This is going to be a longer post for me. It's good to actually type out thoughts and not fallback on gifs for a change
(except at the end)
Had our first jam last night. Myself, old drummer and vocalist from coming up to almost 20 years ago now.
We jammed Break Stuff, King Nothing, Bodies, Beautiful People, One Step Closer and Falling Away from Me. We futzed with I'm Broken and My Own Summer. Drummer actually knew the songs as they are on the recordings. I should try that sometime
Singer knew most of the cadences but had some spots where he was winging it. With me; it was a different version of the same thing. I am so used to making dumb trumpet noises and not just playing the guitar and I had some slip-ups here and there. Mainly because jamming with this drummer keeps me on my toes. I am harder on myself than I normally would be. Dude is such a beast and has his playing TOGETHER.
Singer is a great guy and his brutal voice is BRU_TAL. When the songs get 'heavy"; he brings it. On the rappier sections of LB and other spots where it wasn't necessarily singing but wasn't screaming/bellowing; he had kind of a DeLaRocha thing that worked. We need a little more PA support and maybe him to feel more confident on those sections. When he lets it ROAR; that dude is also beastly!
Songs all went well. Linkin Park was an undiscussed one we just winged and it went good. It definitely brought up the point that whoever plays bass (or second guitar) will need to provide some good cop to the bad cop, vocally speaking. I am vetting the candidates for those as we speak
King Nothing was fun on guitar and I do actually like GROOVING in metal. Vocally it wasn't his thing. Not bad performance but just not up his alley. If we're doing this era; I'd rather do Ain't My B!tch
Break Stuff was the perfect opener. Musically and vocally we were good. If we get another guitarist; I will be doing the breakdown vocals
Bodies was hated by the vocalist because he was definitely feeling some elitist vibes ("I wanted to hear a Drowning Pool song. Said no one ever!") but that whisper at the beginning and his bellow kicked
Beautiful People was surprisingly overcomplicated arrangement wise. Like to me; it's dead simple but matching the original arrangement had me paying a bit more attention than I normally do. Again; because the drummer knew how the song went. Bonus points for he has a Roland sample pad. His old band used to do the song and he has a backing track with all the "ahhhs" and spooky noises ready to go the next time we jam. Ooof
Manson is one of the singer's faves and his heavy voice KILLED on it \m/
Falling Away From Me was a BANGER. We played it in drop B but it was close enough to the recorded tuning. The jump riff absolutely slapped. Only thing with this song is the weird bridge in the middle where it does the acapella singing bits. We just winged that section and it was definitely something that will need tweaked or swapped out/medley'd into something else. Super pleased with nonetheless.
We talked about I'm Broken for a few minutes. Singer is not huge on Pantera. Person of color and definitely wasn't a fan of the Phil situation from years back. It led into a conversation about one of our old guitarists we used to play with who was someone who was big on confederate flags if you catch my drift
It wasn't an awkward exchange as we've known each other for a long time and it was actually a good open conversation about something that could have went very differently between strangers in a random jam room and killed vibes. It did no such thing.
He was down for trying it. He popped in here and there on the verses but when the chorus came, lordy. Dude brought it. Drummer and I locked in quite well and made it to the solo section. I was proud of myself
We'll let singer decide if he wants to work with it or dump it.
I don't know what prompted the next bit. Drummer did that kick-snare pop and I went into My Own Summer. He was nailing the Abe Cunningham nuances with the grooves and the hi-hat work and the overall slinky nature of that groove. Oh my god! It. Was.
STANK
When we last played as a band; we were so focused on being some sort of LOG if they were Chimera but still loved early Meshuggah and Sepultura that I never got to hear drummer's takes on those kinds of grooves. We never played them! He was nailing those late 90s alt metal vibes and I was there for it
Good lord!
Gear was my Morley mini into my FM3 in the fx return of a 5150. Serious booty on that rig. He had a quad of weird Jensen speakers in the cab so tones were a little oddball using the Recto preset and 5150 preset I had ready. It worked nonetheless. Having a real wah again was a beautiful thing. FAS pitch shifting for the Korn worked flawlessly. Zero issue going down a full step. The rotary/plex combo I programmed for the Korn verses sounded excellent. Very pleased with that. I used that sound for the descending riff in Beautiful People and it worked great for that as well. I want to use an amp based rig but modeling still seems to work great. Unfortunately
The jam definitely felt like a great jumping off point. Next step is to find a bass player and guitarist who can play and do some additional singing. I messaged our old guitarist. Great dude, no baggage and can play. Finding a bassist is going to be the trick. I am trying to approach this like As I Lay Dying (in the "have a bassist doing the cleans and the lead singer doing the heavy singing" sort of way; not the "let's go to prison for attempted M" sort of way
). I am mulling those options over in my head for local guys but I am not sure who will work?
Other next step will be how we fit all of us in the small jam room. It's a rectangular shape with drumkit and PA on one end facing the opposite wall where the 5150/412, Ampe bass head and 115 cab and some old combo are at. The PA is a bit underpowered and I almost think it would be just as justifiable to add a few powered speakers along that same back wall of the existing PA and route the vocals as well as our guitar rigs through it.
So much for jam and jet with a small pedalboard and a Mark halfstack
Another sort of cool takeaway from this is drummer initially said he didn't want to gig (which I get). After the jam, he was talking about having the 2nd guitarist and bassist and how 90s and 2000s hard rock/metal is unrepresented in the gigging scene.
I'mma keep scheming and make this thing a reality with any luck! Hopefully typing this stupidly long post out didn't jinx it!
TL;DR---Jam went good, need a singing bassist and second guitarist. Might still be "stuck" with modeling at practices but I am ok with that
Not surprised CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK
