hour and then Steph came over! We got ready together before the show and went over some little parts. I was excited. I love Halloween so much....AND house parties. Two of my favorite things. It was really a blast. I just love playing out. And I don’t do it enough. It’s a tricky thing to organize 6 people together (as Jessie I’m sure you know) and sometimes I feel bad taking peoples time. So I like the time I take from them to be worthwhile for them too. I want them to enjoy their time they spend with me and to feel good about what they’re doing. That’s very important to me and I’m very sensitive so when someone’s clearly not enjoying themselves, I feel bad for holding them hostage! It’s something I need to work on for sure because I can’t control other people’s emotions and it’s okay for them to be having a bad day but still hold themselves accountable to come to practice. I should admire that rather than feel bad that they feel bad cause that helps no one. No one! Anyway, no one was like that they night of the show- whew! We were all in good spirits and it was only our second time performing with Sam (aside from earlier that day) but he took direction so well! Seriously looooove working with him. Great stage communication! Everyone was exceptional the night of the show, especially for how little we could get together to practice. That really shows me what naturals these guys are, they fall right into the groove. Steph and I are learning how to sing more ‘in the pocket’ and one of the songs we covered really helped with that lesson. One of the reasons I love covering songs is because you learn so much from artists who did it RIGHT. You wouldn’t be covering the song unless every part of it was done “right”..you know?
Anyway, Mushrooom Meadow Smiles. I’d love to post some of the covers we did but unfortunately, the video camera Sean used to record the show cuts the recording off every 17 minutes and puts it into a new file. So most of the other songs are chopped up right now. I’ll post the lyrics to this song. I chose to post this one cause it’s the newest one I do full band (I think?) and it’s kinda nifty that it’s so short (so this stupid blog can HANDLE IT- so many nights Jessie & I can’t post cause they don’t know how to handle our files!)
I’m blinded as the wind blows
If I eat too mush
I’ll be a mush head
