So there’s good news and bad news.

I guess it’s best to get the bad news out of the way first. When last we spoke, the band was coming together nicely. We had 2 guitarist, plus a phantom guitarist in the wings that was on the fence, a bass player, drummer and myself on vocals and backing guitar. The only thing missing was keyboards but we were going to trudge ahead and worry about that later.

We were about to head into our first official rehearsal on 2/28/07. That morning, however, I received an e-mail from one of the lead guitarists that he was not going to be able to stick it out due to personal reasons. That made me also think that I hadn’t heard from the bass player in almost 2 weeks, which got me worried. The “phantom” guitarist also has not been replying, so I’m now going to count him as out. So a lot of things changed the morning of the first rehearsal, but there was still hope that the bass player would show up. He had been a little unresponsive via e-mail, only to reply late with interest in still playing. We hoped for the best.

In any case, the ball was still rolling and we figured that even if it ended up being four of us there, we could still make the most of it. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals would be fine. The bass player, however, didn’t show. That left us with drums, guitar, and myself on vocals and guitar. I initially wasn’t even planning on bringing a guitar. Then I thought I’d just bring an acoustic to have something to do between solos and what not. As the day went on, however, it became clear that I’d have to bring the electric just in case. I didn’t bring my bass because I was really hoping the bass player would just show up.

So we had a rehearsal that cost each of us more and only consisted of drums and two loud guitars. There was no bass and I did my best on guitar to keep the song from falling out during the solos. At first we were all a little ticked off at the cancellations and lack of communication from the other guys, but when we started playing it actually lifted our spirits a little. For what it was, and under the circumstances, it actually sounded decent. I did miss the bass, however, so I told the guys that I’d bring my bass next week along with the guitar.

So we got that awkward first rehearsal out of the way - and things are moving forward at the very least. Singing is always difficult and I had a little trouble hearing myself, but the guys said the vocals sounded OK to them. I’ll have to take them at their word. We’re just having fun, anyhow, so things don’t need to sound perfect.

The first thing we played was Neil Young’s “Rocking in the Free World” which actually sounded good. It’s only a few chords so even without bass it was nice and full due to the overall dirtiness of the guitars. We also ran through the Georgia Satellites “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” which is a pretty standard blues tune so that went fine as well. After that, we sort of just tinkered around with other ideas and repeated those two again a few times. There was definite improvement as the night went on. So afterwards, I set up the weekly thing at the studio to let them know we’d be there every week at the same time.

The next day we put up some more ads for bass, lead guitar, and keys and waited. We got 3 or 4 replies for guitar, which is great, but we still need bass and keys. We told the guitar players to all come down at different times for the next Wednesday night rehearsal. I’m going to bring a bass with me this time. We’ll see how things go. Maybe we’ll get some calls from bass and keyboard players in the meantime.

So despite the few setbacks we had this week, we’re moving forward and trying to keep it alive, even if we have to be a trio for a while. It looks like we won’t be a trio after next week, however. With 4 guitarists coming down, one of them’s bound to stick around - if they show up. So far, we’ve had more people flake out on us than I care to mention.

So I’m looking forward to this coming rehearsal. We’ve added a few new tunes to play including The Kinks’ “Destroyer”, “Ziggy Stardust” from Bowie, “The Jack” by AC/DC, and a personal fave of mine, “Next To You” by The Police, which I suggested during rehearsal and we all agreed would be a fun one to play.

Part 4 will probably include another lineup update so stay tuned.