Deli Chicchi, where I was playing most Sunday nights, closed in the evenings for the season, which is a shame. It has been a good experience playing there; a regular gig keeps me on my A game. If I play my set through at least once every 2 weeks I play well. It's fitness isn't it? You train for an event, triathlon or something, and you struggle to get to your peak - if you stop for so much as a couple of weeks, and you fall from your peak very quickly. So a regular gig for me is pretty important as I'm not a professional player as such. Although, if I had to play my setlist every day of my life, I reckon I'd tire of it. Weekly would be fine.
However, my mate Shaun Street of Street Artist Management still has me on his books and when he hears of something that fits my niche he'll put my name in. A cafe in Freo are getting me in, Friday week, 8-10pm, possibly looking at potential for regular gig. Freo is about a 35-40 min drive for me which is a downer, but Freo is kinda the soul of live music in Perth so it's gotta be done.
Otherwise with the downtime from gigging I've turned my hand back to Dark Side of the Moon. I play through "Money" regularly, the last song to get any attention. The bulk of the album is done, but, as with so many things, 80% of the work is 20% of the final product - which in this case is Gilmour's classic solo parts. This project has been going on a long time, according to my records it started properly mid 2007, even though I'd been playing a simple "Us and Them" from my twenties.
I play Dark Side of the Moon full album at gigs when it looks like the audience might be into it, takes me a around 20 minutes to play what I have so far. But at the moment I skip parts because I haven't fully learnt them. I have decided that I need to be able to play all songs on the album, and focus on getting the 80% done. So a cutdown "Money", cut down Great Gig and Any Colour You Like. I've also never turned my hand at the Time solo. Let's call all that "Phase II" :-)
But with that said, I'm updating "Breathe" to include the slide guitar part at the start. Which is very cool, and kinda difficult. Hard to play an open chord and a 14th fret high note at the same time, but I have a few ideas I'm working on...
Besides, I owe you guys another recording of where I'm at!
JAW