Rock n Roll Is Hard Work

Last night my band, Braddock Station Garrison, had our first real show as a four-piece. We have been playing together for about 7 or 8 months, working on original material, tightening up our live show and recording what we plan on being our debut record. We decided it would be fun to put on a show in our practice space (also known as "Tom's Basement"), invite a bunch of friends over, and record it so it looks like we are playing in a club.

Here's the first song from last night's set:

Pretty awesome, eh? I agree!

This song is called "My Waterloo" and is actually over 10 years old. It's been a staple of my solo shows. The lyrics are kind of nonsense; they are heavy on imagery and rather loosely connected imagery at that. I did this song at a little dump of a club in Georgetown once, and remember the stoner coming up to me after the show to tell me how the lyrics really spoke to him. I recall thinking "No kidding! Smoke another joint, wasteoid, it gets better!" But to hear this song now, along with all the rest, come to life with a full band is a real rush.

Performing is among the most exhilarating things I have ever done. Also one of the most exhausting. And one of the most rewarding. There's a real feeling of euphoria when a room full of people are cheering and clapping and shouting and having a good time because of their enjoyment of you and the music you and your friends are creating.  It's really a drug. I was ready to do it all over again.

I wonder what it would be like doing this every night and I believe it would get kind of dull. Patrick and I (Patrick is our bassist and is shrouded in darkness there on the left) were outside about an hour before the show just hanging out by ourselves. He remarked something along the lines of this being the part they don't tell you about in rock n roll school. As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part. I mentioned that to Tom (guitarist extraordinaire on the right of your screen) and he remembered a story with Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones saying, on the occasion of 25 years of playing with the Stones that it's more like 5 years of playing and 20 years of sitting around.

So our goal with all of this is to have fun, write and perform some pretty good songs, and if we can have a roomful of people, be it old friends or new friends or not friends, clap and cheer for each song we do I will consider that a pretty awesome achievement.

So a sincere thanks to all you made it out and supported us. We had a blast and hope you did to. And we cannot wait for the next show. See you there!

PS here is the link to our YouTube page!