Show Coming Up -- Rehearsals and Stress

My band, The Very Bad Boys, haven't done a show since New Year's Eve, but that was a dance, not a concert. We have our first concert since August coming up on the 17th of this month. Frankly, I'm a little concerned about the lack of new material. We have about 12 new songs we want to cover, in addition to four or five originals I've written, but only a couple of weeks to get them learned and under our belts.

In the past, things like this didn't bother me. You take your gear to the gig, you plug in and you play. People like you or they don't. And you go home smiling most nights.

For some reason, I'm worried this time. I don't want to play the same material we know and are comfortable with. I want to throw out new, unheard tunes. I want to explore new territories and scrape against the screen of the unknown. I want to see what we can do when we don't really know what we're doing. 

I've called for two rehearsals before the 17th, a challenge in the best of times. But hopefully we can do both of them, and in the process nail down the songs we've obligated ourselves to learning and playing. This band is not big on doing homework, and not terribly great at focusing during rehearsals. But I'm hoping we can all reach deep and dig out our desires to burn the house down at our next concert. Playing to drunks in bars is easy, and you get spoiled, because even when they're listening, they're drunk. If you throw a drunk a four-four, they'll love it, whether or not you're doing anything musically worthwhile. When you're playing a concert where people are seated, sober, and listening, you have to show up and play. You can't just cruise, and you can't just make funny faces and pretend you're squeezing out your best. You have to give it up. 

What began as a loose configuration of friends is morphing into something a little more serious. As the navigator of this journey, I can only hope that I'm up to the task of making this happen in a way that shows off our skills and instincts in the best possible way.