Weekend wrap-up: intense rehearsal, two gigs and some studio time

There were some firsts this weekend. It was my first time in Manassas, Virginia. It was my first time playing two gigs in one weekend.

Aside from these firsts, I did a whole lot of other things that made this weekend very fulfilling.

Friday night, I went to Arlington with my keyboard to play a show with Alowishious Farhatt. I'm not a member of the band, but I hear from them whenever they see playing a show in the D.C. area, and they let me play onstage with them at all the gigs I can make. We do lots of covers, and besides knowing how to play the music, we all also have good ears and can play together without rehearsal.

We played a wonderfully well received show at Ragtime, and I think there was a moment when every eye in the bar was on the band. It was a great show with a crowd that was very receptive to us. Many were strangers, but a few of my friends came out and had a blast.

On Saturday morning, I helped to initiate three awesome young men into my college fraternity at a lodge in Washington. This was a perfectly executed event, one in which I was proud to participate. One of the particular brothers is a guy I have respected for a long time, and it is great to see him fully initiated after all this time. I was so emotional; I sobbed the entire time he was going through the rite of passage and then for a few minutes afterward, which really surprised me. I don't consider myself to be an emotional guy, but I guess I have those moments.
On Saturday afternoon, Karlin drove me into Virginia to practice with our new band at Jameel's place. It was our last rehearsal before Thanksgiving. We still don't have a decision on who will be drumming, and there are still more people to be auditioned. However, we are constantly working on new songs and already have a dozen or so down. Once we get a drummer and solidify our sound with him or her, we will be ready to play shows.

What happened musically the rest of the weekend may actually help those shows take place.

It was during Friday's gig that one of the guys in Alowishious Farhatt mentioned they were playing a gig Saturday night in their home town of Manassas. They talked me into considering going out there to join them at the gig. It just so happened that I didn't have anything else going on Saturday night, so as long as I could figure out a way of getting my keyboard and myself to Manassas, I could play the show! It wasn't easy. Karlin got me as far west as Vienna, and Katie (sister of Alowishious Farhatt's bassist, Zach) picked me up from there and got me and my keyboard to the show.

In the back of my mind is the question of how I was going to get back home, or to my World Peace Party band rehearsal on Sunday afternoon elsewhere in Virginia. But that was to worry about later. First thing's first, and I had a show to play!

So we played the show, and since it was their home court, they knew almost everybody in the bar, and it was packed! We played an excellent show, and they brought another guy named Travis to the stage to play drums for a few songs at the beginning of the last set.

While that was happening, I was making friends with the staff at the bar: a bartender and a waitress. The bartender, Nick, said he wants to book me to fill some vacancies on the bar's upcoming performance calendar. He gave me his business card and jotted down his cell phone number for me to get in touch with him.

Also met a guy named Mike, or Moondog, who told me Farhatt used to play "Dear Mr. Fantasy" by Traffic, featuring the highly influential Steve Winwood on organ. So we played that at my request once we had the chance. It was one of many high points of the show for me, which also included sitting back and listening to the live debut of one of their originals. It is an incredible song, and they were tight playing it. And my fly was down the whole time they played it, Zach pointed out to me afterward. Oops!

When the show was over, it was late and all were far too impaired to drive, so we all took a cab and crashed at Rick and Katie's. That matter of getting out of Manassas would wait for sometime Sunday.

We woke up and went to the recording studio where Alowishious Farhatt was in the midst of recording an album. They had three songs recorded with hopes to get some good keyboard tracks in. I ended up learning all three on the spot, playing them back, and recording my parts. Now I'll be on their album!

And the studio engineer really enjoyed having me there, and I'm going to try to go back to get some work in his studio on weekends. Now I stand the chance of making some money on the side while playing music, one of my absolute favorite things to do! This was long overdue.

The one side effect of this was not being able to make the scheduled rehearsal with World Peace Party on Sunday afternoon. I broke the news gently, and it was well received.

So there's a lot for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving!