www.tomskillman.ca

So, I’m in this band… “Badfish”. Not to be confused with the Sublime tribute band, although we do cover some Sublime tunes!

We played a pretty good show on Saturday night in Campbell River at a place called “The Sportsplex”. Now, this event was a Charity Ball, with aims of raising funds to support “The Evergreen House” which is a social services establishment that assists people in need. As the gig was on St. Patrick’s Day, the evening certainly had multiple purposes!

Campbell River’s resident soundman of choice, Hugh Schmid, brought in a monster PA system… complete with a rather decent light show and smoke machines. If we played every gig through that system, I’d be just fine… although judging by the rather large fellow who stormed in at 1 am, I’m not so sure everyone appreciated the eight 18″ subwoofer speakers with matching eight mid-high range speakers powered by thousands and thousands of watts of top quality power… this guy starts yelling at Scott (guitarist and maker of fine instruments)

“Hey! There’s people who have to work tomorrow!!”

To which Mr. Heatley responded “fuck ‘em!”.

To which the rather large, angry fellow responded “no… I have to work tomorrow“.

Scott’s off-handed response was a rather witty, “oh. We’re done”.

I have to admit, I did feel a little bad for the guy. It turns out, we were LOUD. Maybe too loud… the lead singer, Ray Payne, lives about 300 meters from the venue, and his family told him that they could hear everything as clear as if we were in the room, when they were inside their house!  Ah…the glory of rock. On the other hand, maybe this dude needs to get a job that doesn’t interfere with “the rocking”. Yeah…
The hall is a large gym-convention type room that can be divided in half for smaller events. This event had 250 people at it, and the room size was kept small, which made for a fun and intimate evening of rock. There were people dancing from the start, and it was a fun night for everyone…no dramas, no car salesmen beating on Realtors, no hot chicks getting their skirts pulled up accidentally by their boyfriends as they twirl them around thus revealing their bare bottoms (that was LAST week’s gig… a highlight. I mean, c’mon, who wears a mini-skirt that barely comes down to the crotch level, without panties on? Obviously that chick. Not sure why she’d dress like that at a WORK function…or get embarrassed when things got a little… hiked. Talk about a lack of consistency…but I digress…that was last week).
I just got a new double kick pedal, and I wasn’t so sure if I was going to try it out on the gig just yet, as I’ve only practiced with it  three times. I actually promised the band that I’d leave it at home for fear of getting messed up using it… but when it came time to pack up my gear… I HAD to bring it! Now, trying to fit double bass drum riffs in country songs can be tough. It can’t seem out of place. Heh. Fortunately, I didn’t embarass myself trying out licks that were a bit beyond my means… and on the last tune of the night (the Ramone’s “Sedated”) I let it rip! Man, I love that pedal. I’ve been more motivated to practice since getting that thing than I have been in years! I tell ya, if you’re practicing something and you’re losing motivation, GET MORE GEAR!!! hahaha. Totally works.

Ray sang his ass off at this gig. He’s turned into a solid frontman; dancing, talking to the crowd, jumping up and down, tons of energy, and he uses a “southern charm” to woo his audiences. I think this was a pretty significant gig for him. I’ve only just joined the band, and it takes time to gel with a different player. In fact, the drummer I had replaced showed up at the end of the evening. That’s the thing with a music scene in a small town…sometimes, band relationships play themselves out, but you gotta stay on good terms. The scene is too small! They all looked like they were on good terms, which is nice. They want me to stay in the band… which is nicer.
Kevin, on bass, had his game face on.

If game face is defined as 8 or 9 brews.

His energy was smoking, just totally into the show. He ran into some trouble late in the evening as his hand cramped up so bad he had to stop playing and ice it up! That’s the thing about playing through a PA system 10 times more powerful than what we’re used to… we practice in a room that’s fairly quiet, and when you get on that stage and start slamming it out, it takes a lot of energy!! If we keep using this soundman, we’re gonna need a kinesiologist or physiotherapist on staff.

Scott seemed to have a tough time getting into the show. I’d speculate on the reasons why, but the facts are that he played great, and the audience didn’t know, so really, who cares. Certainly not me. heh. He had a few solos that night that were awesome… well played, soulful, killer tone. It just goes to show, a musician is the last person anyone should trust about how they played… really, only the audience knows what they think. If more of them like it, it was good, whatever the reason!

Hmmm. That last sentence almost discredits this whole “review”… oh well. This isn’t’ a review…it’s a “recap”.

We had some rough spots…namely on the ending of tunes! I learned all the arrangements from the original artists versions, but Badfish likes to take liberties with arrangements at times. It can fun trying to figure out what’s going on… I’m sure after ten or so gigs we’ll have all those little bugs worked out.

So… that’s it. We played, we rocked, I was so sore the next day I didn’t get out of bed until after 1 pm! I’m not used to drumming that hard for four hours!  We got a couple more gigs out of it (all ways a great sign of a good gig when you’re in a cover band) and I’m stoked that I got a band I can play drums in where I can let loose!

later!