Jul

CD RELEASE MANDATORY BLOG!!

Posted by LastDigitOfPi Published in CD Release Party, Dreams and Debris

So, right now it’s 2am on a Tuesday night… or, I guess it’s Wednesday Morning… come to think of it, at what point do people start calling the night morning? Does it depend on if you want people to think you didn’t get any sleep, so you say “man, I was up until 2 in the morning”. OR, “I was up late last night, I didn’t get to sleep until 2am” What is normal these days in night/morning discussions?….. anywho…. I am writing this in fear that if I don’t, CoolShades will have a hit out on me. Call it off!!

So, the Sheep have been rehearsing hard for the past month trying to get the big CD Release to run smooth. You all have no idea how many songs we went though in order to come up with a solid setlist for this show. For those fans who care, we worked on different versions of our songs “Bored”, “The River”, ”Don’t Tell Me”. While this was happening, we ended up writing a couple new songs. Amazing how that works really. Sometimes you gotta break a couple eggs to make an omelet.

Planning a CD Release party is harder then you think, and I am happy to say that I was not really a major contributer to the planning. You can all thank the rest of the band for that. While the planning for the party was underway, the artwork and final details for the actual album were being completed as well, with hopes that the disc would be manufactured and complete by the time of the party. We did get them, and they look great!!

** Big shout out to Joel for all his work with the artwork and new website by the way, please email him or more importantly, hire him for all your web-design and photography situations. He is really good at what he does. Keep it up Joel!

So, All the rehearsing had led up to a couple days before the party. We invited the one, Matthew Mei to come and jam with us. We had him join us on our song “In The Moment”. Which everyone knows is my favorite song. If you check out my facebook fanpage, you will see numerous videos of that song. Matt ripped it up and it was an honor to play with him. We had some drinks and was joined by Berts younger uncle Patrick (yes, uncle). We were having him play violin on our song “I Will Wait”. He did a great job with the parts and it really felt like the album. We were really contemplating not playing that song until we knew we could get some strings to be played live for it. We ended the night with the confidence that we were going to rock on the Friday.

FRIDAY:

I had to work all day, and I spent that time selling microphones and sound systems to people who never know how to use them. I decided to leave work a little early so I could get home and clean up before we head to the club. As I walked out of work, I slam in my headphones and listen to some Sara Bareilles on the skytrain ride home. I hit home and give Courtney a call to come and pick me up. I am car-less again… boo…. Anyways, I head outside to wait for Courtney to arrive. The only things arriving was text messages from him saying that he was still on the bridge…. The irony is that there was a Critical Mass happening with no regard to traffic. (Google Critical Mass) He finally arrives and we hit the road for the club.

7:30pm – As we pull up to The Bourbon, I notice that Joel had gotten the “Elvis Parking” right out front. We pull up right behind and start unloading gear. By the time, Joel and Christian had already arrived and had their gear up on stage and ready to go. Now, there wasn’t ice in the urinal like the last big show we played, but the trough made the place a little less classy. It did make your eyes want to wander, but that is a story for another time…. I started setting up my drums. As I set things up, I noticed that the drummer for Matt’s band was eyeing my kit. Now, You have to realize that most drummers use large kits. The kit I use for this project is a kit that a jazz drummer would laugh at. It’s pretty small but it works great for me. Email me if you want a detailed gear list…;) I could tell that he was going to have a problem with the fact that he would have to share my kit for the night.

8:30pm — I finish setting up and microphones are all set up. We go though a song as a sound check and then pack up our stuff and get off the stage so Matt can get up with his band and get things going. All the mics are good to go, and the stage is set…. At this point, we are starting to see all our friends show up.

9:30pm — Matt starts his set and he gets it really going. His band is solid and he knows how to rock a stage. If you get opportunity, go and check out Matt. He is fun to watch. He plays his hits while I drink some Coronas, The bartender was really good. He suggested that we put Pineapple juice in the beer instead of a lime. Made it taste so good, and made me drink more…

10:30pm — The sheep are summoned to the stage. As we start our set with a new version of “Don’t Tell Me”, we realize that our night had really begun. Then we glide into “Close My Eyes”. I am looking at our setlist from that night to remind me, because it all went by so quick. Here were the songs we did.

Don’t Tell Me (New Version)
Close My Eyes
Afraid to Let You Go
Follow Me
Critical Mass

Machine Guns and Jesus Christ. (The plan was to have a video synced behind us while we perform this song. Joel had prepared an amazing visual display for this song, but we were unable to run the video because the Club did not have a video feed. BUT, expect more visuals at future Sheep shows.)

I Will Wait - (Patrick Joins us on Violin)

Eleanor Rigby. (Yes, We did a great funk/rock version of this hit by the Beatles.)
One More Night
In The Moment (Matt Mei joins us on Lap-Steel)
Crawl
Paranoid

So… Did people boo? no. Did we rock? yes! Did I hit myself in the face with my drumstick? yes.
As we left the stage after our set, we were greeted with high fives and handshakes from all our friends. Would I have appreciated Five-Alives and MilkShakes? yes. uh… With the DJ already spinning tunes, we were ready to hang with our friends for the night. It’s funny, as we left the stage, skinny, short skirted girls hit the dance floor. B-Boys, and cheerleaders starting filling the place. More Coronas were put into my hands and for some reason or another, Pilseners appeared on the table. The night became a blur until I had to take down my gear and head home. Everyone enjoyed themselves and things were kept pretty laid back.

Once again, as Courtney and I headed into the night and we are left with the memories of the evening and hopes that all our energy and hard work will be appreciated in the future. The CD sounds great, and our show was a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone who supported us and came out to the show. We will not let you down, so keep it up boys… This is just the beginning….
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Sheep-at-the-Wheel/6651614004
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-J-Hermann/7768787381

PJ
LastDigitOfPi

Behind the Scenes at the CD Release Party (September 26th, 2008)
Don’t Tell Me (New Version, Live) (September 9th, 2008)
Thanks for a great night! (June 28th, 2008)
Less than two weeks to go! (June 16th, 2008)
CD Release Party Booked (May 5th, 2008)

3 users responded in this post

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Joel said in July 2nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Nice work Paullie! I hope your face is recovering nicely from the drumstick wounds.

LastDigitOfPi said in July 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm

what are you talking about?… that never happened…. Prove it…

coolshades said in July 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 pm

I called it off. That was a close one, though. I had scheduled the hit for earlier today.

I LOVE The River, and thought y’all had abandoned it! I wanna hear the new version! And I wanna hear the new version of Don’t Tell Me, too. And Eleanor Rigby.

Heck…I wanna hear the whole damn set. LOL

I know I say this to y’all *all* the time…but I feel like a miserable excuse for a fan, since I couldn’t be there to give you high-fives and handshakes after you were done. But I’m glad it went well, even without my presence

Now where the heck is my CD I ordered??

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