Riding High

I've been floating all week from the good feelings one seeks out when starting a band. Feelings of success, accomplishment. On a small scale, even respected.

Our record release show in Nashville and subsequent Nashville show were both great shows for us with great turn-outs. Our set is ever tightening, and the energy is up, way up. It's funny to think that we've taken the last two summers off from playing shows, and this summer we've hit it hard. Four shows in three weeks, and we are right in the middle.

As long as we've been a band, we've wanted to play our home town of Maryville. We just never got around to it during the era of our first record, and then we decided to wait until the new record was out. Our friends came out and rocked with us and bought bought bought merchandise. The people who didn't know us were pleasantly surprised by us and gave us positive feedback as well. Top that off with this article about us in the Daily Times, and we will definitely be going back to Maryville in a month or two.

The Maryville show was a double triumph for us. You see, Nashville venues don't pay. What a performer makes is proportional to the number of people they can bring and have pay at the door, and that's fine. Brackins in Maryville offered us a generous sum, but we had to play two sets. We had to put some work into this show to practice every cover we've ever done (well, almost) as well as all the Whimsical in Reverse songs we never play anymore. With all that done, I was genuinely worried about our ability to pull off over two solid hours of music (our previous record set length was 90 minutes). I was especially worried about Kelly's voice and Josh's exhausting physicality on the drums. But like I said, we triumphed. The practices and recent shows paid off for the 34 songs we did, and, listening to the bootlegs, I think we played our best show to date in Maryville.

Tomorrow night we follow up at Liquid Smoke. We haven't played Murfreesboro since February, so I expect good things from this show, even if it will be in toxic air. Saturday, we play a 4th of July block party that I think has the potential to be another great show spread across two sets.

And if that's not enough, on Monday we'll take all the energy and fruits of these last few shows straight into the studio to record "Girls' Night Out," a theme song Kelly wrote for an independent horror film that will be coming out in the fall. We also hope to record Chris Freeman's pop hit "Marsha," which we've been playing live and receiving rave reviews on.

That will mark the end of a long stretch of shows and practice, and a needed break will follow, but I'm all the more excited to see what will be around the corner for us in August when things get going again.

Rock!