Greg Jones ruminates:

OPENING for Spock’s Beard part TWO

No sooner did we come off stage from sound check than the theater was filling fast. (with only a couple hundred paid admissions, one wonders if a ticket taker was daydreaming and a bunch of folks walked in without paying – if that’s the case, it’s not too late to get a hold of Jim Robinson and do the right thing – after all, Santa Clause is watching – and only Eliza Dushku gets to be naughty AND nice – on MY lap! ). Anyway, I ran into my good friend Mike Bove with his son Ryan (second row seat for the Beard at his first real concert – lucky kid!). Also said Hi to Doc Alan Spoll (he of the IZZ mailing list and the Neal Morse website) and was reintroduced to his pretty girlfriend as well. He asked me if I was “ready”, to which I coughed a sickly “yeah” – then lo and behold, Jim was onstage and the roar went up!
Jim said something great and too kind about us, like “I really like these guys, and I think they ROCK” and with that, we climbed aboard, I relaxed more than I EVER have at any gig in my entire musical life, and was therefore able to CALMLY feel the appropriate tempo. Clicking my sticks, Karl dealt a gnarly pick scrape and we started Timberline. Yeah! It’s feeling “right”, and the other drummers will know exactly what I mean by this. There are times you play everything perfectly in its place, and the audience loves it, and it sounds great on playback, BUT….. that magic, elusive, intangible, quasi-sexual SASS just ISN’T there. But now, it was there better than I’d EVER felt it – and even the two stops where I play busy syncopated fills felt good! What Robert Fripp refers to as “The Good Fairy” was happening for me and on the most important gig of my life! YAY!!!!!
The outro of this song has a long 7/4 section that I mess around over on the record – but tonight it got extended – I played a new galloping sort of African beat over it, first 4 measures of 4/8, then 3 measures of the same beat truncated to 3/8 , followed by a measure of 3/8 smacking my snare then a crash cymbal in rapid fire bah-DAM! Bah-DAM! Bah-DAM! Bah-DAM –BAM!!!! Back in on the downbeat, which garnered some nice yelling of approval from the audience. A few more measures of improv and we did our big ending. I was so thrilled by how good it felt that I didn’t pay any mind to the unusual difficulty I got from my double pedal on the final bass drum fill.
Applause! For US?!? What a great feeling – the crowd who came for the Beard AREN’T having a horrible time sitting thru OUR original music. YIPPEEEEE!!!!!
Karl introduces the next tune as my tribute to Steve Morse, and we’re off into Unsung Hero. It feels great too, and now I’m happier than Kathy Lee in a room full of mirrors. The middle section features a pattern of 13/4 that Karl introduces with a chiming guitar figure, then solos over while Bill and I hold it down. On the cd, I really feel that I played it too safe on this section, as it was a brand new part and I wanted to nail it groove-wise. Tonight, however, everything is going just amazingly well, so I went for all kinds of stuff with no idea how I’d end as I started each fill, and I was free flying like a naked Albino skydiver in a snowstorm! Time to come out? No problem – here’s the big double bass fill to get back to the main chord progression and UH OH! The double pedal will NOT respond! I look like I’m just flamming my toms and leaving space, but I’m frantically working my feet and NOTHING’S HAPPENING except a few flubbed hits, weak and LATE!
Normally, I’d panic, tense up, get PO’d and proceed to overcompensate nervously and joylessly as the fun gets sucked right out of me, praying for it to end soon. But NOT TONITE! I was STILL having FUN, STILL feeling the time in a relaxed and confident manner, and STILL buoyed up by how GOOD it all was coming together.
The very end of this song features me phrasing the first 3 notes of the melody along with the guitar on China cymbal smashes WHILE my right foot and my left hand on the floor tom play a roll of fast 16th notes and EVERY surface in my drum set gets smacked with the right hand to simulate the rest of the melody line. Unfortunately, it’s inaudible on our CD in the first half of it due to Karl and I sharing frequency space. You can hear it if you REALLY listen on the 2nd half of the final verse, but it’s audibly under whelming. But NOW, LIVE, EVERYONE can see me doing my faux-Rod Morgenstein as played by Animal from The Muppets routine, my arms flailing around like crazy, and the crowd graciously responded again. YEAHHHH!!!!!
I would later find out that Karl’s guitar synth, shaken by our newfound volume levels, started triggering wrong notes that he didn’t play. And that he and Bill were hearing their synth parts from pedals louder than their main axes, yet did a WONDERFUL job of NOT getting thrown by it.
The next tune was a NEW one for us, one I wrote called Always Somewhere Else. It starts with a sequenced climbing minor scale that Bill triggers, and it reappears in a dead stop to introduce the song’s final section, usually triggered manually by Bill in as close to the right time as he can get it. During this song, again the groove is just handed to me on a silver platter (Oh Happy Day….) and I’m just amazed at how GOOD it all feels. The only thing that would feel better would be (NOTE : Here Greg launched into yet ANOTHER description of lovemaking to Eliza Dushku, running his hands over her as she’s seated on his lap, wriggling slowly from side to side, sucking all the air out him with her sweet estate coffee kisses while he squeezes her young flesh for all it’s worth, but we know you’re all SICK of these middle-aged fantasy diatribes of his, so we decided to spare you AND him the embarrassment – here’s where the story resumes). Butt Eye digress. Bill plays a simply sublime and triumphant bass solo during the soft, open string chiming bridge, then we come roaring back in with the heavy chorus part, Karl spitting and snarling lead lines in between the main phrase as only he can, and here comes the dead stop!
