Two Years

I feel like I've already posted about this but I can't find it. It is possible that I posted about my trip to sxsw in my other blog and I'm confusing things.

On April 24, 2010 CJ had its first gig. If memory serves correctly, our first rehearsal together as a four piece was March 24, 2010...a Wednesday. It was the Wednesday after I returned from sxsw. I THINK that it was on 12/19/2009 that the idea was first brought up about doing the Pixies tribute thing to me. I thought it was in January, but looking at my records, I know that it was at a SSW gig at High Noon that the subject came up. I knew that the Escapists had fired their bass player, and in that way that I sometimes do things without really thinking about it...I asked RS if I could join Escapists on bass. It wasn't something I'd thought about much before that night. It was an off-handed kind of thing and I have no idea what possessed me to ask. RS said, no, no they were just going to be a three piece and that they didn't want a replacement bass player and that, anyway, they didn't really even know what they were doing or if they would continue. Except...except...well they'd tossed around the idea of playing Pixies songs, and if they did that than they would need a female bass player. I filed this information.

And I promptly went out and bought the Pixies greatest hits and started seeing if I could play and sing the songs. The first song I learned was Nimrod's Son. I listened to it on my mp3 player on the bus ride home from work...got home...picked up the bass and played it by ear. Huh. Thought I. Maybe I can do this.

So I quietly learned to play all the songs on that cd and, every so often, would say to RS...so...any movement on that Pixies idea? And he'd say, no, no, we don't know what we are doing yet. And so it was when I left for sxsw.

But not long before I left, at a SSW rehearsal, RS started noodling and playing the bass line to Gigantic. And I started singing along. And what was that all about asked JG...nothing...just something we're throwing around about doing. I'm pretty sure that was my audition...though none of us knew it.

While I was gone at sxsw I got an email from RS...JG had an all covers show coming up he was booking and could we play Pixies at it. "I know it's crazy and there's probably no way we could do it" was the gist of the email. I think I replied by saying something like...well I only know 20 songs...

So I got back from sxsw like on a Monday or Tuesday...we had our first rehearsal on Wednesday...and a month later we played Surfer Rosa in total for an audience. And it went really, really well...and we were off and running.

We now know 61 Pixies songs. There are only 8 more album tracks left to learn...and only 21 more songs besides those even if you count ever cover and weird b-side.

The experience has been a revelation for me. It got me back playing the bass...which might just be where I'm meant to be in the end. Really, before Pixies, I'd never played bass. I'd played at bass. But now...sure, I'll say I'm a bass player, though a very basic kind of bass player. My vocals have really changed and improved and strengthened. I've had so much fun and it has done so much for my confidence to do something and actually be halfway good at it. I'm not used to feeling like I can do anything right. But I feel like, on balance, I get the Pixies right. I really can't even begin to say all that this band has meant to me.

I hold on to it lightly, because I know that the way to get hurt is to hold to tightly to the things that we love. I am grateful, oh so grateful. I hope for more to come...but am just glad for each additional practice and each additional gig and each additional song.

On Saturday we will perform probably about 40 or so songs on the anniversary of the first time the four of us played together. And that's pretty cool.