And that’s a wrap.

Well, folks, five shows down and I have to say that I’ve had the time of my life. I’ve been delirious, I’ve come home a zombie, I’ve lived off chicken Parma and Noodle Box, I’ve been in 4 states in a month and sometimes forgotten where I’ve just been and most importantly, I’ve seen five very bloody impressive shows.

Here are some of the highlights:

Getting to thank Max via a sign for giving me the inspiration to get back on the kit when I am feeling more than a bit lazy.

Getting Max’s drum sticks on two separate occasions. I now have a pair.

Getting a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Bruce, who then came back to do the same to my mum.

Getting to hold hands, get hi fives and of course, dancing from the stage with the dude.

Hearing Born To Run, Born In The USA, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle in their entirety.

Dream Baby Dream.

Getting guitar picks thrown at me from Tom Morello

Seeing Eddie Vedder on stage with Tom and Bruce.

The dealings we’ve had with Bruce’s security staff who helped organize the line to get into the venues. They were great, professional and friendly. I couldn’t praise them enough.

Hearing so many different songs and seeing five very different shows.

And finally, the incredible people that I’ve met along the way. I’ve made some really good friends and for a lot of us who’s last concert was last night, it will be hard to go from our little bubble back to our every day lives. On the up side though, I now have so many reasons to visit different states and I’ve promised some people I’d be back real soon, so I guess I’ll just have to find another gig worth traveling for so that I can visit my new found friends.

Where to from here? Well, back home and straight on the drum kit. I have about a year or so’a worth of inspiration to keep me going. Thanks Bruce!

The winner is….

Wrecking Ball. That’s the album that I’m going to focus on as a guitarist. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that I can’t stop listening to it. I think that’s a pretty good reason. The second is that when I hear it, I can hear myself playing it – sitting down in my little studio with my guitar and laptop, slowly learning each part to it. I like the idea of being alone with my guitar somewhere, just playing. It’s peaceful.

Wrecking Ball also strikes me as an album that you can do that with. I don’t know if you could with The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle. It just doesn’t feel like it would make sense to play it just on a guitar. Wrecking Ball really lends itself to that.

In other news, I’m going to see the fabulous Jimmy Cupples tonight, so that should be good then there’s the big show at Crown tomorrow night – James Reyne, Joe Camilleri, Daryl Braithwaite and Ross Wilson. If you don’t have tickets to it, too bad, so sad. There is good news though, they’re doin’ another one there the following week. Hop on it.

I’m gonna hop off now (well not literally, my foot is a lot better) and do something with my day. Bye bye

The things I love in you

Well, my foot doesn’t hurt so much today which means that it’s back to playing drums today. Yay!

Last night I got a reminder that life is far too short to waste it sitting around. I know people get lazy and procrastinate, but with people falling around me like autumn leaves at the moment, I have no time for anything that’s not going to make me happy.

I’ve been tweaking my diet to make me healthier, listening to a lot of the Wrecking Ball album and I’ve also fallen back in love with The Wild, The Innocent and the E street Shuffle. There is such a depth of material that sometimes I can get lost in it, trying to decide what direction to go in. It’s time for choices.

Today’s plan is easy. Be great – at everything. Be great at work, go home and work out, be great at that, pull my finger out of my arse and play something. Be great at that too. I feel like I’m doing all these drawings to build something beautiful, it’s time to get out and start building it. February will be here before I know it and I want to be great then, too.

Whatever you do today, be great at it. You might not get that chance tomorrow.

What to do when you wake up on time

And the last thing that you want to do is eat breakfast? That was this morning and my answer was play bass, of course. I have my capo so now it’s time for some guitarin’ so that I can rearrange some music.

It’s funny, this whole process reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend recently when they were talking about their approach to their playing and their search for beauty. As this is my best friend, we are alike in quite a few ways and mulling over this conversation made me ask myself what my own focus was. Is it the same? The endless search for beauty in music? Well, no. The only job I want is to make people feel something. To go about it the Ian Curtis way – some music’s not meant to be beautiful. I just want people to feel something. That’s my goal. If that something is utter outrage (provided the song calls for it) then good! To this day Mr Brightside by The Killers makes me want to punch someone in the face really really hard. No one in particular, just someone. That’s the way that song should make you feel, given what it’s about.

Going into my side project, this will be my absolute focus. How to communicate what I want to – how to re-arrange some very beautiful songs so that they make sense in a whole new way. I was discussing this with my drum teacher last night, going over different ideas with him as to what I wanted to do, the approach I want to use for each song. I think we’re both looking forward to hearing the final versions.

Rip Clarence. I never got to see you play, but as part of the band that made me start this blog, I am forever in your debt for the solid playing you recorded with the E street band, the input you had into THAT sound and the way you changed music. Thank you for playing with soul.

A blog, but not a blog

Today’s blog is an open letter to a songwriter who has been inspiring me a lot musically at the moment

Dear sir

Having only just discovered your music, I feel I have come somewhat late to the party. I am not pretending to be Robert Falcon Scott or Sherlock Holmes, I’ve heard the songs before, I guess I just wasn’t really listening until now. Maybe it’s that annoying condition that humans are prone to called ignorance?

Anyway, I digress. This week I started to listen. My ears opened and my mind discovered your songs (well at least the few on my playlist). from what i have heard, the songs are perfectly constructed, as though they were built by Baccio Pontelli or painted by Fredrick McCubbin.

I can see myself playing every note, I want to learn every part of these songs. I want to understand them better. I find them inspiring and I don’t know whether its just that I’ve been hearing them for years, but every note seems to make sense. The guitars come in at the perfect time. The bass is a hidden undercurrent, pulled out only when the song calls for it, the keys hold everything together and the drums drive everything forward. It really feels like music at it’s finest. I understand now why I have friends who are against the idea of covers, like your music is something to be untouched by the masses. I still disagree with this – all music is there to be played, to be played with, deconstructed, reconstructed and allowed to breathe.

Anyway, this is a rather long and bloated version of what I really wanted to say, which is thank you for writing songs that sound so great and effectively inspiring me to be a better musician.

Cheers,
Ax

Song of the day is the E Street Shuffle. Enjoy

D day

That’s right, it’s drum lesson day! Once a week I go and cheat (use someone who’s skills far surpass mine to try and help me achieve this crazy goal I’ve set out for myself) and today is that day. I plan on starting with something relatively easy – dancing in the dark.

As for going album by album, I need to own all the albums first. I have some but not all of them.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to drum lessons, I have new headphones (so that I don’t have “guitarist cramp” on the way in to work) and I should get the rest of my Springsteen albums by the end of this week. I’m open to any suggestions as to what album to start with. Right now I’m studying the wild, the innocent and the e street shuffle. It’s pretty great. I’ll go through what I think about it with you later.

I also need to do something about this music room, which is currently my parents storage area so you might read a bit of DIY from me over the next few days. Enjoy your day!