Of Covers and Gigs

I know we have a bit to go before we start playing outside someone's living room, but I think we need to kind of kick it in gear. It seems to me we work on our stuff during the week alone, but at the meetings we play maybe two or three songs once through and then call it a day.

Elizabeth spoke to a girl that played at the HCD the other day, and she said she plays about one cover to every two original songs when she plays shows. An average (short) set is about 45 minutes, so a rough estimate is 12 songs total. 8 SD songs and 4 covers, and some chatting with the audience. We should really have about 10 SD songs and 5 covers just to make sure.

Running through a tally, here's what we have:

Katharine: Pretty much done. It has guitar, piano, and a bass line. My opinion is that it needs lead guitar during the musical interlude more than it needs a drum line. I don't know if anyone agrees with me on that - but when I hear the interlude I hear Sarah's kick ass piano, me and Liz trying to keep the rhythm, and a really clean, clear, melody-esque lead guitar bit.

Second Chance: Also pretty much done. Rhythm and bass are for the most part where we want it to be, and the lead guitar is coming along - I had a bit of trouble hearing it when we jammed last time because I was right next to my amp and could only hear myself (heh). I think this one would sound killer with some type of deep rhythmic something.

That's basically it. And it isn't for lack of trying - but the problem we're facing right now is most of the songs only one person knows how to play. I think that maybe we should take the next few band meetings to really pick only one song to really focus on. We need to all know the songs. This means that whoever wrote the song needs to kind of take the helm and make sure the other members know how it is supposed to sound and how to play it. We all play guitar (some better than others), there's no reason why we shouldn't know how to play the rhythm of each song. The recordings are great, but nothing compared to serious one on one, slowing down the tempo and learning.

I think we should take the next couple months and get intimately familiar with the rest of our song base. According to the girl that played the deli we need about 6-8 more original songs and about 4 covers. I know we all kind of agreed that we wanted to do Across the Universe, so that's one. Elizabeth and I want to do Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. I know its silly but Elizabeth's voice sounds really cool singing it, and I already know the bass line so that's a step forward. I know Sarah has mentioned Happy Together by The Turtles. There's three. But can we play them? Do we know them inside out?

This upcoming Sunday I think we should take some time and decide which songs we want to focus on to prepare for lives. I think Katharine and Second Chance are a given, I submit those two. So we need 6-8 more. I think everyone should have a say and pick two songs each that we should focus on to get us to 10? I don't know how we are going to want to approach that.

I dunno. I didn't really anticipate this post being this long, either.