New York City
What the f am I doing up at 5:30 am? Oh, now I remember: Post-Fallon I went out for Indian food and zonked out at 9:30 pm. Now I’m awake, just as the monsters are going to bed. Crap, I didn’t even get to see our first TV appearance in sixteen years. Playing in a cold TV studio is such an unnatural setting for a rock band but the Fallon crew was super nice and it helped that we were surrounded by enthusiastic kids while we played. I can’t imagine most of them knew who we were but I did see a woman off to my right in a “Newbridge is for Lovers” shirt who’d been in the front row at both of our NYC shows. So that made me feel both relaxed and creeped out. I’m kidding. I think.
(And now, we present some media for your enjoyment)
“Digging for Something”
“Precision Auto”
Mac during soundcheck for Jimmy Fallon (click to enlarge)
Laura and ?uestLove (click to enlarge)
We played “Digging for Something” and that went great. Jimmy seemed to really like it as did his final guest, “Glee”‘s Cory Monteith, who said to Mac: “I feel like such a dick for not knowing your music.” They asked us to do a second song for the Fallon website and we chose “Precision Auto.” All was going great until about thirty seconds from the end of the song when I noticed that the cymbal to my right was about to fall over. I immediately went into crazy hyper thinking mode: “Is it going to fall completely over? Can I fix it during the little stop that’s coming up right before Mac plays the final riff? Will that look stupid? What if I throw up on Mac’s amp?”
Needless to say my mind was not actually on playing the song at this point. My remedy was to do something I’ve never done in the three hundred or so times I’ve played the song since recording it in 1993: Instead of waiting for Mac to play said final riff I began clicking my sticks together as if I was starting the song! Then I just started playing! Everybody came in normally but there was a round of “WTF?” looks. I think I even saw ?uestlove throw his pick at me.
I felt bad about my flub but then I remembered a funny story drummer/producer Steve Jordan told me about the time he played on Saturday Night Live with Neil Young in 1989. They’d been rehearsing all week and he was feeling pretty good about the show. When it came time to play their first song, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Steve took his seat behind the drums and waited for the signal to start the song. “My mind went completely blank,” he said. “I just counted 1-2–3-4 and hit everything at once hoping that during that second or two of sound it would all come back to me…and thankfully it did.” I guess there are worse things in life to worry about than clamming on TV, like why is that guy outside my window singing an Earth Wind and Fire song at the top of his lungs at six in the morning?
We’re traveling to Boston in a couple hours. This will be our first time playing there in eight years. Wonder if they still have those professional sports teams. Guess we’ll have to wait to find out.
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