Been taking a break, but here's a couple of rehearsals from 22 years ago. Around this time, we were playing many gigs - but not rehearsing too much. We had gotten a solid, core repertoire with the "new guys", Steve & Lawrence - but we wanted to bring in some new songs. These rehearsals were specifically for expanding the songlist by trying to bring back a few old songs and to add a couple more Ted & Mike tunes, as we were getting sick of playing "It's All Right", and only "It's All Right"!
Both of these rehearsals are heartwarming, we're in a great mood, and working our hats off. There's not many rehearsal tapes with all five members of the "circus era" LOOB. In fact, I believe these are the only two! We had a big two-set gig booked for the 18th, in honor of Ted's birthday, so we were trying to get as many "new tunes" into the set as possible. I'm going to post excerpts from both rehearsals (which will be of no interest to anyone else other than the band members that were there!); if anyone wants the full rehearsal tapes, just email me.
The 1st tape starts with us resurrecting "New Voice" from the dead and it gets approval from the attendees, including Chris Ivers, who is positioned right next to Steve.
I'm including most of the versions we did of "Bucketful Of Rice" as you can hear us go from spirited but vocally all-over-the-place to a presentable arrangement we would debut at the Nightingales show. At one point, Steve suggests we do a bow at the end (ala Beatles). We get excited about this, but I don't know if we actually did it live! At another point, he suggests ending with a five-part harmony - another good idea.
"On The Cover" surfaces for one last time and sounds great with electric piano and accordion. We don't have the chords right for the middle bit, which is probably why it wasn't put into the set. Because we lost the rehearsal space soon after, "On The Cover" got lost in the shuffle and we never returned to it (at least not while I was in the band).
Ditto a song of mine "The Hardest Rain". There are only two songs of mine I ever felt sounded good with LOOB. One was a song called "Night", which we played in Hubie's basement in 1986. The other was this one, 'The Hardest Rain", which - like "On The Cover" - was never followed-up on as we didn't have a rehearsal space. These two versions from the 13th and the 16th are obviously not ready for performance, but we had a feel for it, and I love how Hubie and Ted join in on the vocals at times. What broke my heart when I digitized these tapes is that they didn't capture a fantastic idea that we arrived at, probably after the rehearsal ended, in which each member "soloed" all at the same time......I can't even explain what this sounded like, and I tried for years to get other musicians I played with to get the idea......but had we worked a little more on this one (it had a million chord changes), it would have been one of the better Mike numbers.
The rehearsal on the 16th was our last at our rehearsal space, Mystery Fez (more on Mystery Fez in another post). The tape opens with what I believe is the moment of conception for "Soon Come" and it is beautiful! We are so excited after this that we talk excitedly for a long time. Hubie at one point brings up an idea that must have been floating around regarding everyone switching instruments. Knowing now that this is the last Mystery Fez tape, it makes sense why "Soon Come" (and other songs from these tapes) took so long to work up; we didn't have a rehearsal space! Later that summer, I moved into The Red House, and converted the garage into our next studio; I think our first rehearsal there was in August. That means no rehearsals between these June ones and August!
Hubie gets a round of applause for his guitar solo on "Dog Days", and we spend some time working on the vocals. I believe these words were mostly replaced, as I don't recognize many of them.
At one point, I suggest "That's Not The Way"! Cool! We rule out including "Dog Days" and "The Hardest Rain" in our upcoming show because they were too complicated to do on the fly. (that's why we ended up doing "Caveman" and "Some Other", super easy tunes which we also rehearsed on these tapes). But in just two rehearsals, we got "Bucketful Of Rice" up to a presentable state.
Mystery Fez, 6/13/92
New Voice
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
rehearsing "Bucketful Of Rice" vocals
On The Cover
The Hardest Rain
Bucketful Of Rice
Mystery Fez, 6/16/92
Soon Come
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
Someone's In My Head (incomplete)
Dog Days
The Hardest Rain
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
New Voice
Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Lawrence Krauser - electric piano, trumpet
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Steven Goodman - percussion, accordion
both tapes recorded by "Fancyman" Chris Ivers (that's what's written on the tape box). Obviously he was sitting very near Steve!
download here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?eibaslagl2bgbnl
or if you prefer Dropbox, this link will be up for a week or so:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ltf4faepgvbq0du/1992-06-13%20%26%2016%20Mystery%20Fez.zip?dl=0
