I’m not a Coldplay fan. It’s not that I don’t like their music, I’m just an anti-bandwagon type of person. Usually if everyone else loves something, I will wait till things simmer down a bit before testing it out. Well, the time has come for me to listen to Coldplay. Why? Because right now on Amazon MP3 you can purchase their X & Y album for only $2.
You’ll have to forgive me - I broke my blog at some point over the last two weeks while trying to updgrade Wordpress, and I left my readers with the dreaded “php errors” for viewing. Maybe after reading the list of what has been going on over the past few weeks, you’ll understand why I neglected to fix it.
Please excuse the missing images and sound files throughout my older posts. I’ll work on getting those back up withing the next few days.
Last April, the band took several promo pictures. We were saving them to use in the marketing materials for our next CD, but there will be no marketing behind our most recent recording because we are no longer a band. I thought I would show you guys some of the best and/or funny shots. Enjoy!
Meredith and I are infamous for taking entirely irrational road trips at the last minute. It really has less to do with spontaneity and more to do with the fact that we are terrible planners. Case in point:Meredith learned about a bridal trunk show (whatever that means) early last week, scheduled to take place at a shop in Peachtree, Georgia, on Saturday afternoon. She absolutely had to attend it. She told me about it on Monday or Tuesday, so I marked it on my not-so-tangible calendar in my head. I love road trips, so naturally I told her I would go with her. Of course, we didn’t speak about the logistics of attending the show until Thursday. Our only real option for a place to crash on Friday night turned out not to be an option after all, so we had to take a very extreme measure. Drive to Peachtree City and back to Nashville all in the same day.I guess this is where I tell you that Peachtree City, just south of Atlanta, is 4.5 hours from Nashville. That means (for all of you not-so mathematical people out there) that we were be in the cars for a minimum of 9 hours on Saturday.That’s not so bad, right? Wrong.This bridal show just happened to be taking place on the same day that the Foo Fighters were playing in Nashville. Now this is a huge problem. I’m not missing the Foo Fighters, you see. I can’t. It’s just not an option. If I were to make a bucket list, seeing them live would be definitely be on it.So what is the solution?
We left Nashville at 8 a.m., drove to Peachtree City (a quaint little town where everyone rides around on golf carts all day long), arrived at about 12: 30 p.m., went to the trunk show, left at 2:30 p.m., and arrived back in Nashville at the Municipal Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. for the sold out show. Somehow, somewhere, we shaved half an hour off of our time on the way home. It was a beautiful thing. However, the line to get in was already wrapped around the entire arena once and was starting to snake back the other way. Insane, I tell you.After being scolded and denied entry for trying to bring a ‘professional’ camera inside, running to the car and back, arguing with a security guard and a Metro cop that called me some choice words, I was finally inside. I did have to put my camera back in the car, so the only pictures I have were taken with my Blackberry.Here’s a brief review of the show:Opener 1: Hello Stranger. Terrible. Moving on.Opener 2: Against Me. Solid but boring. Strike two.The Foo: Legendary.
I don’t care what anyone says, Dave Grohl is a legend. His rock and roll, his personality, his swagger - he has it all. There wasn’t one part in the Foo’s set, as Meredith said, that was off, in any way. Highlights:
Whether you like them or not, go see them. It was the greatest rock show I have ever seen.
After 5 years of playing music together, Wes, Brad, John and I have decided to bid farewell to the second rendition of our band, The Throws.
Each of us has a lack of motivation to invest the time and energy necessary to make a band work. We have all felt this way since the beginning of the fall, but it wasn’t mentioned until last night at our annual “let’s make some plans and do something this year” meeting. This is when it was made clear that individually, not one of us actually had any plans for this band for the upcoming year.
I was very relieved when this all came out. A lot is changing in my life right now. I finally graduated from college, I’m looking for another job, and I’m getting married. I have taken the last month or so to evaluate my life as it is, and what changes I would like to make in order to be who I want to be and where I want to be in life. Part of this thinking was that I needed to remove myself from any situations that my heart wasn’t fully a part of - which is where The Throws came into mind.
A few weeks ago, in the middle of my ‘quarter life evaluation’, I was hanging out with Meredith, and we were contently sitting next to each other, enjoying a lull in our day. After long period of silence and serious thought on my part, I suddenly blurted out, “I think I’m going to quit the band.” This was the first time that I admitted to myself out loud that it just wasn’t working out anymore. I knew I wasn’t putting much in to it and that my talents would be better used in a different situation than what I was currently in.
Fortunately I didn’t really have to ‘quit’ since we were all on the same page about it coming to an end.
Any musician will tell you how important relationships are in a band. We all know each other better than anyone else except for our significant other. Knowing each other so well is crucial to being solid and confident on stage, and is the one thing that will be hard to accomplish when starting something new.
I don’t have any plans to pursue another band right now, but I am hoping that an opportunity will come fairly soon.
Many of you know of our previous band, Echosflow (same members, plus Luke), which played our farewell show in February of 2006. This is where I really honed my skills as a drummer and realized my potential. We were able to travel all over the country playing music, and I’ve been places and done things that I would never have done without being in Echosflow or The Throws. As the cliche says, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without ‘em.”
I am thankful for everyone, including my family, friends, other bands, and most importantly God for supporting what I have done in the last half-decade with these bands. It’s a bittersweet end, having to let go of something I’ve been a part of for so long, yet knowing that there is probably something great coming in the future.
On a lighter note, we recorded 7 or 8 songs in an extremely nice studio last October, and it is definitely the most solid and best sounding music we have ever created. We still plan on mixing and mastering the tracks and will probably just burn some copies to keep for ourselves and to give to our friends. So let me know if you’s guys want one!
There was a brief discussion about playing a farewell show, but nothing is set in stone, and we’re not sure if we are going to do it. I’ll keep everyone posted.