Filling in, plus onstage acrobatics

Guess I have a little bit of an update as far as live music. This Saturday, I had the opportunity to audition for another covers band but do so in front of about 10,000 people.

I don't know what the attendance was for the Fiesta Asia parade a few days ago or, more appropriately, if everybody there actually saw and/or heard me play. But I do know that I had a good time playing with Gus Alzona's Trademark band, filling in for usual keyboardist Slim alongside two other substitutes on bass (Harvey) and drums (Rod).

We played a set of covers including "Twist and Shout" (by somebody before it was by the Beatles) and the Temptations' "Get Ready." But it wasn't until the half-hour set's closer, "Born to Be Wild," that the band and the audience got a feel for the keyboardist in their midst. My character emerged as I hammed it up with my keyboard-tilting and -lifting antics. I was the only person there who knew it was coming, but it was a last-minute decision on my part to do it.

The next afternoon was my weekly practice with the Usual Suspects. We're hunkering down to learn a few songs before our next gig, which is a graduation party on June 1. We're getting together again this Friday. But anyway, I was telling the guys about that impromptu gig with Trademark (Gus asked me to sit in with less than 24 hours' notice) and about how it ended up with the onstage actions that have really become my trademark. Unless you count that I was inspired at least in part by the dude from Wolfmother. And two of the guys stood around with me for a while helping me to come up with a way to move my keyboard around without the risk of it hitting the floor.

The only time my current board came hurtling toward the cosmos was at my first gig with the Usual Suspects, and it happened three times that night; I blame the alcohol. But since then, I have become concerned with preventing recurrence. I bought a new stand, and while it's sturdier, it certainly doesn't eliminate the risk of tipping over. I want a surefire solution, but it must also be one that will allow me to disconnect it quickly, mid-song, so I can pick up the keyboard and play it with the keys upside-down to me and facing the audience. So I'm not sure how to do that.

Why can't I just walk into any reputable music equipment store and say, "I want what the dude from Wolfmother has"? The guys in the band were telling me it's something I have to figure out; Matt said nobody could spin their guitars until the guys in ZZ Top figured out how to do it!