.: Hardy Drew and The Nancy Boys played its first gig with the current lineup on Sunday, 28 May 2006, at The Fox in Edmonton. We had a lot of fun, I loosened up as the gig progressed through the selection of fourteen tunes, twelve originals by David Leigh, the drummer and lead singer, and two covers: a lounge version of Whip It, and a noisy interpretation of Surrender. My thanks to Niki West and Angela Pond for taking a number of photos, which have been uploaded to Flickr. This one may be my personal favorite – can the guy still rock out? The bass player, James Wakefield, and I go way back, to 1990-91, when we were members of The Flicks, a seven-member so-called alternative band, and it felt very comfortable to be working with him again. David, James and I had good chemistry on stage, but we were plagued with poor on-stage sound, which we dealt with as best we could.
After a 15-year absence playing this kind of music, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was also hung up on personal age issues. In other words, I was concerned about being on stage playing music ostensibly of interest to people less than half my age. In the end, it didn’t matter, and I’ve shelved the imagined ageist issue for good. It was fun to play electric music again, especially with good musicians like David and James. The band gets together tomorrow for another rehearsal, the last one before I go to Baltimore on Saturday. I’m looking forward to learning new tunes and working with David and James on future musical collaborations.
.: Steve sent a link to images from Harrisand, The World Championships of Sand Sculptures, held annually at Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Check the photos of these amazing sand sculptures, the work is outstanding. I wonder how they do it.