Haven't written anything for a while. Feel I should because there have been changes.

With Marc's exit comes new responsibilities. In a previous post I mentioned how I couldn't come close to Marc's expertise on keyboards, but Rush kind of lends itself to the bass player being the keyboard player and ,well, that's me. I'm becoming more and more like Geddy Lee every day!! We've decided to become more Rushlike and have since acquired a set of foot pedals, and I'm playing keyboards. It makes for quite the choreography on stage, no more spacing out on easy bass parts because the keys are playing (I've caught myself doing this, old habits are hard to break) but now it seems I'm using my whole brain every time we rehearse.

We started out incorporating the foot pedals first. That gave us the ability to perform most of the better known Rush tunes, since most of those are pretty basic as far as keyboards. Now I'm working up Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions, Analog Kid, a little bit more involved on the keyboard parts, and I'm not sure what I'm going to be working on next after I get those down.

I don't mind, as a matter a fact in some weird way I welcome the change. That's the great thing about a being a musician, you're never done, there's always new territory to conquer and ironically you never really conquer it. Whatever area you "conquer" still needs to be tweaked and maintained, constantly. But everything you take on gives you a bit more perspective about any musical situation and affects your response to it.

Speaking of changes, we are doing a cover show for a private event soon. They want Rush but they also want some other stuff. We've all played and are playing in multiple bands but we haven't yet considered playing non-Rush material until this opportunity presented itself. Not one to step down from a challenge we decided to try it and see what happens.  These are un-Rush tunes we're doing...

Hard to Handle - Black Crowes
Honky Tonk Woman - Rolling Stones
Cissy Strut - The Meters
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
Feel Like Makin' Love - Bad Company
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix
Crossroads - Eric Clapton
One Way Out - Allman Bros.
Scuttle Buttin'/Couldn't Stand the Weather - SRV
Man in a Box - Alice in Chains
Machine Head - Bush
Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
Cold Shot - Stevie Ray Vaughan
My Own Worst Enemy - Lit
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Basket Case - Green Day
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

What's great about playing Rush tunes is that everything else you try that is not Rush is a piece of cake. It's amazingly easy to sing and play bass over a straight 4/4 once you have sung  over changing meters (i.e. Natural Science, see previous blog). I can happily say we're overqualified. This is only a temporary digression of course, and once this gig is done, it's back exclusively to the Rush tunes, but it is a nice...change.
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