Proud Papa

Woah.  Been awhile.  Oh well, can't be helped.  If you were holding your breath, I'm sorry but I know you're lying.

This weekend past, the fabulous T-Rox Music Academy (now defunct?) held its 2010 Summer Showtime and once again many kids and adults masquerading as kids performed.  I was one of the latter.

Performing for me is getting easier but...  it was warm and humid that day and with the nerves my hands were clammy.  My playing is questionable at the best of times but with clammy hands, laying down the main loop in my quasi-improvised affair was frought.  But I soldiered through.  The funny bit was after I got the finger picked loop into the looper, I realized I forgot my pick in my pocket.  So I had to stand up mid performance, smile stupidly and grab a pick.  Look ma no hands.  Doh.

But enough about me and just a little more about me.  My youngest child, J the drummer, decided to sign up to perform Come Together.  After signing up, I asked him who he was doing it with and he looked at me a little blankly (in that way that boys have) and he said, "uh, you?"  Figuring I could learn the bass part, I said sure.  What about the rest of the band...  Long story short, we roped in his older brother A to play guitar.  Of course, coordinating rehearsal times between all the various activities...  well not so much.  Finally, on the day before the show, we all got into the same room and worked it out.  It wasn't too bad but we still needed a singer to tie the whole thing together...  we arrived at the theatre and found J's drum instructor Ed and explained our plight.  He helped rope in the fabulous Kirt (a guitar teacher) to sing the song with us.  Awesome.

So, after my guitar performance, I got the bass ready and we waited for our slot.  My hands were still clammy.  And we're on.  Quick setup, intro, etc.  And go!  A bit of a shaky start but before long were were loping along like we'd been gigging for years.  It's hard to describe the little bubble you're in when you perform.  When you're solo, you're juggling stuff, you're busy.  But in a band, it's kind of a team thing and you get a chance to breathe, look around and really enjoy it.  And the thing that I thought about as we played?  Just how incredibly proud I was of my two sons.

Can't wait to do it again.

2023 Update: unfortunately the video evidence on youtube has been removed for unknown reasons