novembre 19, 2004

rooted in rock and roll

i missed out on the chocolate trip last night, the great pilgrimage to jacques torres' chocolate heaven--mecca for chocoholics everywhere! this is the downside of selling your soul to rock and roll: rehearsals and shows occasionally cause you to bow out of fun things. but, if you're lucky, you will have good friends bring you chocolate anyway*, and i can't actually imagine a better thing than getting jacques torres chocolate hand delivered to one's very own rock and roll show.

so about last night...there was rocking. there was rolling. there were a great many stifled impuses to be hyper self-critical and just enjoy. there was a revelation, and the revelation was this: this rock and roll lark? i dig it. and i don't think i can go back now to just being a girl with her guitar.

it's difficult to explain, the way it feels to be part of a big noisemaking machine on a stage. at risk of waxing overly rhapsodic, it feels...huge. electrifying. wonderful. it's something i'd not really done properly before; even our last show as a three piece ensemble (the pre-shivery incarnation) didn't capture it, the raw, blistering feeling of beating on an electric guitar with loud, beating drums and sinuous bass. the way it feels, to find your feet and your limbs moving of their own accord, to discover that you're dancing with your instrument without having realized it. to learn exactly how much strain you're willing to put your body through, to hit that note, to get that extra little bit of volume, to play that chord hard enough. to just relax and have a good time with two people you respect and care about and love to work with, and make GREAT BIG NOISE while you're at it.

it went so fast, too fast, and at the end of it i had sore fingers and a throat that is going to be utterly shot for at least a week. but good goddamn, did it feel amazing.

i think we're on to something.

* also, cookies! can i just take a moment to mention the cookies? did you see that buffy episode with john ritter in it? with the cookies? yeah. this cookie was like that. this is not the cookie talking

Posted by shivery at novembre 19, 2004 10:58 AM
Comments

yep, feels good don't it?

Posted by: Mr Moves at novembre 19, 2004 11:52 AM

Quoth the Shiv: "Rehearsals and shows occasionally cause you to bow out of fun things." Occasionally?! Clearly, you've only just BEGUN to sell your soul to rock & roll. ;-) You guys definitely rocked, and I was super-stoked to be there, regardless of irritated lungs, and I think going back to "girl with guitar" is something you should only do on rare occasions, for effect, like on MTV Unplugged. I continue to grin like a complete forking short-circuited idiot when I hear you play. This is a rare feat. Cheers!

Posted by: DJRainDog at novembre 20, 2004 09:19 PM

Rawk!

Posted by: Dani at novembre 21, 2004 06:51 PM

Once you've stood on stage, hammered a chord and heard the pa slap it off the far wall you'll never go back.

Congrats on the Electrofryification! I wouldn't worry about any niggling self-criticism. If you'd really sucked you'd have known it. Great gigs are over in an eyeblink, bad ones seem to take forever.

Posted by: Coelecanth at novembre 23, 2004 12:14 PM