Out Here

Hello everyone. I know this is long and I am not usually this long-winded……but here goes:

I have had a few days to gather my thoughts on my first official Amberland. Although I am often inclined to have a ‘way with words’, this experience is almost impossible to relay using any medium.

Where do I start? Ok, let’s start with Friday night. I literally cannot express the joy of having my GUEST boys there for the Friday night set. Sure we flubbed our way through some stuff, but that was FAR from the point. Those guys are a part of my musical being; part of my soul. We have shared countless musical journeys together and I can honestly say without question…..that was one of the best journeys to date. Just to have the opportunity to share the stage with GUEST again was enough, but using Amberland as the vehicle….lifted the experience to a whole other level. The reception you all gave to my boys almost moved me to tears. So let me speak for all the GUEST crew when we say….

THANK YOU

Friday night taught me a few things. I knew this was going to be marathon, not a sprint. After having a few beers with my boys on Friday night, I knew that alcohol might be an inhibitor for me (now I know it is not for a LOT of you ☺). So for the next two days I resigned myself to one beer a day and a steady diet of red bull and water (a diet that I will resume next year).

Saturday was miraculous. I finally settled in during the day set. The stress of remembering 25 or so GUEST songs (songs we hadn’t practiced together in over a year) had subsided. NOW I just had to remember the 15 or so we had learned for the PGroove sets! But we had been practicing quite a bit so I felt pretty comfortable.
The 80’s set was probably the most fun I had all weekend. I will never forget the cheesefest that was ‘Your Love’. And although I said it was initiation, I must admit that I was 100% committed to that shtick. I went to bed completely satisfied that night, thinking of the pure hilarity of what had transpired.

Sunday was a textbook example of ultimate highs and almost painstaking lows. I just remember thinking at the beginning of 53 things… “ok….you’ve got this”. Then at the precise moment of the keyboard solo the roof opens up and water pours onto my rig. Thank you to Aaron Levitt for the umbrella ella ella coverage.

The next set knocked me off my game a bit. The water had damaged my main keyboard, and was causing it to do some very strange things. It was de-tuning itself (my piano sound suffered the worst)….and at some points, even when I hit the correct notes, it would play two notes at the same time. You can probably hear this in Diggin and Robot Waltz distinctively. I just remember playing Robot Waltz thinking about the recording that would come out of it. I was thinking…. “People are gonna hear this and think, great….the new keyboardist is BUTCHERING one of their best tunes. I tried to gather my composure as best I could.

HOWEVER, that set did bring me another highlight of the weekend. The BREEZE jam. I don’t remember ever being as locked in with the other three guys the whole weekend, as we were during that jam. It felt as though my keyboard was playing itself. Like I said….a day of supreme highs and lows.

This brings me to the final set….and the RAIN. I am going to skip over many of the emotions the band was feeling during the stoppage period. Let’s just say WE WANTED TO PLAY! Anywho, the last set was very retrospective for me. I was thinking quite a bit during it. Most importantly I was thinking about the fans, and how DEDICATED these people are to PGroove. Once again I was hit with a wave of emotion, which brings me to my final thought on the weekend. I seriously couldn’t (and still cannot) comprehend the unbridled love for this band. You all are some of the most generous, loving, and GIVING people I have ever come in contact with. As the festival came to close I was left with a grin that had been placed firmly on my face on Friday night. I am happy to say that as I sit here typing….thinking about that experience…..that grin is returning, and I am left with only one thought in mind.
LET’S DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.