As we drove the winding road between Auburn and Cool, my mind kept wandering to the consuming work and deadlines that lay ahead in my day job. Glenn interrupted one of those thoughts when he observed, “In a few more months, we’ll be making this trip in the daylight.” We then navigated one of the tight turns where the centerline reflectors have been worn off the road. I thought, “Daylight will make this turn feel less treacherous, but for now I need to focus on the road.”We arrived at Don’s to the sound of his bass coming from the garage. He was warming up or practicing. His smashed finger is healed fully. Glenn took the stool behind the drum kit and started making adjustments. He then warmed up with some drum rolls, cymbal crashes, and other drummer-kinds of things.
I took the Ocean Turquoise Jazzmaster out of its case, hooked up a strap, and inserted the tremolo bar. I looked around for a cord and realized that the only one in the case was 6 feet or so long. Did that really matter? I did not plan on going very far.
Tune. Play a few notes through the amp. Put in ear plugs. Adjust the sound. “Do you want to start into the new songs?”
We are not really that big of risk takers. So . . . . “No, we haven’t played together for almost two months. We need to get used to each other again.”
“Okay. Penetration.” We took off like we have since we first settled on a set. Glenn started us up. Don came in. Then the lead. We finished. “Hey, that was really good.” Funny, as soon as we started, we played like we had not been on sabbatical.
Surf Rider, Into the Flow, and Midnight Run followed. Our timing was right on. We remembered the songs. Our errors were few and small. Our time away from playing together showed in our Perfidia/Walk Don’t Run medley. But we were back on the money for Magma Runner.
Warmed up and playing like we had played together forever. We looked at the new split set list. “Okay, are we ready to try one of the new ones?” We started into Last Date. Slowly and bit-by-bit, we worked our way through the song. The bass and drums provided bottom for the song -- a bottom and fullness that were missing when I practiced it alone.
“Whose version did you have in mind?”
“I love the original Floyd Kramer song but for guitar I’d go with Los Straitjackets but their version probably is too complicated for me to play.”
After we worked our way through Last Date, we segued into Sleepwalk. “Paul will provide a few bars here. His interpretation is so much better than what I play.” Sleepwalk went easier than Last Date. We then played the two songs a couple times as a medley.
“Hey, for the first time that we played that together, that was good.”
We took a break. Glenn and Don opened beers -- Red Tail Ale, of course. I sat on Mr. Ape Head. We laughed and talked about the rest of the first set. Each of us expressed surprise that we sounded as good as we did. We also talked about Sierra Surf Music Camp and how much fun we thought it will be.
The fun of the evening made me think, “What a pleasant way to spend an evening! I am so lucky to have this escape from the pile of work sitting on my desk.” Rock ‘n roll truly can be an escape.