It's been said by many over the years that music can act as a healer, a repairer of the mind body and soul. There have been many occasions over the course of my career where that has been EXACTLY the case, and last night at 21 Rock was no exception.
The week leading up to the show quite honestly for the most part…had been a shitty one. It started out well enough in me getting back onto my regular routine between the gym and practice getting ready for the gig. But then as life has a way of doing sometimes it will throw us a curveball. That Tuesday I found out that a very dear and long time friend had passed away over the past weekend, and really knocked me for a loop as well as many other friends we had in common. Grief has a way of doing that. I'd spent alot of time messaging back & forth with people, and just trying to pull myself together in some way.
It wasn't until about Friday that I began to get to that point. If it was one thing I believed, it's that he wouldn't have wanted any of us to sit around mourning and moping. So by the time Saturday rolled around, I was able to get my training session in in the morning at the gym, put on one of my favorite inspirational tracks “The Show Must Go On” by Queen and get prepared for the show that night, as I knew that it would be a release valve for me emotionally…
So this was Rock Inc.'s first show at 21 Rock, and it had been awhile in the planning. For myself I've played there many times over the years since the late 90's, and it's always been a favorite of mine to play. It's a large club that has a great stage and now back stage area to it that I've always enjoyed, and there's always a good energy in the place. There was alot of hyping up of the gig between ourselves and some of the Rock Inc. “entourage” and as always they did not disappoint! We had a great turnout of peeps that night, and they definitely brought the vibes and lots of hugs exchanged as many there knew what I'd been dealing with through the week and they were a great sense of solace to me for which I am definitely grateful for.
We started out the night a little bit bumpy as we had some sound issues to straighten out, but we quickly got it resolved and put together a very solid performance in my opinion. We got to debut yet another couple of new songs, in the form of Jefferson Starship's “Find Your Way Back”, which has long been a favorite of mine so I was excited for us to debut our cover of that, as well as “Sky High Percentage” by Budgie, another great rocker that I was familiar with but had not played that with anyone live to that point. Both went over real well with the crowd, as I think everything did on the whole that night. Our drummer Ryan Krems was especiallly playing like a beast last night and got alot of compliments from people as well! As we had started out the night as I was looking at the set list I had thought about dedicating “The Ocean” by Led Zep to my friend, but when it came time for “Don't Change” by INXS I ended up dedicating that one instead as that has always come across as a hopeful kind of song lyrically, so I thought it was appropiate.
By the time it was all over with and we were packing things up, I felt tired but definitely in a much more positive place after getting that release on stage. There's just nothing better than having a great group of people to jam with such as Rock Inc., and getting to do it in front of such a great group of friends/ family , and fans as we have. And for that I thank all you guys!. Now it's time to get back into preparation mode again as we got another gig coming up at Hot Spot this weekend, and I definitely wanna be ready!