Rehearsal, Recap, & Retirement

Uncle Rico had a good rehearsal last night. I thought that I nailed a lot of my parts in the songs we went through. My tempos were fairly solid and that made me feel good. I liked the way "Pump It Up" sounded and was very happy that I made it through "Dancing with Myself" with my limbs still attached. "Wonderful Tonight" felt good and so did "What I Like About You," "8675309 Jenny" and "You May Be Right." At the previous rehearsal, I had issues with "Oh Boy" and "Squeeze Box" but I would say I practiced enough to correct those issues to the extent I didn't have them again last night.

I did have issues with "Blister in the Sun" and the end of "Rocking Me." "Blister" just never settled into the groove with my snare part and, to be honest, I had noticed that the last time we played it as a group and had actually focused on it during practice time on the Yamaha electronic set, but thought I had corrected the issues with my parts through practice. Not so. The end of "Rockin' Me" was kind of a surprise as far as not being able to flow through it.

That song has given me fits in the past. I still vividly remember hearing the version of that song that Old Stew played at Bonehead's in spring 1992. That recorded version was a disaster. I don't really remember going through that song multiple times at rehearsal, even when we were playing gigs, as in getting to the end of it "Rocking Me" and then going through it again. I really wish I would have been much more diligent about having a recorder going at each and every rehearsal and documenting the path we were taking to be able to play outside of Catfish's house.

The takeaway from the issue I was having with the ending of "Rocking Me" is I will listen to the recording by Steve Miller as well as the recording from last night and try to resolve what I was playing and what I should be playing.

The retirement aspect of this post is that I think "Suspicious Minds" (and perhaps others) have been retired from the setlist for now. For me, "Suspicious Minds" has been a lot like "American Girl" was with Lou's Classic Ride. I wanted to nail my part and it was hit and miss. I won't miss trying to hit the change from 4/4 to 3/3.