That boy had some lungs on him! (or How We Played Carnegie Hall and Lived To Tell About It)

We played a wedding last night. I have, for years, avoided doing so for many reasons. I'm not a wedding singer. I am rarely able to pull off doing 'pretty songs'. If you've ever heard my voice, you know why.

No, I prefer loud, rollicking, screaming-shouting-stomping old blues, rockabilly, rock and roll, country, etc. Not your ideal wedding band.

I am often asked to play weddings. I don't get it? I'm usually asked by someone, at one of our shows, if we can play their wedding. I am normally able to dissuade the question by quoting them a ridiculous price. When price isn't an object, I remind them, repeatedly, that the show they just saw (loud, drunk, and often obnoxious) is what they'll be getting for their wedding. I ask how their grandma or great aunt Gladys will feel about songs referencing 'drinking until one pukes'.  I then tell them, "NO REQUESTS". I don't care if Lionel Richie's "Hello" has special meaning for you. I'm not going to sing it or play it. This usually ends the conversation. When it doesn't, I usually just say "Oh gee...I'm already booked on that date...sorry."

Last night was a little different. It was my good friend and bass player's daughter's wedding. I knew I wasn't getting out of this one. Luckily, his daughter is also a working musician, and understands that the old guys ain't gonna play any sappy stuff. Little did I know, they had a trick up their sleeves.

My friend and bass player Rob, has done an on/off side gig for a couple of years called "Live Band Punk Rock Karaoke". It's rather successful. The band learns as many old punk rock songs as possible and invites the audience members to come up and sing them...living that rock star dream! It's more fun than your standard karaoke, which, at least to me, is painful to endure while someone butchers an already unlistenable pop song or country tune. (Phrasing people, phrasing! Learn it!)

Rob and his daughter, Maura, devised the idea of Live Wedding Band Karaoke. Our drummer, JD, and I, were not thrilled with the idea. First off, this meant learning NEW songs. We never rehearse. Haven't for years. When I write a new song, these guys know my playing well enough that a quick run-through during soundcheck is often enough to suffice. (Rob and I have worked together off/on for over 20 years. JD & I for nearly 10)

Anyhoo, Rob presents me with a list of what might as well been a million songs...mostly old Motown, Stax/Volt numbers. Most had horn parts. We do not have a horn section. (we're a 3 piece band, for those unfamiliar) I started whittling the list down pretty quickly to only songs that we could pull off convincingly. We got it down to about 15 songs. And we learned them. AND we actually rehearsed. A few times!

My understanding was, incorrectly, that certain friends of the bride and groom would pre-choose from these 15 songs, and we would pepper our 2 hour show with them. Fun, right? Easy, right? Guess again.

Knowing a thing or two about behavior and live performance, I wondered how many would chicken out ("Oh gosh! I just CAN'T! I'd be so embarrassed singing in front of people!") As it turned out, there was no pre-choosing. We, instead, had a giant white board with the set list, with blanks by the "wedding songs' for people to add their name, so we could call them up. Only a handful of folks did.

One guy in particular, Jeremiah, did 3 songs...and let me tell you, that white kid has a set of lungs on him! Damn! To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. He knocked his songs out with a level of skill and professionalism that I haven't experienced in a long time! We decided to toy with him a bit, and dragged the songs out, switched them around a bit, and occasionally altered the groove...but there was no shaking this kid! Damn, he's GOOD!

Jeremiah, if you ever read this...do the world a favor and sing more! You have a gift!

What's the old joke? 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!' Well, we can say, once again and without lying, that we played Carnegie Hall. To those unfamiliar with the history, Carnegie Hall is NOT just a fabled venue in NYC. Especially around the Greater Pittsburgh Area, there are a number of them. The one we played last night is The Carnegie Music Hall, part of the Carnegie Museum in the Oakland section of the city. If you've never been there, the place is beautiful...although at the same time, an acoustic nightmare. The main hall, is an auditorium style set up, while the banquet hall, where we were, is a 2 story, marble mausoleum type room of immense beauty.  I (almost) felt out of place playing there. It felt (almost) like we were defiling the beauty of the room with our loud, crazy rock and roll. Until soundcheck, that is. That's when we realized that it was going to be a battle between us and the room. With the incredibly high, arched ceiling, and all of that damned marble, plus the sheer size of the room, it was echo city. All 3 of us in the band have been sound techs at one point or other. Robert, being the most knowledgeable, and being the father of the bride, was in charge of the PA system. He rented a beauty of a system and got his friend Mario to run it for us. Mario did an admirable job. No squeaks, squonks or hums...which is amazing as we had to push some extra volume in order to fight the overwhelming natural reverb of that room.

Couple all of this with 'guest singers' who may/may not be or professional-level skill, this could've been a nightmare. Thankfully, it was not. Maura & Travis' wedding went off without a hitch. It sounded as good as it looked...and that's saying something!

Congratulations you crazy kids!



Playing between the marble pillars (photo JD Dauer)

This is a good view of the room (photo JD Dauer)





 

MM & TLT practicing at the other Carnegie Hall (circa 2002)

As a footnote, I'd like to add this: I said before that we have played Carnegie Hall many times...and this is not a lie. One of the original Carnegie Halls, now the New Hazlett Theater in North Side, was for some time, our rehearsal space! We played there every week! In fact, the back cover photo from our "Back From The Dead" CD was shot there. I once played a memorial service, of sorts, there. One of the many featured artists was a classical violinist from Duquesne University, Al Grishman. When my friend Nick was studying there, 30 years ago, Grishman was one of his music professors. Grishman and I got to talking backstage at the show and joked that one of us would have to call Nick to tell him that we played a show together at Carnegie Hall! Now there's one for the Weird Record Books!