Sabaretto's second rehearsal was another barn burner. Loud, long, fast and furious. We were able to spend a bit of time flushing out the changes and focusing on some details. Over all it went well. By the end of rehearsal we had established a set list and were able to run it.
Our third and final rehearsal was last night, Dec. 27th. Again, we were at Terry Potts' place out in Romney, IN. This time there were no distractions. At previous rehearsals we had Terry, his wife, his son, my brother Jon and Jim's brother Josh, floating around the room with us. Its nice to have people around when you're ready for them, but I was glad to have this time to have the place to ourselves. There's a different communication and focus with the core group together putting there heads down and working it out.
We began this night by going over two of the songs that needed the most work. After a tweak and a twist, we felt pretty good about those songs. Now we were able to run the set straight thru, see how it felt, and see what might need a little work or discussion. I must say, its great to work with such accomplished musicians who I've known for so long. We've found a real easy form of non verbal communication. Songs would be midway thru and a single gesture was all that was needed for a minor change in the harmony or a heads up for an arrangement change. The set has a nice flow and the fullness of the harmonies are amazing. That is one major change between this version of Sabaretto and the teenaged version. We never had solid singing in the backing vocals. Jim and Dan were more focused on their guitar parts and probably just not confident in the olden days. Now, they're both lead singers in their own bands, with strong voices and a great sense of harmony. I still have to twist Dan into singing louder and closer to the mic, but he's right on pitch and able to blend and mix better than ever. And what can I say about Jim? He's an amazing singer and an amazing band leader for his own project in NY. Having a great backing vocal crew makes any band sound better. It adds that full, lush sound that I love so much in music.
In the weeks time between our second and third rehearsal there had been a few discussions about our set being too short. We had a nine song set of all original Sabaretto songs from the early 90's. The idea was tossed around about doing a cover and it was very clear that a few of us had no interest in that at all. Johnny B even called me and said at one point, "I think some people might be pissed if we only play for 35 minutes." I eased his mind and said, "Dude, it will be more like 45, and it's going to rock so hard. And besides, its better to leave people wanting more." I am a firm believer in less is more. The wild card came with all of our friends and fans asking for a song called Fly High. This was a song written by Dan and a friend of his and its the first song Dan and I ever worked on when we began playing together. Fly High is a late 80's sounding rock ballad. Initially I had absolutely no interest in playing this song, but you know what, after 10 different people asked me about it, and the entire band telling me the same thing, "People want us to play Fly High.", why not. We played it together at the last rehearsal. When we hit the first chorus I looked at Johnny B behind the drums with Dan Baker on my left side, just like the old days of practicing out at Uncle Tom's cabin in Battleground, IN, and we just smiled like kids. Yes, its a a dated song. Yes, it sounds like Poison. Yes, its going into the set. With all these great singers in the band, we've decided to perform the song in three part harmony. It adds a nice new twist to it and its going to be a fun, light hearted end to an aggressive and powerful night of music.
We recorded and timed the final run thru of the set. 52 minutes from beginning to end. 10, All original songs written by Sabaretto from 1991 to 1994. I'm proud to say, we're gonna kick ass and leave it all on that stage tomorrow night.