BAM! Bill somehow NAILED the sequencer, and it started perfectly in time (I know other bands do this effortlessly, but WE do it MANUALLY – NOT with a MIDI foot switch– but Bill PHYSICALLY PRESSING a button on the keyboard – and so to *US, this was a BIG DEAL <G>.I make a face like Bill Murray in Caddyshack yelling “ - !!! IT’s IN The HOLE!” In comes the big outro, a 4/4 vamp where I once again play in and around the meter (and actually quote the Woody Woodpecker theme in one fill – look for it on the next album) only now, not only is my double pedal TOTALLY failing me in a section where I use it profusely, but the whole drum kit has turned slightly sideways and I really SHOULD panic and get frustrated – but by the grace of GOD, I somehow DON’T! Instead, a little last minute improvising makes for an interesting finish on this tune, and to my utter astonishment, people are clapping for one they’ve NEVER HEARD before – from US!
Kind, kind, sweet, gracious audience – thank you for being oh so good and supportive to us this fateful night. We will always be grateful more than any of us can articulate!
Faithful Pinnacle friend and roadie for tonight Kenny Lesko quickly tries to help me straighten up the drum kit after this tune – and it is here that I notice that my left (or “slave” pedal) is hopelessly WEDGED up on an angle in between my hi hat pedal’s footplate and frame – and I CANNOT dislodge it! What’s the NEXT song? WHY, it’s the one with ALL the DOUBLE BASS shuffling, of COURSE…..
Grinning in the moment, and laughing at adversity, I soldiered on. I have no CLUE what on earth rhythmic patterns actually occurred on my bass drum during this song – I just know that I tried to keep it FEELING good – and overall, I think I succeeded. If you want to hear this Celtic tour-de-force played correctly, pop in the CD. Or, come see us again! The important thing is, it rocked, and Karl and Bill were smokin’!
After joking about the next tune being “the ballad”, I introduced Fairytale’s End but didn’t start it till Kenny and I FINALLY dislodged the stuck foot pedal. HURRAH! Should have done this first thing, but I was having too good a time to stop the flow of the set. At one point in the second verse, Karl got slightly out of sync with my upbeat hi hat hits but quickly reigned himself in. It’s GREAT to play with two guys that will go for it and risk it in the moment, especially knowing that they can save the moment if things go astray. Karl is great at this, and Bill? He’s FEARLESS!!!!!
One more original – another new one we’ve all crafted together, proggier AND hookier at the same time (if that becomes our calling card, I’All take it happily) called Deepest Sea. THIS is the tune I was expecting to have some trouble in – and THIS was THE tune of the night! Not only did we navigate all the tricky changes with aplomb (Eliza’a plum?), but we did it with ATTITUDE. The big finale was HUGE, and Karl, Bill, I and even some of the audience felt it altogether. YEAHHHH!!!! To my amazement and utter disbelief, me and my two self-deprecating musician friends who all consider ourselves bozos most of the time SOMEHOW “pulled it off”. The response was great! The exhilaration was overpowering and joyous. We had DONE it. Six originals had NOT bored an audience there to hear the incredible songs of Spock’s Beard. What a sweet AND humbling feeling. I can only describe it by saying of all the emotions I was experiencing, the overriding one was THANKFULNESS.
Our final tune was a fun rollicking cover of the KANSAS classic “Point Of Know Return”. We did it for Jim, who loves Kansas more than anyone else I know, and who truly HAD gone beyond “the point” by scheduling SO MANY SHOWS in a 6 week period. If you’re listening, Lord, bless him and give him a well-deserved break. (Since you don’t seem to giving him any money…..)
NOW? We’re done, we’re ecstatic, we’re RACING offstage to make the quick entrance of the main event as fast and smooth as possible. Nick runs up to me, slaps my back and says “You guys were AWESOME! Great job!” Jimmy Keegan expressed similar sentiments and I was warmed but didn’t allow myself to bask in these wonderful gifts of praise cuz I HAD a job to do – get off the stage FAST! After loading out (again with Kenny Lesko’s single-minded help), I turn around and there’s Alan Morse, grabbing a quick smoke break outside, and he says “Great stuff! Your guitarist is tasty as all Hell – and he can burn, too. Very interesting material, very cool sound.”
I know Al and Ryo the LEAST of the Beardos, so THIS kind expression absolutely FLOORS me – and I’m flying high with gratitude and a sweet sense of victory. Going back into the theater, fellow proghouse staph Shellyn gives me a huge hug and says “You were great! I’m SO proud of you guys!” Then a whole bunch of audience people I don’t know started coming up and congratulating me on our set and our material.
Can you say “Stoked”?
Time seemed elastic., and I was having a blast now that I’d loaded up my drums, so I found Karl and Bill, and then THE LIGHTS WENT OUT.
The crowd went WILD, and rightly so….

….because onto the stage strolled the greatest live rock band on EARTH……

and NOW, the REAL show began……….

To be continued..