He keeps mentioning not getting sleep again. Poor guy.
Hello Friends,
It's Wednesday afternoon and we're in Atlanta. Drove overnight after the show in Lexington, KY. I don't think anyone slept. I know I didn't. I thought it was just me because everyone else climbed into their bunks. I stayed up archiving video Jason shot as well as photos he took at the Lexington show. It was fun seeing and hearing the concert right after we'd performed it because you just never know how it's going from our perspective. Each one of us does our best to execute our parts and performances, taking in the room, the vibe on stage, the tempos and pockets and body language of the other members as well as vibe of the audience. Then we just have faith that we know what we're doing and in the wonderful crew who prepares the lights and sound and mixes and manages us through it all. This is, in a nutshell what we do from day to day out here. Oh, and the getting from place to place, but that's incidental.
We were all very relaxed last night on stage for some reason, and it came across big time in the video. This is in house stuff, one camera, but broadcast quality so it looks like television and gives us a pretty decent idea how we did and of what you probably experienced. We are possessed with certain things like the pocket. The pocket is the relaxed rhythmic center we try and ride together on every song, fighting the adrenaline all the way. Adrenaline distorts your sense of timing and you may feel that you are right where you are supposed to be, then when you listen back you are shocked at how much faster you were playing a song, or how you were pushing every note rather than settling in. It's a battle that starts anew every single day so we always feel great when we come close to winning it. Again, this is the sort of thing you need a microscope to look at if you are a fan, but because we play so much, we have that kind of perspective and that's what drives us to do what we do.
When JY mentioned that we had not performed in Rupp Arena since 1981 or 1982 I was shocked! As we were checking into the hotel in the wee hours I remember thinking it had been a while, but 24 years? YIKES!!! Time flies. We loved it. The audience was on their feet early, giving us everything back that we threw at them, creatively speaking. I think that's a big part of why none of us could sleep and why I'm still wired from it today. Our thanks to all the wonderful fans who made us feel this way.
We only have a few more shows to do with REO. This run seems like we just started. Those guys are amazing and we've loved every minute of it. The combination of both bands is magic. I hope we do this again before too long.
All right, enough for one sitting. Our manager is having a party tonight and it's time to get the lead out.
See you tomorrow...
TS
