TEDSTOCK: THE REHEARSALS

Last night was the first Via Skyway rehearsal.

Via Skyway is the child of George Vitray, who has been recording under this name for several years. Some of us have played on some of his recordings, and the "band" Via Skyway has performed live at least once before (with Rob Machold on drums; I don't know the rest of the lineup).

Well, for TEDSTOCK, the lineup is:

George Vitray - guitars, vocals
Dave Cavalier - guitars
Mike Ingenthron - bass, vocals, maybe keyboards (?)
Chris Pace - keyboards, maybe bass (?)
Rob Machold - drums

With the exception of your truly, this is a pretty kick ass lineup. Sharp eyed viewers will recognize that Mike, Dave, and Rob have played together many times (when Rob was in Microdot, and earlier as Moneyshot, I believe) and these three guys are serious musicians. They can play.

Cavalier knew all the parts already. He's had the CD for, what, a week, and he's already got most of it tabbed out. Machold, of course, dropped the beats and we skated on top. George knew his lyrics, and Dave helped him remember some of the parts (seriously). We'll be doing one "Brain Shivers" tune, "We Came From the River," and fortunately Dave was able to remind me of the chord progression. It's a good thing this guy's in the band!

Mike coulnd't make it to last night's rehearsal, but we have no doubt that he will not only know all of the parts, but will play them better with no rehearsal than I could with 10.

It's great to get to play with musicians of this caliber. We ran the set, did some improv, and it was like a nice, long conversation. Great fun. The dynamics were already there, the quiet parts quiet, the loud bits loud, and the spaces between the notes spacious. I haven't played keys in a live band in a long time, and I didn't do any bass playin' last night, and it was great.

We'll have to do it again.