The Strange World of Davidh - Chapter 10

The Strange World of Davidh - Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN (Originally Written and Posted Monday, January 01, 2007)

"The Monster Wore Tennis Shoes"

    When we reconvened in August we found ourselves with two new members. Kenny Hightower, a friend of Andy's who happened to play bass and Marc Peterson, by now if you have been reading these blogs you should know who he is, playing rhythm guitar and keyboards. I was really excited that Marc would be playing keys because i had always wanted a keyboard player in the live sets. I had always recorded any keyboard parts in the studio but live it was impossible to do, also the aspect of 3 guitars sounded cool as well. We rehearsed for close to 2 months getting the new guys up to speed on the songs and then went out and played our first show as a 5 piece.

    Interestingly enough our comeback show of sorts was at the very place we had our first show, Linda's Sports Bar, on Sept. 28th, 2004. The show turned out well, i was able to hang out with 2 guys i don't see enough of these days, Chris Kell and Vince Spiceland, so it was good to see them. This was a band of characters, egos and dreams, i was glad to see we were all getting along and making this work. This show was filmed and the resulting video has more of us hanging out than us playing, thats just what kind of night it was. We were only in the venue while we played and a very short time after that, we spent most of the night in the back of Kenny's box truck chillin and getting trashed. After this night i made an effort to tone down on the debauchery, atleast for awhile. Kenny's stories of chillin with Queen bees were some of the funniest things i have ever heard in my life, another thing about this that made me real happy was i had all my friends together in one band, it was awesome.

    We decided we would each bring in a cover song to learn, i brought in "A Forest" by The Cure. This would be the only one that made it into the live set.

    Another gig at Linda's in the beginning of October we debuted a new song called "Underneath" in it's early stages, one thing i know Andy hated was me and Kenny always pushing to play the new songs before they were ready.

    We kept practicing and in October we were asked to play at one of the Shedfest shows, ahh...this would be a different show though, this show was going to be on Halloween. Shedfest was a place much like the Uncle Bob's, little quarantined areas where bands could set up, practice and pay a small fee. Every once in a while they would all get together and have a big show. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday so i always look forward to the Halloween show. I was lucky enough to play one with BLISS and now with the Sons of Godzilla. The BLISS show we didn't really prepare for costume wise, this time it would be different. I hatched an idea we should all dress up as skeletons, everyone the same...the old gang mentality to show we were a band, and a band that was here to get it on. When we showed up at the show i think we gave the impression to some people we were a gang, everyone seemed to be shocked by the idea of 5 guys dressing the same looking kinda scary, to me it was quite professional of us, we had our shit together. We played a good set, tight and mean...i was quite impressed with the guys because this was what it was about...we were a band.

    In November we were asked to play at Andy's sister's first annual event to benefit persons with MS at Hoss's Deli. We hooked up Kenny's four track to the soundboard and got a fantastic recording out of it, the only thing was i was just about nowhere in the mix. I was having serious issues with my guitars and the grounding in Hoss's. The whole show i was dropping in and out all over the place. The next week we played Mitty's which turned out to be a decent show. I think Mike was having some issues with the drum riser he was on because every time he hit his drums he thought the riser was going to crumble underneath him. The sound person at the time, can't remember his name, had some issues as well, very slack, i wish i could get paid for plugging in a few wires, drinking and ignoring people. It was also very hard to hear yourself on stage there, after the shows everyones major complaint was that they couldn't hear very well.

    The weekend of Andy's 28th birthday (Dec. 4th) we played at Neptunes in Nags Head, by the end of the night Andy was trashed swinging from the rafters and jumping from the stage on to the tables in the seated area. This was the beginning of several jaunts to Nags Head over the next few months to play shows. The next weekend we played Jitters in Gloucester, we were told that this show was a tester and would decide if we could play gigs there on a regular basis, the owner was never there so we were never seen. The show itself turned out great but we didn't accomplish we went there for, nothing we could do. Good thing about this show is that no alcohol was served, so the combination of a sober crowd and a sober band made for a good night. Unfortunately Marc couldn't play at either one of these shows due to outside commitments.

    For New Years we traveled again to Nags Head to play at the Great Atlantic Grill, this is the show that kind of gave the image that we put on a rowdy show. The 2 bands that played before us were very chill, jammy type bands. (Dread Neck and Formula) When we went on we changed the entire environment, no longer were people sitting around or gently swaying to the music, people were going nuts. This is what people wanted, to go crazy on New Years Eve. I ended up by the end of the night having people in this make shift pit falling all over my equipment unplugging my gear and really pissing me off. Looking back on it now it was actually pretty funny and how could i be mad, they were having a good time. Later on when we tried to book more shows in Nags Head some venues told us they didn't cater to our type of show, the news of the show was out and i think they didn't want their places destroyed (hehe). Pure and simple this show rocked and i think it did us some good in turning heads in our direction in a place where otherwise we were unknown, and that was it, after this show the year of 2004 was over.

