So, with the shows booked, the “work” now begins!  As soon as we found out we were booked for the FOL, we selected the songs and last night had our first practice for the shows.  I mean c’mon, who doesn’t like Christmas music!  However, I’ve learned very quickly, nobody loves Christmas music more than Robbie.  He has been grinning from sideburn to sideburn since we got the call.  He’s even changed his voicemail to (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells): “My name is Robbie Dahl, I cannot take your call, leave your message at the beep, I’m at the shopping mall!”  Anyways, back to the practice.  So, last night, while working through “What Child is This”, Robbie starts playing this sweet jazzy version of the song, Johnny is immediately inspired and begins crooning that’s right, I said it, crooning the lyrics and all of a sudden we’ve turned out this awesome jazz arrangement of the song.  Well, by the end of the night we were able to pretty much nail down the first 3 songs…..pretty much?……they sounded great, If I do say so myself.

We are really excited to ba a part of FOL.  I am not going to give away anymore of the songs we’ll be playing but rest assured you are in for a real treat.

On a side note, our drummer Philly’s daughter , eventhough she is on the mend, has been pretty sick this past week so, we just ask that you all keep her in your prayers.

Stay Tuned for another “riviting” installment of Tales-ales-ales from-om-om “The-e-e Space-ace-ace” (sound effects, deep voice and echo-o-o).

Matt (aka “The Face” it’s a long story too)

So, as Philly mentioned in his latest post, we recently played a United Way Chili Cook Off fundraiser at the Riverside City Hall, which was everything Philly made it out to be.  You probably don’t know this but when we are preparing for a gig (that’s band jargon for gig), we try to squeeze in as many practices as possible; nevertheless, we always reserve the the final practice for our “dress rehearsal”.  The dress rehearsal is where we play through the entire set from start to finish, sand out rough spots in the music and finalize any logistics issues (whatever that means).

Our dress rehearsal for the Chili Cook Off was the night before the gig.  Anyway, with pre-practice business out of the way, everyone in thier places and dress rehearsal about to start , we launch into the set with the first song….BANG!….song 1 down without any problems and smiles all around.  Next song……BANG!…..no problems.  Next song…..BANG!…..perfecto!  Next song…..BA-NOT SO FAST! Picture this, we are about half way through the song and everything is going as planned.  Suddenly, I catch some comotion out of the corner of my eye, I turn around and see Johnny, shirt off, and twirling it above his head (in a weird way kinda like he’d done it before) and, like a cowboy trying to rope a calf, he releases the shirt and…..WHAP…..hits Philly right in the face (I think his mouth was open).  Philly, being the pro he is, doesn’t miss a beat.  It was perfect.  So, we continue playing through the song with Johnny’s shirt laying across Philly’s kit and Johnny standing there, from the waist up, wearing nothing but his “hair shirt”.  It was all we could do to finish the song, we were all laughing soooo hard.  Fortunately, order was restored and we were able to get through the rest of the set without further incident.  I am still in therapy over the whole thing……

Well, to sum it up, these guys are a bunch of KOOKS!  Most importantly, it is a collection of great guys and great musician.  RBC is a blast to be a part of and I am looking forward to many years of being a part of this group.

Stay tuned for more, TALES FROM THE SPACE……………Matt, aka Fancy (it’s a long story).