We had a really excellent gig at the Canyon Inn in Salt Lake City this last weekend. In Stereo hadn’t played any shows for about a month and half so we were all rested, charged up and ready to rock! Let’s face it, live musicians are meant to play in front of live audiences and we were really stoked to be playing again. Because we had taken some time off we got together on Thursday and ran through a few songs to knock the rust off before the weekend. The extra practice really paid off because we played great all weekend long.
Friday night when we arrived at the Canyon Inn it was pretty dead. We were a little worried that the crowd would be small. We shouldn’t have worried because right before we hit the stage people came rolling in. The club filled up really nicely and the crowd was lively and ready to have some fun. In Stereo has been playing a newer song by Prince called “Guitar” and we’ve never really found a good place for it in our show. So we decided to open the night with that song. It was a really good move as it got the crowds attention and we got some good applause for it. We went from “Guitar” right into the U2 song “I Will Follow” and those two songs turned out to be a good one-two punch to open the night. We were able to keep the energy level pretty high all night long even though I was feeling a little under the weather. One common problem bands have when not playing out a lot is you tend to have longer spaces between songs. That was the only problem we had on Friday and even that wasn’t too out of control. Ted’s sister Cindy, her Son and his wife were in the audience on Friday night and that always helps the band to see friends and family out in the crowd. Tom’s daughter Heidi Nedreberg was also there and sang a couple songs with us each set. She always gets some super loud cheers from the audience. The crowd was great and they stayed the whole night. We were supposed to stop playing around 1:00 A.M. but they called us back for about 3 encores. It was really a fun night.
Saturday, the club was packed from the minute we hit the stage. I was feeling a lot better on Saturday so my energy level was even higher than on Friday. Saturday night the band played extremely tight and focused and we had the crowd whipped into a frenzy several times. We started with “Guitar” and “I Will Follow” and the songs worked really well again. We played one slow song in the first set and that was it for slow songs. We didn’t play any more slow songs the rest of the night. We kept the energy extremely high with one high point being a punk rock one-two punch of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” and “Blitzkrieg Bop”. It was really awesome! Another high point on Saturday night was the Birthday segment. There just happened to be several very attractive young women having birthdays. So Bill went out with the wireless mic and got them all gathered on the dance floor. That’s quite a chore when there are a lot of people but somehow he pulled it off and got them all together. Someone produced a cake with candles and the whole place launched into Happy Birthday. The band then played “Birthday” by The Beatles and it was a good time for everyone. All in all Saturday night turned out to be a whole lot of fun. Heidi got up and sang with us again and we had a lot of friends and family in the audience. Ted’s brother Steve was there with a big group and it was nice to see them.
We got a lot of compliments, played a lot of requests and had a lot of people tell us how great we played. It always makes you feel great to get love from the crowd like that. One thing I know for sure, I played until my fingers were so sore I could barely play at the end of Saturday night. So here’s a word of advice to all you guitarists out there. Play a lot the 2 weeks before a gig so you can build up your callus’s on your fingers. Thanks to everyone for showing up and we’ll see you all next gig! -Matt-
it was fun to read about your weekend gig. i know what your talking about, i like your pick of picks, i use the clayton 80mm. they dont break, they round off the tip. it was nice to talk to you on the airplane flight from salt lake to portland.
Yeah Chris, it was cool being able to talk to another pro musician on the airplane. I use the Clayton 80mm too, I love that pick!
Everyone check out Chris Cranston’s band website at http://dickfrost.com
-Matt-
MATT, THANKS FOR PUTTING OUR WEB PAGE ON YOUR SITE. JUST GOT BACK TO SALT LAKE FROM BOISE. HAVE TO SEE DEALERS ON WED AND THURSDAY (TRUCK DEALERS) IN SALT LAKE. FLY BACK TO COLORADO SPRINGS THUR. NIGHT. WE ONLY HAVE TO PLAY ON SAT. NIGHT. NEXT WEEK WE PLAY ON TUESDAY NIGHT AT THIS BIKER BAR. THEY HAVE TURKEY BOWLING. THEY TAKE A FROZEN TURKEY AND USE IT AS A BOWLING BALL. GETS REAL GOOEY. THE GIRLS GET WILD AND THE TOPS COME OFF!!!!!!!!!! I HOPE MY BLOOD PRESURE CAN STAND IT. WHAT EVER IT TAKES TO GET READY FOR THANKSGIVING. CHRIS
That sounds like a lot of fun doing the whole turkey bowling thing. Anything that gets the crowd going man. We’ll have to hook up and do some jamming when you’re in Salt Lake sometime.
-Matt-