I'm a few days behind on posting my gig diary from over the weekend, so I figured I better catch up now! So this past Saturday Rock Inc. took the stage at Hot Spot, what has become one of my favorite places to play over the years. I have alot of history with that venue, going back over many years and many bands. Mike French has always been a wonderful host when we're there and you never know when he might decide to get in on the fun himself and jump up on stage with ya!
I was looking forward to this gig because once again we had a couple of new songs to debut for people, and we always get a kick out of doing that. This time it was a couple of Bryan Adams numbers, the infamous “Run to You” from back in the day, and his duet with Tina Turner “It's Only Love.” Both went over well with the audience I think and we're happy to add those to the playlist. For myself, admittingly I was feeling a little off performance wise for the first little bit of the show, I'm not sure why. I'm always hard on myself when I hit a wrong note, as I did a few of ‘em that night. I usually manage to cover it up fairly well so most don’t notice, but I always do lol. I just have to remember that ain't nobody perfect, and especially when it comes to rock and roll. It's not meant to be perfect anyway. It's at it's best when it's messy and gritty and dirty. That's my opinion anyway.
One of the highlights of the night was that the day before it was our drummer Ryan Krems' birthday, so we got to do a little celebrating that night along with the Rock Inc. faithful that always shows up in numbers to support us, and we appreciate it! So we were glad we were able to give Rye a proper birthday celebration.
The other big highlight for me was that somewhere along the second set, I look over towards the bar, and spotted my cousin Jeff Graves taking everything in. Jeff is a very talented singer and musician in his own right to say the least, and it was an honor and total blast getting to have him up with us and perform some Zeppelin together. Our musical aspirations go WAY back. Like since we were 12, talking about how we needed to put a band together. So for me, getting to jam with him was a real full circle moment. I hope we'll get the chance to do some more collaborations in the future!
All in all it turned out to be a great night, and alot of fun as always. I'm so grateful for having the opportunity to do this music thing on a full time basis these days. Some days it's alot to keep track of, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Until next time, this is “Gig Diaries”. Thanks for reading!