News from the Front

Sorry I haven’t been prompt with my reviews, recaps, and thoughts regarding our last couple of performances. Life happens…

Sunday, July 16, we performed at the St. Joseph Venetian Festival. It was hot and muggy. It was also quite a trek, not to get to St. Joe, but to the stage. We all had to park in other parts of the city and walk our equipment to the riverfront where we were playing.

We were on stage as part of the Sunday morning Christian set. We went on just as the sun was starting to really get hot and a handful of pastors had just spoken. The praise band with them was cool, just no original material.

We got to the stage and this is where time enters the equation. It seems like we are always the victim of another act running long then being hurried off stage before we reach the end of our planned set. I guess that is the way any musician feels if they love to perform.

I used the drum set provided to me and was very thankful that I didn’t have to lug anything but my sticks. However, it was a digital kit, which I have very limited experience with. I’m sure if was noticeable from the river. The other guys said they could hear everything they needed to hear as far as stage audio, but my monitor was strange playing the ride cymbal with my right hand but hearing it in my left ear. Everything was in my left ear. After the 45 minute set I felt like I had water in that ear! The guys held everything together well and I don’t remember Adam stumbling for any lines. As we were playing, we were reminded of our surroundings by a train crossing the rail bridge and blowing its horn just after one of our songs.

Overall, it was nice to just come in, play, and get out of that busy town!

Saturday, July 22, 2006 we played at Faith Fest in Taylor, MI. A couple of years ago, Bethel had a community outreach event with all the groups doing something. Cooking, playing music, wall climbing, basketball, everyone was there to meet our neighbors. The atmosphere was like that in Taylor; carnival-esque. But there was one thing missing.

I rode with Tim and Dean drove Adam and we all arrived virtually together. We were the first band to play Saturday so we were able to take our time (and make everyone else the rest of the day hurry.) So we set our gear up, I acclimated myself to another set of loaner drums, acoustic this time. We did a sound check and I had a fun time with this drum set. Just the different tuning and a piccolo snare made everything I was doing sound more lively. Everything seemed really loud on stage. We all were quite comfortable with the surroundings. After all, we were the only people there.

Show time came and we were announced and greeted with a loud: “ “. Nothing. We drove to Deeetroit to play for the sound guy, his kid, and some other people who were playing later. This was quite disappointing for me. I had fun with the time the four of us got to spend playing together. Tim took some pictures with my camera and we all were on ‘rehearsal behavior’ but without the usual bathroom jokes. I was excited to play at a festival of all Christian music, but it turned out to be less than hoped for.

See you soon-

John

www.SojournBand.com