The other night, I played at a fantastic Open Stage. Well, actually it didn't end up being an Open Stage. See, for the past month, Derek Downham of Grindig has been hosting an Open Stage at Rancho Relaxo on College Street in Toronto. The past two weeks, due to the holidays and people coming down with that nasty flu that's been going around, turnout for the event was quite low. Frankly put, that sucks because these Open Stage events are the best I have ever attended. Derek creates an environment that is overwhelmingly positive, and really promotes community. That's just the kind of guy he is.
Playing at his Open Stage in August made me realize how much I missed getting out and playing music. This led to one of the best creative periods in my life, one that is still ongoing. To me, that's worth a million bucks. I'm talkin' US dollars there folks.
So at the top of this entry, I said that I played at a fantastic Open Stage that wasn't really an Open Stage. You're thinking "Come on Paul, quit being so f#@king cryptic and get with the telling, so here it is. Derek was feeling pretty lousy, and was thinking about canning it for the night, but then we decided to pull up some chairs over by the bar, and play there. We just played, Derek, myself and another guy named Marcus. People would throw out song titles and we would play them so long as one person knew the chords, the other two could play along, we traded off vocals and guitar solos.
Some of the songs we played:
Happiness is a Warm Gun (Beatles), I'm So Tired (Beatles), Helter Skelter (Beatles), I Should Have Known Better (Beatles see a theme here? Derek is another big Beatles fan, like me), Two Of Us (Beatles)(just Derek and I on this one), Friend of The Devil (Grateful Dead), Do It Again (Steely Dan), Dixie Chicken (Little Feat), I Can't Go For That (Hall and Oates), Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash), Heart of Glass (Blondie) and many others that I can't even remember the titles of, because I was playing them and hearing them for the first time. Then Derek and I closed out with Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix.
So, Musically for me, it was a great night, I played for three hours solid, learned some new songs, so it was cool. I'm really hoping that this is able to become a regular thing, and that people start turning out for it. Like I say, it's a great environment in which to play, and the sound is fantastic!
Happy New Year to all, have a safe and happy 2003!
Playing at his Open Stage in August made me realize how much I missed getting out and playing music. This led to one of the best creative periods in my life, one that is still ongoing. To me, that's worth a million bucks. I'm talkin' US dollars there folks.
So at the top of this entry, I said that I played at a fantastic Open Stage that wasn't really an Open Stage. You're thinking "Come on Paul, quit being so f#@king cryptic and get with the telling, so here it is. Derek was feeling pretty lousy, and was thinking about canning it for the night, but then we decided to pull up some chairs over by the bar, and play there. We just played, Derek, myself and another guy named Marcus. People would throw out song titles and we would play them so long as one person knew the chords, the other two could play along, we traded off vocals and guitar solos.
Some of the songs we played:
Happiness is a Warm Gun (Beatles), I'm So Tired (Beatles), Helter Skelter (Beatles), I Should Have Known Better (Beatles see a theme here? Derek is another big Beatles fan, like me), Two Of Us (Beatles)(just Derek and I on this one), Friend of The Devil (Grateful Dead), Do It Again (Steely Dan), Dixie Chicken (Little Feat), I Can't Go For That (Hall and Oates), Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash), Heart of Glass (Blondie) and many others that I can't even remember the titles of, because I was playing them and hearing them for the first time. Then Derek and I closed out with Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix.
So, Musically for me, it was a great night, I played for three hours solid, learned some new songs, so it was cool. I'm really hoping that this is able to become a regular thing, and that people start turning out for it. Like I say, it's a great environment in which to play, and the sound is fantastic!
Happy New Year to all, have a safe and happy 2003!
posted by Paul at
9:48 AM
