Drum Lessons Orange County News

A New Year…a new Guitar?

12400932_1020356388051769_5139719925875009316_n 12360405_10153262330883862_9128299433775685799_n 12347812_999554390131969_4646092746901701461_n

In the middle of 3 exciting gigs for the new year, two with Sun and Sail Club and one (with more to come) from Fu Manchu, its been a great way to get this year of drumming and students off with a bang. On Saturday night January 30th Fu Manchu played to a packed house at The Hood in Palm Desert. Probably the first time the band has played in the desert since 2000 so it was a great vibe with many excited and boisterous folk. In the middle of raging sandstorms and wild California weather we made it out and back safe and managed a packed 14 song set, premiering our cover of the Foghat classic “ Slow Ride” that we worked up in practice. We tried it at sound-check and it sounded sludgy enough so we figured we would open with..that way in case we screwed it up, we would have the rest of the set to recover! Having not played a Fu Manchu show since August in San Diego, it felt good to be back on stage and kicking ass.

I managed to miss the annual NAMM show in Anaheim and the Alex Van Halen kit that was set up at the Ludwig booth. It would have been nice to crawl up behind that beast and get a view from the Reverend Al’s throne, but with rehearsals, students and gigs it was not to be (What do you mean you are WORKING?) The fine folks at Reverend Guitars hosted Sun and Sail Club and The Kyle Glass Band (one half of “ THE D) for a NAMM jam on Friday January 22 at The Slide Bar in Fullerton. We blew through all of “ The Great White Dope” album and one choice tune from the debut ““Mannequin” We were ‘paid’ by Reverend in guitars, and I chose a Tobacco Sunburst Bob Balch Signature model as my payment…so now I’m gong to be putting in some time on playthisriff.com with Mr Balch to try and learn how to do something other than play chords. I’m sure there is a “drummers and/or musicians joke” in there somewhere. Right before we went on, I ran into Tom Rogers, an old friend that I was in one of my first bands in high school. He was with his son Gunnar, who is 20. Because it wasn’t an all ages show, they couldn’t get in, but we made plans to have them come to a show once the lad reaches the ripe age of 21. It made me flash back to tearing up the desert in Tom’s 4×4 on his 20th birthday, blasting tunes and dust while we talked of future world domination plans. Our paths have gone in different directions, but it made me stoked to see him and think of all the great friends I have been lucky to keep in contact with, far and wide.

So now before tours get announced, we will start digging in to writing that new Fu Manchu album,…and I will be getting some of those guitar lessons…

Cancellations are paid in full, no exceptions. If 24 hour notice is given before your slot, we will do our best to accommodate you in another slot for the week time period, but with the volume of students we cannot guarantee a slot after you have cancelled.