I'm mainly a guitar player who in my late teens happened to have a set of drums. I paid for them using workers' compensation money after sustaining a workplace injury.
It was the late nineties. Word gets out in a small town (a drummer who actually HAS a drum kit?) and I agreed to try my hand at percussion for a couple of local older cats, they were businessmen brothers who's repertoire seemed heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones.
I enlisted my best buddy to play bass, and we'd typically sneak a spliff before practice not knowing whether these grown-up electric guitar playing siblings would approve of our delinquent behaviour or not... small town and all. Both university educated and well into their thirties, they had a bit of a school teacher aura to them, and we juvenile pot smokers liked to keep our marijuana cigarette smoking habits on the DL.
Let me tell you, esteemed reader, the whole routine of showing-up to practice freshly baked always made for a most ultra-trippy occasion. Practicing rock and roll numbers in a band was far cooler than just staring at the lake or watching TV while pie-eyed - not that that's not a special kind of simplistic and introspective thing to do unto itself or anything. I imagine a good many geopolitical puzzles were solved in just such a fashion throughout the modern era.
These guys had Fender Jazz Master guitars, Fender Stratocaster guitars, AND Fender Telecaster guitars. Our jam spot was a tiny house across from the marina. The elder brother who resided in the lakefront cottage was in the midst of preparing some couscous upon our arrival. This was like 1997 in a small northern town. Couscous? How exotic it seemed to us back then.
The younger brother played rhythm guitar and handled the vocals. Mr. X, the elder brother, played lead. They emphasized the importance of creating a foundation in rock music: bass and drums need to lock-in so as to leave a bit of leeway for the rhythm guitar player, which provides the lead guitar player with a platform to strike-out in any direction – subsequently steering the established rhythm section.
The profundity of this simple approach to a four piece band has remained nested in my mind ever since. My first rock and roll classroom experience.
It was the late nineties. Word gets out in a small town (a drummer who actually HAS a drum kit?) and I agreed to try my hand at percussion for a couple of local older cats, they were businessmen brothers who's repertoire seemed heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones.
I enlisted my best buddy to play bass, and we'd typically sneak a spliff before practice not knowing whether these grown-up electric guitar playing siblings would approve of our delinquent behaviour or not... small town and all. Both university educated and well into their thirties, they had a bit of a school teacher aura to them, and we juvenile pot smokers liked to keep our marijuana cigarette smoking habits on the DL.
Let me tell you, esteemed reader, the whole routine of showing-up to practice freshly baked always made for a most ultra-trippy occasion. Practicing rock and roll numbers in a band was far cooler than just staring at the lake or watching TV while pie-eyed - not that that's not a special kind of simplistic and introspective thing to do unto itself or anything. I imagine a good many geopolitical puzzles were solved in just such a fashion throughout the modern era.
These guys had Fender Jazz Master guitars, Fender Stratocaster guitars, AND Fender Telecaster guitars. Our jam spot was a tiny house across from the marina. The elder brother who resided in the lakefront cottage was in the midst of preparing some couscous upon our arrival. This was like 1997 in a small northern town. Couscous? How exotic it seemed to us back then.
The younger brother played rhythm guitar and handled the vocals. Mr. X, the elder brother, played lead. They emphasized the importance of creating a foundation in rock music: bass and drums need to lock-in so as to leave a bit of leeway for the rhythm guitar player, which provides the lead guitar player with a platform to strike-out in any direction – subsequently steering the established rhythm section.
The profundity of this simple approach to a four piece band has remained nested in my mind ever since. My first rock and roll classroom experience.
