Squeezed in family visit amid weekend of music

So far, this has been a red-letter weekend, and it's only Saturday morning as I start typing this. I guess it helped that my weekend kind of started on a Thursday and that there was nothing to do on Friday. But I didn't let that stop me from pursuing the excitement I knew must have existed somewhere.

On Thursday, I drove to Timonium, MD, for a Usual Suspects gig. We played between 5:30 and 7:30 at a fitness center. Three things were notable about this short gig on a puny stage, which did fit all five of us plus Pete's acoustic drum kit.

OK, four things since there was free beer.

One was the people dancing, including one gentleman who looked straight out of the Six Flags commercials and got to dance numerous times with a gorgeous and shapely blonde female employee. Even if it was only this guy and his partner of the moment, it was great to play an indoor gig with people dancing. That had been a while.

Oh, in fact, it was the first time we had ever played in a gym. Matter of fact, it was also the first time I ever stepped inside a gym. Funny place. I didn't know what a lot of the equipment was.

Another notable thing about the gig was the volume. The sound travels far in that building. There are no true walls to confine it, so it goes everywhere. At the front desk, they're conducting business, and it's hard to hear when the music pumping through is overpowering. So it took about the length of our first set to get our volume level adjusted to an appropriate setting. We were playing quietly, which may have helped out in this last factor.

Matty Knuckles, who ordinarily does most of the vocals, had told us all week long he wasn't going to be able to sing much at Thursday's gig. He said the other Matt and I should get ready to do a lot of singing, and to split up his material, etc. So I came prepared to handle about half the songs. I ended up doing less than half, but I felt really good about my vocal performance. The other guys said it was because I wasn't having to scream, so I could just more easily hit the high notes without straining. I guess I buy it.

Right after the gig, I thought, while I'm already halfway to my folks' place, I'll go drop by for a surprise visit. I beat them home by about five minutes. It's always good to see Mom & Dad. They fed me a late dinner, and I stayed up talking with them long past midnight and turned in. I woke up in late morning to an offer of breakfast. In the afternoon, I took off to see my aunt for the second time since her cancer diagnosis. I got back to Mom & Dad's again for an early dinner before I hit the road.

I'd been invited to go jam with a drummer I hadn't played with since last October, so I showed up at his doorstep at 8:15. A guitarist and bassist both showed up too. These guys are all in their 40s at least. Jon, on drums, has spent the least amount of time playing his instrument, but it doesn't show. We played for hours on whatever we all knew in common. While we did jam on some predictable classic rock tunes like "Locomotive Breath" and "Love Me Two Times," it impressed me how we could also rock out on deep tracks (Blind Faith's "Well All Right," for instance) and tunes written since the proper classic-rock era ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears and "Closing Time" by -- oh, come on, you know better than I do). And Jon is a huge Beatles fan, and he impressed himself that he was able to handle some John Lennon vocals.

It would be cool to work up a repertoire with these guys and go play out! Why not? It's not like I have anything else to do!

I'm playing another paying gig tonight, again with the Usual Suspects, this one at Okra's in Manassas. Then I'll be back there on the 4th of July to watch the Wooly Mamas, the band formerly known as Alowishious Farhatt.
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