Hot Fun in the Summertime

I kicked off WXPN's XPoNential Music Festival yesterday and had such a great time I thought Ikd dust off the old blog and ramble on a bit.

The big news is that this was the first time out for the 11 piece band I've put together for the upcoming record release shows. When I say first time out I'm not just whistling Dixie (it wasn't on the set list).

I had been doing individual rehearsals with the core 4 piece band, other rehearsals with the Voices of Reason (as I've dubbed the 3 backing vocalists) and still other rehearsals with the Hong Kong Cavellier Memorial Horns. But we never all played together until the day of the show

This was a little bit scary but it also made it really exciting as everyone was hearing each other and how everything fit together for the first time. The funny thing is that once we started the performance I was actually more relaxed than I usually am for band shows. I think being surrounded by that many good players gave me a sense of not having to carry everything myself and there were moments where I could almost be the audience for what was going on.

Couple all of that with the fact that XPN totally has it together with that festival in terms of the sound system and crew and backstage sitch PLUS some seriously gorgeous weather and it was just kinda everything you could ask for

Thanks to XPN for having me and to everybody who came out.
Sadly, this band WON'T be around forever. Get your tickets to the Record Release show NOW.