It's Official
So last night I got the official word. I'm going on tour! James, Mike and myself are going to be heading out as hired musicians with "Phil Accardi's Chalice". This is to support the Take Control USA program which involves going to schools to perform and deliver a message to prevent drug and alcohol abuse. During the days we will be playing at schools, and there will also be some night shows at clubs. As it stands right now we are looking to start the tour in 3 weeks (first week of March) and it could potentially go as long as the beginning of June. As of now, there are only dates into May. The bookings are ongoing even after we are on the road, so the dates are still a bit of a mystery. As it stands now, we'll be hitting upstate New York, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. More states and dates are sure to follow.
We will be performing a set of basic rock songs. Phil is a guitarist/singer, so I will be playing bass. Which is cool by me. It's ironic in the respect that despite always being acknowledged as an amazing guitarist, I usually get stuck on bass for lack of good bassists. I guess it's easy to find half decent guitarists even if amazing guitarists are hard to find, but to find a bassist of any caliber is even harder. Being as I'm a solid bassist as well, not to mention I HAVE a bass...well, here I am going on my first tour as a bassist. It's all good.
So in 2 weeks we'll be spending the weekend on Long Island preparing/rehearsing for the tour. And in 3 weeks we'll be off. I'm looking forward to all aspects of the experience (good and bad...mostly good I'm sure). I'm working on how to make sure my students can keep up to speed while I'm away, and I have some ideas in store for that. Mike has been on this tour with Phil before, so between him and Phil, James and I have been updated on what to expect. Quite frankly, I don't foresee it being anything less than a blast, even if it is a lot of work. We have to do all the setting up and tearing down of all equipment ourselves. That doesn't bother me at all though.
So that's the latest excitement. Not too much else going on. Special thanks go to James friend (and mine too) Sam for cooking an awesome birthday meal for me. She totally rocks. Thanks to James too for arranging that, and for taking me to an early morning diner dinner to see the lovely Staten Island trash cause a disturbance and get thrown out. Good times. Otherwise my birthday wasn't really eventful. But then again, birthdays and I generally haven't ever really gotten along. Just one of those things I guess. 29. Oh man. Well, at least I'm going on tour :)
That's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well. I'll be posting more as it comes. And some more from the road soon too! That's so cool...
We will be performing a set of basic rock songs. Phil is a guitarist/singer, so I will be playing bass. Which is cool by me. It's ironic in the respect that despite always being acknowledged as an amazing guitarist, I usually get stuck on bass for lack of good bassists. I guess it's easy to find half decent guitarists even if amazing guitarists are hard to find, but to find a bassist of any caliber is even harder. Being as I'm a solid bassist as well, not to mention I HAVE a bass...well, here I am going on my first tour as a bassist. It's all good.
So in 2 weeks we'll be spending the weekend on Long Island preparing/rehearsing for the tour. And in 3 weeks we'll be off. I'm looking forward to all aspects of the experience (good and bad...mostly good I'm sure). I'm working on how to make sure my students can keep up to speed while I'm away, and I have some ideas in store for that. Mike has been on this tour with Phil before, so between him and Phil, James and I have been updated on what to expect. Quite frankly, I don't foresee it being anything less than a blast, even if it is a lot of work. We have to do all the setting up and tearing down of all equipment ourselves. That doesn't bother me at all though.
So that's the latest excitement. Not too much else going on. Special thanks go to James friend (and mine too) Sam for cooking an awesome birthday meal for me. She totally rocks. Thanks to James too for arranging that, and for taking me to an early morning diner dinner to see the lovely Staten Island trash cause a disturbance and get thrown out. Good times. Otherwise my birthday wasn't really eventful. But then again, birthdays and I generally haven't ever really gotten along. Just one of those things I guess. 29. Oh man. Well, at least I'm going on tour :)
That's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well. I'll be posting more as it comes. And some more from the road soon too! That's so cool...