And we let him release it. Crazy, huh?

Well, it’s out there, and it’s alive. You can check it out as it appears as MacVoices #8144.

I know I say it all the time, but I’ll say it again: I am *so* honored to be a part of this band and the friendships we have developed together. Definitely a highlight of Macworld Expo each year and a highlight of my experience in the Mac community and beyond

*Technically, we did get the band into an AIM-style “private, band-only” chat room in the very beginning to “chat out” the setlist prior to rehearsal. For all of the following gigs we found that having a (benevolent?) dictator assigned to manage the list was far more productive. Or at least it was easier, and we’re all for that.

The results of our chat — and Don’s superb editing — can be heard and downloaded over at the Mac Roundtable site.

KnockOff is a female-fronted, four-piece classic rock outfit and the gigs are always a lot of fun for everyone. OT’s has a setup not unlike the Cavern club, where the band is tucked into an alcove, and the setting is great for just rocking out together. Should be a good time. We’ll see how my hands and vocal chords decide to behave this evening!

The first is in person at the Seacoast MUG here in Rye, New Hampshire on Tuesday, May 13th. I’ll be presenting my “Running Your Mac Lean, Clean & Mean” session that I did this past Macworld Expo, and perhaps adding in some stuff we simply couldn’t do for a big crowd there. [UPDATE: a PDF of my slides from this is now available.]

Second is Monday the 19th. John F. Braun (of Mac Geek Gab podcast fame!) and I will be virtually attending the Cleveland, Ohio NCMUG meeting via iChat. Should be a blast!

Those of you who know me are likely aware that the day or two leading up to a gig is always filled with dread of having to go through the gear-change of shifting into “gig mode.” This entails adjusting my day/night schedule, packing the car with all the required gear, driving to the gig, getting set up, and making sure everything is going to work for the gig. Once I get to the last step, I’m actually quite stoked about the night, and remain so all the way through the gig and even through tear down, load out and drive home. So I’ve learned to ignore my desire to cancel gigs and know that it’ll be great.

This weekend, we have two curveballs that are adding to that cancelation desire. The first is that we have a sub for one of our sax players. Now, he’s a fantastic sub and a great guy, but it’s a sub just the same and that reduces the comfort level of the gig somewhat. On top of that, I just found out that our sound engineer can’t make it. This is a huge shift because he brings his own audio gear and lights. WIthout him, not only do we have to mix from the stage, but we have to bring all our own gear, cobble together a PA, and then do the “braille mix” from the stage. We’ve done it before and it works out great, but it adds quite a bit of time and stress to the gig, in addition to adding a distraction DURING the gig that makes even the enjoyable part significantly less enjoyable.

But it looks like we won’t be canceling, so we’ll make it work, and I’m sure I’ll look back and realize all this whining was unfounded.

It all started at about 3pm when I went up to my studio to play for about 30 minutes. Since I so rarely get any warmup time at a gig itself, I try to at least play on my practice kit for a bit just so the downbeat isn’t the first time I’m hitting drums that day. As soon as I started playing I realized that my hands and feet were being very well-behaved. Everything I asked of them, especially my left (weaker) hand, was being delivered with precision and perfect speed. I remember thinking, “if this keeps up, tonight’s going to be fun!”

While setting up at the club for some reason I decided to move all my toms and snare lower, and my seat higher. I had been struggling with my gigging setup for a while, and I had a gut feeling this might help. It certainly didn’t hurt. From the first note, I realized I was playing very aggressively. Not overly loud, per se, but really driving things, especially with the kick drum. I was expending a LOT of energy making every stroke count, and the thought, “you better hope you can keep this up all night” quickly went through my head. And sure enough, all that speed and dexterity in my hands and feet was still there, everything being perfectly executed. If I could think it, my limbs could play it, and that’s a very rare treat!

Vocally, I couldn’t get comfortable until about mid-way through the second set when the crowd requested, “Superstition.” I was a bit concerned with how it might go given that I would be singing lead from behind the kit. Indeed the first verse was shaky, if only because I couldn’t get the right words to come out of my mouth! But by the chorus everything was fine, and it got even better from there. After that, I was fully warmed up, and throughout the night we had some fantastic 4-part harmonies just falling together with little effort.

It’s rare that I leave a gig fully pleased with my performance, and even now, 2 days later, I still find myself thinking about it. I’m surprised with how aggressively I played — to a level I hadn’t reached or even aimed in a long time — and I hope to figure out how to capture that and stick with it. I think it really helped drive the band quite a bit, but I just need to be careful to not overdo it and either speed things up or play too loud.

I think over the years I wound up sacrificing some of that aggression and drive in favor of playing at moderate volumes to accommodate the other musicians and smaller rooms I might be in. But I realized the other night that I need to bring an additional level of intensity back into my playing to take things to the next level. I need to do that without also reintroducing too much sound level! Balance is the goal… It will be interesting to see how it all plays out!

Going forward, I think I’ll use my blog to keep you all posted about upcoming gigs, and if I have anything notable to say afterwards, I’ll do that, too. If I have something to say during the gigs, I’ll update my Twitter stream during the setbreaks, cell service permitting.

I also neglected to mention that I did the Mac OS Ken Day 6 podcast with Ken Ray a few weeks back, and it, too, was an enjoyable experience. You’ll have to subscribe to Day 6 to hear that, but it’s OK. Ken’s a great guy, and produces even greater content. It’s totally worth the money.

Makes me think we need to figure out how to incorporate guests into the Mac Geek Gab podcast. And more product reviews. All while keeping your questions and comments answered. Maybe we just need to do two shows a week!