[Nashville Rage music listings] JOSH BENNETT. Astounding Nashville rock singer-songwriter Bennett reemerges after a yearlong artistic hibernation, and we’re eager to see what he’s been up to lately. The last we saw him, his superb major-label debut had been unceremoniously shelved and was left in limbo. Still no word on whether it will ever be available publicly, which is all the more reason to see him live. 8:30pm, The Family Wash, free.
I know, right? I didn’t realize the writers at The Rage were in the habit of taking X and smearing themselves with vaseline before writing artist blurbs but apparently they are! Josh knew that I knew his songs better than almost anybody else in town and picked me to play drums and his neighbor Paul Slivka to play bass. I still don’t really have much experience playing drums live – usually I play drums in my studio and have a few chances to get it right. Inexperienced drummers like me rely on click tracks to keep them steady – performing live without a click feels like walking the highwire without a net. Oh… and people are going to be watching me!!!
Rehearsals started out shaky but quickly improved, and I ran through the set a few times a day on my own to make sure I wouldn’t be a liability on stage. After one final rehearsal, we ran over to the Wash and set up – nobody was there! Oh yes, Cinco de Mayo. Not even the guy who wrote that blurb came to the show. But ya know what? The show was really good.
Josh started out doing two solo acoustic songs (one of which was new) and we eased into the proper set with a “band” version of Baby Doll, with Paul playing sparsely and me on brushes. Then it was straight on into If You Have To Go. End of the World went quite well, as I started to play “out” a little bit while still trying to watch my tempo. The whole set was fairly solid, but my favorite (and everybody else’s) was Candy Store, which ended the show. There’s a jam at the end and I decided to kick it up a notch by raving it into doubletime with lots of crazy drum fills. It felt great! One of the employees had sworn that they were going to heckle us if we sucked, and after that song everybody hollered and she said “that ROCKED!” Heh heh. I love playing drums. Next time Josh plays, ya gotta come see. I just wish there was some way you could hear some of the songs from the unreleased album. If only there was a way!
It looks like MY album release show will be June 6th (the day before it comes out) at The Basement here in Nashville. I love seeing shows at The Basement so it will be great to finally play there. No word yet on who I’ll be opening for. Of course, we’ll be selling CDs that night and they’ll be available the next day at Grimey’s (upstairs from The Basement).
