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Unleashed in Henderson...
Hello Friends, You just never know how things are going to go in a live situation. STYX is legged up enough, and that means band and crew, to handle any and all obstacles that are a daily part of being on the road, but it's the chemical side that is always the wild card. In other words, the product of everyone's combined moods, amount of sleep or lack thereof, personal events which can either be a distraction to overcome or rocket fuel to turbo charge one's performance. All these mixed together determine the outcome of every show. Last night was a rocket-fueled surprise that made for one fun, fine evening under the mild, starlit Nevada sky in Henderson. For me personally, I was a little bit concerned because I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep coming over the mountains and high desert from Albuquerque. The dry arid conditions woke me up before sunrise so went up to the front lounge for something to drink, and to watch television. About an hour later Ricky got up and joined me, just as I was tuning in to a Stevie Ray Vaughn special. It was so soulful, yet adrenalized a performance that we were glued to the screen for the entire program. It was awe inspiring and all I could think of was getting on stage again to see if any of it would rub off. When we got to Henderson, I tried unsuccessfully to get on line to post some things on STYXworld.com from the night before, had a huge salad from room service and a large mocha from the coffee shop downstairs. Eventually I wandered down to the stage to see if they had any luck getting on line and sure enough, they had the network up and running, so back I went to get this laptop. I hung out with Keith at headquarters, fueled up on a large soy Chai Latte, and updated the site until it was time to go back and shower up for the show. As we gathered to go over, I was hitting a wall, feeling the lack of sleep and the quiet concern one gets as showtime approaches and you feel like you're low on fuel. But sure enough, as we finished up our meet and greet, I picked up on the collective energy of the band who were in an especially good mood. Soon we were taking the stage and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but we took off like a band of hungry teenagers getting their first big break on a big stage. It was awesome to be riding that wave and I was so glad to have my guitar in my hands and tapping into the charge I had gotten from SRV hours earlier. I had gone 180 degrees from being tired, in fact it was a manic feeling that I almost involuntarily shared as soon as I greeted the crowd. "We're so excited to be here...we need to calm down a little bit..." or something to that matter was what came out. I quickly regrouped and clarified, "Not YOU--I mean US!" What I meant was "ME!" But looking back we were all in a scrappy mood. I could tell by the wild-eyed looks we were exchanging. Our usual attention to precision was overridden by a more primal urge to dig in a push the envelope, and damn whatever little collateral clams (i.e., mistakes) came as a byproduct. It was as nourishing for the soul as a week in a health spa. I was really happy to have Michael Lardie and his lovely bride there on stage just stage right of Lawrence, who could tell what was happening. We had a great visit afterwards and he got to meet everyone in the band he had only seen in passing last time we performed with him and Night Ranger in Pittsburgh a couple of months ago. It was a night I wish we could have every night, but you cannot bottle things like that. I know we'll be in the zone again tonight. We are always there, and that's the beauty of STYX. But I will still be looking for another taste of last night's ethereal nectar. Man it was so fine! Going for it again in a few short hours... TS |
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