WorshipGuitarist

Alright, the new site is up and running. I decided to go with brokenheadstock.com.

Check it out here.

I’ve got a review of last night’s Wilco show on there, and I’ll be updating it pretty regularly with other stuff. This will probably be my last new post on the worshipguitarist blog, so please update your links.

See you there.

I almost died yesterday.

I was driving home in the rain, and I hydroplaned. My tires left the road, and I spun clockwise about 200 degrees and slid off the road backwards into a pretty deep ditch.

It was the craziest sensation, like being on a roller coaster, except without the “I know that I’m going to eventually get off the ride and be able to move my legs” sensation.

I’m fine, and my car is fine. It turns out that my brother’s father-in-law happened to be driving home at the same time as I was. I don’t know if he just saw my shiny head or what. He stopped and called a friend of his who had a 4-wheel drive truck and tow cables. They pulled my car out and I drove home.

I was either extremely lucky or blessed - however you choose to look at it. Regardless, I’m just glad to be walking around and breathing today.

I’m also glad that I’m not dead so that I can go see Wilco tonight.

Sunday was interesting.

Rewind to last Thursday. Rehearsal was pretty rough. We had to play without our main rhythm guitarist (recovering from Lasik surgery) and our bassist was unfamiliar with several of the songs. Our worship area is in the middle of renovation (our stage is being entirely rebuilt), so we had to set everything up on the fly and try to get some rehearsing in. The rehearsal went pretty badly, in my opinion. The sound was bad, mostly due to the new construction. The drums were bouncing off of the new drywall and throwing everyone off. There were issues.

Our lead pastor decided that he wanted to rewrite the words and sing that Hank Williams Jr. “all my rowdy friends” song to go along with his message, so we had to learn a country song. Let me just say that I am not a fan of country, unless it’s of alt-country variety, and even that is a bit of a stretch, depending on the band.

Suffice it to say that it was a long rehearsal, and I was not very happy with where the music was when we were finished.

Fast forward back to Sunday morning. When we played through everything, it was a totally different experience from rehearsal. I was prepared for a train wreck, but it was actually a really good time, even though I broke the B string on my Les Paul in the first service and had to use my strat for the rest of the day since I didn’t have an extra set of strings in my case.

It’s weird how that happens sometimes.

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In other news, I’ll be making the move to in-ear monitors this weekend. In an effort to reduce stage volume, the rhythm guitarist and I will be ditching the wedge monitors and plugging Shure SCL3s in our ears. That should make a huge difference, since we place a close second to the drums in terms of overall volume.

I also ordered some new patch cables for my pedalboard from Lava Cable. I’ve been using generic junk from Radio Shack, and felt like it was time for a little upgrade.

Wilco is playing a sold-out show at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston on Friday, and I’ve got tickets. I’ve seen and heard live recordings, and they are really, really good in concert.

I just had to rub it in.

Did I mention that I’m also going to see Radiohead in May? 

I’m not going to review it here, but I watched There Will Be Blood over the weekend. Daniel Day-Lewis is a freaking force of nature. He may have been over the top, but that’s what the role called for.

It’s totally unjust that Jonny Greenwood’s score was disqualified from contention. The music was amazing - totally unlike any film score that I have ever heard. It sounded more like Penderecki than John Williams (which is a good thing).

If I understand it correctly, think that the score was disqualified because of the inclusion of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres. Regardless, I was glad to hear it. Fratres was a favorite composition of mine when I was studying music in college, and it was nice to be reminded of it.