Nice place. They (or someone near here) has free wifi, so I plugged right in, so to speak.

This is a sort of farewell gig for me and Holly, as we’re both departing the core group of the One Drum collective. What a sweet farewell it will be. This lineup features Cory Coleman (vocals, dundun & bass), Kristin Urban (vocals & percussion), Cecilio Negron, jr. (drums, congas, vocals), Holly Haebig (vocals & guitar), and yours truly on guitar and vocals. Poor sound guys. It’s 8:43 pm and they’re still fiddling with the system.

This is where the fans & the musicians both learn patience.

After we checked out of the hotel, we made our way to the college. On the way there, we stopped by at Atomic Coffee to get some caffeine. While I was waiting for the cappuchino and mocha, my eye was drawn to a large green apple. I grabbed it, and was holding it in my hand when the coffee was brought to the counter. I paid for the coffee and left.

En route to the college, I discovered I had the apple in my pocket. Which was strange, because I didn’t remember paying for it. Which essentially meant that I had inadvertently pinched the apple right under the cashier’s nose! I didn’t have time to return the apple. I was going to have to chew on the karmic debt later.

We arrived at Concordia and met an extremely diverse group of students, who seemed excited to have us perform. Unfortunately, the scenario was extremely disorganized. No one seemed to have any idea of what was going on. The sound crew seemed taxed by our requests. And all the students there were eager to start their talent show, which made us realize how secondary our presence was going to be. On a brighter note, I discovered there were a lot of Sri Lankan students at Concordia, which was quite startling to me. I was unloading my gear when I heard “Nah bhang…machang…etc,” and I thought I was in a different country.

Overall, the show was a success, but it was not without some inherent hitches. The best songs were Invocations and Malaika. Everything else was passable, but certainly not the best One Drum fare. I always find it a challenge to play without a drum set player. It’s hard to keep consistent tempos without a good timekeeper. The audience seemed to enjoy the show, but wanted us stop far short of our contracted two hours. Which was fine. In the end we drove for 21+ hours to perform for a little longer than an hour.

Don’t get me wrong…the students were great, and seemed really nice. They could benefit from some organizational skills, or some coaching from experienced advisors. Either way, they were unprepared for our band, even though we had forwarded full spec sheets, stage plots, requirements, etc. We live and learn.

One Drum packed up our stuff and were right about to leave when Dave Wake discovered he was missing his wallet. Time passed. He finally found it in his bag…

We were about to drive off when we discovered the back door was open. Much congenial laughter was shared over that episode. We ended up leaving Moorhead at midnight, Friday night.

The return trip was extremely foggy, and I was driving. In the end, I decided it was best to simply ride the center line, which left me a good buffer of road in case the road curved. I had three Red Bulls during my shift, which ended at 5:00 am. I was wiped out. I don’t recall much of what transpired thereafter. I tried to sleep, with mixed success.

Hours later, we arrived in Madison and dropped of David and Ian Stocker. And a little later, we arrived back home in Milwaukee, exhausted, but with heavy pockets.

We checked into the hotel, got some breakfast, and our plan is to sleep for a few hours, then go set up for the show. While the drive was grueling, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, and it was made so much more enjoyable by the company. We covered a lot of ground in the last 12 hours: terrestrial and celestial…

I’m already quite exhausted, due to insomnia last night. I hope to catch some winks in the van. Additionally, I’ve configured my blog to accept posts from my mobile phone (moblogging), and interested readers can catch up with the band on the road. Although…if I don’t get a T-Mobile signal up there, we may have problems…

It was a really difficult decision to make, but it’s one that I had on my mind for about two years. My involvement in the band was extensive to the point where I burned myself out. I lost patience. Additionally, I became fatigued by conflicts that are typical to all bands. Eventually, I had to cut myself free. True, it’s not a completely clean break, but since I told the band about my decision, the past two months have been very slow as far as gigs.

I haven’t really been playing that much music. A little acoustic guitar around the house, when I feel like it. I am not quitting music. On the contrary, music feeds my soul. I am simply making changes & gravitating towards avenues that will allow me to grow. I’ve been recording a little – mostly older songs that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve from me.

Yesterday, David Stocker asked me if I would join a One Drum quartet or quintet on a trip to the Pacific Northwest in April. I’m actually considering it. I’ve cleared it with work. It may be fun, especially since I’ve never been to that part of the country.