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Where's the bass? Friday, February 4. Dan's birthday. Show at Lizard Lounge. Paul Kamran opens: very cool stuff. WJ plays (including two new songs "Time to Go" and "Angel"), we have a good time, all is right with the world. Thanks to everyone who came- people we hadn't seen in a while showed up, which we greatly appreciate. Saturday, Feb 5. Dan's stomach forgets that its main job is to keep food inside Dan and imitates Old Faithful every time he attempts ingestion. So Dan is about as useful as AOL. Should we drive 160 miles to play the Nail without a bass player? Now, a band playing without a bass just doesn't sound right. It just sounds.... wussy. There is a little known equation that actually describes the inverse proportionality of bass and wussiness: Wussiness of band = (Number of band members that are engineers/architects - length, in feet, of drummer's hair) /(Thunderous bass + percentage of lead singer's body covered with tattoos) As you can see, WJ at full force is already dangerously high on the wussy scale (move over Goo Goo Dolls!), so the loss of a bass player is pretty crippling for us. Despite that, Craig, Randy, and myself (herein collectively referred to as "WJ lite") decide cancelling our show tonight at The Rusty Nail is a big thumbs down, and off to Pennsylvania we go. WJ lite selects all the songs it can possibly do without bass (total songs: 9). Despite the unfamiliar sound, things go as well as can be hoped for. There was a great crowd turnout, including several friends and family members who drove long distances to attend (Your perfect attendance ribbons are bring printed up as you read this, you brown nosers). When we play The Nail, we usually crash at my parents' house, who live close to the bar. They are moving out of the area and are in the process of packing up all of their belongings and uncovering some long lost momentos (No, not the Freshmaker). These lost memories, mixed in equal parts with Miller High Life- the champagne of beers- made for some post-gig hijinx. Highlights included pin the tail on the donkey, handstands, destruction with disposable cutlery, beer pong with plastic golf balls, and interior design with beer cans. Possible Chinese fortune cookie cliff notes: If bass player gets flu, rest of band has more leg room in van. When life hands you sick bassist, make sick bassist-ade. Friends don't let friends live the High Life. See y'all in April after Dan gets married! Charlie |