    Not wasting any time in the new year of 2005 we played a show at Tonic's in Virginia Beach, never playing this place before i was a tad nervous. We opened for Duburbia, the place was packed as i remember. One funny thing to happen that night was some cowboys in the bar before we played asked Andy and I (i made a habit of sticking close to Andy before the shows so we could work out the last minute details)just what kind of music was it we played, of course we told him it was country and western and that they should stick around for the show, as the closing notes on our opening song rang out i could see in their faces there were none too pleased.

    We recorded a set of acoustic songs for fun titled "Walk the Plank with the Sons of Godzilla".

    We made a few more trips out to Nags Head to play a few more shows at Neptunes. While we were there we became friends with 2 other bands we would do joint shows with from time to time, Control Council and Gojira~X. Marc had started missing practices a lot during this time and we let it go on for awhile because we really wanted him to be a part of the band, especially me, but as time went on we just decided it would be better for all of us if we went on without him, and we did it right this time. We told him and we all agreed, i didn't want our friendship jeopardized the way it had been in the past. The split was not painful and our friendships stayed intact. whew! After this we decided to move shop, i had been practicing at Mike's house for the better part of 6 years so i welcomed the change, i'm sure Mike did as well...he could have a normal home life again. Kenny's parents owned an antique store and offered us a room above the work stations in the warehouse area, we moved everything and remained there until the end.

    Gojira~x invited us out to Richmond, Va. to play a gig at Wonderland, which turned out good. We debuted a new song titled "She Says". Much to Kenny's dismay, my wife and Mike's wife destroyed the bedroom area in his room at the hotel as a rib as Andy, Mike and i drunkly and loudly wandered the hotel grounds. Downtown Richmond was pretty crazy, earlier in the day me and Mike were walking the streets at dusk in this terrible part of town looking for somewhere to buy beer, i felt like every alley we passed by a nutjob was going to jump out and rob us of our cash. I called Tony out on that trip for some reason, i think it was just that i missed having him around, and it was good to talk to him again, i hadn't talked to him in almost over 8 months.

    Andy, Kenny and I recorded a new song called "Messages" while making bumper music for a new DVD.

    Andy has a friend Pete who used to work for Vertigo tattoo in Nags Head, when he still worked there he asked us to come and play their annual tattoo festival. The shows for Vertigo would be during the days, saturday and sunday...we figured while we were there we would book a night show on friday at Neptunes. When we arrived on friday we were saddened by the news that this was going to be the last weekend Neptunes would be open, once we found that out we asked the owners (Mark and Andy) if we could also squeeze in a surprise short set in on saturday night as well, and even though he had booked 2 bands already for the last night we were assured a spot. The owner i ever dealt with was Mark, he was a super cool guy always up for anything, he seemed to be one of those people who took a genuine interest in us and he's one of the few club owners i will remember fondly. So the friday night show goes well, we get seriously hammered, have a good time...Andy is super animated on stage, good banter on stage...he was definitely in a zone. Saturday morning rolls around, we have to get our gear together and i for one was hungover,...bad. As the day set began all i wanted to do was puke and then curl up into a ball, listening back to the recording though, we were on fire, the song "Underneath" was the standout, i've always thought Andy was a good singer but at this show he was just blowing my mind. Now here's where the real fun started, we arrive at Neptunes saturday late in the day to get something to eat and we run into one of the bands playing that night, The Semantics. They were a nice group of fellows and one girl, we chatted briefly and left. We came back with our gear and we were just hanging around and we started to notice this guy that kept coming and then going out, you wouldn't see him for about fifteen minutes and then he was back...in and out. Now at this point we are thinking, what the hell is going on here? We played our set, a more toned down affair this time as i was still hungover from the night before. The Semantics were next up and during their set i started to notice various people coming in with VIP passes around their necks, i'm thinking who in the world is headlining this show, first they have people scoping out the venue, now there's VIP pass people walking around...this better be good. The time had arrived, the headlining band was here, first thing they do is demand Mark pay them a certain amount of money (classy, who are you again?), they wouldn't use the house PA system even though is was quite good and there was a guy being paid specifically to do sound at no cost to them. The name of the band was That Girl Band, out of Norfolk, they took the stage and proceeded to play cover song after cover song, thats what all this was for? A cover band. Neptunes was this great venue to play, a lot of good bands had come through this place and on the last night, the very last band, was a cover band, what a joke! I suggested to Mark that we burn their money contract as a form of protest and for awhile i thought we were going to...unfortunately we didn't. This was one of the most absurd moments i have ever experienced in my life. There's two things in life i firmly believe in, 1 - if you are in a cover band you have no soul, your lack of creativity is boring and you do not interest me...2 - you cannot rock in sandals, period, put some shoes on hippie! We woke up the next morning ready to go, the only thing was we had left our equipment at Neptunes the night before. We went over to Neptunes to get our gear and the place was locked up like Fort Knox, we called everyone we could to try and get inside but it was early and no one answered their phones. Andy picked the lock and we were in, luckily we weren't arrested and we made it to our final show of the weekend. The lesson i learned that weekend was never try to cram 4 shows into one weekend, we rocked at the last show but everyone was tired, Andy's voice was shot...i for one, was glad to be going home.

