Thank Yous

After being sequestered in a recording studio working on a new album for a fair amount of time you begin to slowly forget the buzz you get from playing music for a living/breathing audience. I was reminded of said buzz this week when my band and I hit the stage at Living Room Wednesday night in NYC.

To be honest it's always a little nerve-wracking mounting a live show with a fairly large band, whether you're doing it for the first time or the thousandth; lots of stuff to work out and numerous things that can go awry. Deciding to premier all the songs from my new record, "Queens English", before the album's release, to a room of folks totally unfamiliar with the material probably only served to add to the anxiety but at the same time it also seemed like a fun thing to do. Hey, let's add a horn section too!

Finally gig night arrives and as the band launches into the opening notes of "QE's" lead-off instrumental, "Who Are Yous?", all pre-show trepidations slowly begin to melt away. Like the safety bar coming down on the roller coaster seat - we're off...might as well enjoy the ride.

And enjoy the ride we did; like any good spin on the Cyclone there were some frightening turns (Jay's amp momentarily possessed by demons), pockets of serene clarity (the generous quite that filled the room during the ballad, "Blue Suit") and a few surprise twists (audience member Delbert McClinton, aka Steven's awesomely funny, straight-faced, cowbell freak out on "Inside"). Inevitably, like every great ride the minute it's over, filled with relief and excitement, you want to jump right back on and do it all over again.

And do it again we shall but first before we do, a huge thank you must go out to my wonderful band; awesome musicians and more importantly great friends - Cheri Leone, Matty Karas, Ed Klinger, John Lee, Jay Sherman-Godfrey, Bob Byrne, Rob Jost and Jesse Neuman. Followed, of course, by a tremendous and no less sincere thank you to all the excellent folks who came out, packed the room, sent love to the stage and generously went along for the ride without really knowing where we were headed. As they say in show biz (tipping hat & adopting cheesy Jimmy Durante voice), "There'd be no us without yous".

'Till next time.

Yours in Rock,
-mb

ps - Some photos of the evening, like the one above, can be found on my site (see 'Gallery' page) courtesy of Jason Hare.