Not long
after our tryout, we were informed that we made the cut!! Not only that, but we
would be in a sense “touring” with the club at various locations around Provo.
The venue we were most excited to play at was a scenic little place near main street
called Velour Live Music Gallery. The whole group would be playing their
respective sets in the hopes that the owner of the Velour, Corey Fox, would
like their sound enough and be offered their own spot to play at Velour’s
upcoming Battle of the Bands.
It was a
lot of fun to play at Velour. It was an afternoon show which was unusual, meant
more as a tryout for all of us as much as anything else. Mr. Fox was impressed
with our act and gave us an invite to play at his Battle of the Bands show. We
were stoked.
We needed
to find us a bassist to put up with us and play with. We had a mutual friend
named Jeremy who agreed to join us on our crusade. Jeremy came and went a
couple times due to other commitments, but we were always glad to have him
back. He truly did pull our little group together.
The
Velour Battle of the Bands showcase arrived and we were ready to play. I can’t
remember if it started here, but we always had the tradition, a sort of
“pre-game ritual” as it were, of praying together right before we went on
stage. You see, as much fun as we had with all of this, and the glitz and glam
that came with it all, we really wanted to be a force for good in the world. No
matter where this thing would go or how big we would maybe get, we wanted to be
good examples to others, and never take for granted how we got to be where we
were. We recognized God’s hand in our lives and were very grateful for the
blessing we had to do what we did.
So long
story short, we played, we had an amazing turnout of friends, and Corey liked
what we brought. He said as long as we keep bringing a good crowd he would be
happy to have us play regular shows at his venue. We didn’t win Battle of the
Bands, but what we accomplished meant more to us than simply winning. After
that we decided to stop playing with the university club. I think Paul was a
little disappointed we wouldn’t be staying on, but we did what we thought best
at the time. I’ll always be grateful to Paul for giving us our chance to shine.
We played
shows wherever we could in Provo. We played at a freshman orientation in front
of 3,000 new students, we played outdoors, BYU’s Battle of the Bands-type show,
and various indoor venues. We always came back to Velour though, and that was
definitely my personal favorite place to play. It had a rustic, gypsy-like
interior with stained glass windows and velvet red curtains as a backdrop. This
place was music heaven to me, and it still gives me goosebumps thinking about
it. The stage was a little tight for the five of us, but it fit me just right.
As time
rolled on, we all collaborated on original songs together. Matt would write the
lyrics and melody, and then we would all come to practice to fill in the rest
of the parts and share input. We played original songs such as “Handle With
Care” (which was actually about a painting heist), “When You Were Here”, “One
Last Dance”, “Falling Behind”, “In Your Eyes”, and “Falling Down”. We would
also fill in our acts with cover songs from band like Coldplay, Oasis, The
Killers, and The Proclaimers. We even played “Waterfalls” by TLC to close out
our very last Counterfeit Digits show. Jeremy played guitar and sang lead, Matt
played base, and I followed with backup vocals. It was quite amazing. General
hilarity and awesomeness ensued.
To be continued...again...
No comments:
Post a Comment