    We played the Pit in Nags Head with Control Council as support, pretty normal show...tried hooking my camera into their video rig and broke it, if your reading this Pit people...oops, my bad, i also remember being a jerk to my wife that night and sleeping in our Pathfinder, if your reading this...sorry, i love you! hehe!

    We played a few shows at Linda's in March and June, in June we played with some good friends of ours, Hierarchy of Nuts, nicely enough their bass player Keith Goodwin recorded us on his DAT recorder which turned out fantastic, thanks Keith!

    My work during the summer was hectic, i asked the guys if we could tone down the shows and the practicing until the summer was over...the only show of the summer was at Dude's annual Fourth of July Bash...a new song titled "Veil of Democracy" was debuted at this show.

    We resumed the show schedule at the end of August, we played a new venue that had just opened up called Budda's Place, we played the grand opening weekend. They had no alcohol license so we had to go to the strip club next door to drink, interesting to me to be in a strip club (i had only been to 1 before this, and that was a long, long time ago)with my wife. Usual fare, we rocked.

    Next up we decided it was time to record another cd, i wanted to go back to Wintersound...unfortunately it was closed down. Mike had a friend (John) who lived in Richmond that had a studio in the basement, we talked to him and on the last weekend in September we traveled to Richmond and recorded what would become our second cd. We recorded the cd in 2 days, did all the music tracks (drums, bass and guitars)on a saturday night, slept on a cold ass concrete floor and woke up on sunday and Andy cut all his vocals. Our good friend Barry Belbin was their to assist John in the recording and he also kept us in line during the recordings, assuring we did our best. I filmed the entire session but unfortunately the tape was ruined in a camera mishap, so none of the footage survived.

    After the grueling sessions, Andy, Kenny and i took a trip to New York to relax, the next weekend it was show time again, Andy's sister held her 2nd annual show to benefit MS at Hoss's deli. Mike was unable to attend this show as he was out of town so i played drums. I hadn't been nervous like that in a long time, like i had swallowed a mouth full of butterflies. We played a short 5 song set, we did well and come off a little more rawer than usual, definitely a sloppy but good sound.

    The first weekend of November we traveled back to Richmond to mix our cd, John let us have complete control over the mixing which was cool. I'd much rather do it myself than have to sit there and point everything out for someone else to do. Luckily the film of this night did survive.

    We were asked to play at Budda's Place again 2 weeks later, we decided that this would be kinda like a cd release show, i made a huge mistake that night. When putting the setlist together i really scrambled the songs around, Kenny was about staying in line and not veering off the path when it came to the setlists, so he had a real hard time remembering things out of order that night(thats what i figured) and performed pretty poorly, or it could have been the alcohol...Andy was a tad drunk and out of control as well, those who have seen this show on tape have only seen it in clips...it wasn't pretty. I did get some good footage of Andy trashing his gear on stage though. Barry and John came out to the show and John likened it to musical theater, he was kinda right. I realize everyone has their bad nights, and it was no big deal. Kenny on the other hand was mortified and called me up at about 3 in the morning to tell me he was quitting the band, i assured him it was just a bad night and everything would be ok. Kenny may not have been the best bass player in the world but he was definitely one of the coolest guys i knew, he was much like Tony in that regard which is weird because they both played bass for us. I wasn't about to let Kenny leave the band or my small circle of friends, if he was unhappy on a whole thats one thing but he was just upset over this one night...as i got older and married, the only people i really hung out with was my band mates, outside of Marc and Brian, Kenny was an important part of that fold. Thankfully, when we hung up the phone, everything was all better.

    We played a new venue called the Cactus in December with our friends Second Sight, we did well our first time out so they put us on a schedule starting in the new year to play twice a month. We drew a lot of people and they liked that, we were going to have a steady place to play plus the place was only a few blocks from where we practiced, i loved that. Andy, Mike and i played a short low key acoustic set at our wives Christmas Party to end the bands year of 2005.

    During these times i sporadically recorded solo songs, no real concentrated sessions, i was still trying to keep my ultimate focus on the band, writing wise. I did get a drum set though to aid in my sessions.

    Basically that was it for 2005, i ended the year drinking Absinthe with Brian Boyd and Brian Swofford, drunkenly cutting promos over the WCW world title...whooooooooo! Little did i know what 2006 had in store for me.......