It was a nice weekend for the Essex Lights crew. We had a gig at Rusty's surf ranch in Santa Monica on Friday and then a photo shoot in Hollywood on Saturday. I had to wait tables somewhere in the middle there too...which was not as cool as a gig or photo shoot...but kinda had to be done. Anyway I thought we played pretty well but I don't think the tall ceilings of the bar suited a loud raucous band like us. So, the sound was a wee bit deafening-but as always it felt good to strap on the Les Paul and wail. The weekend before we played an acoustic show which also went really well...we probably should have stuck to the acoustics at Rusty's but like I said...it just feels so good to get the electric juices flowing!!
So after putting on my waiter hat all day long I rushed home after picking up a foot long big hot pastrami melt from subway(which was pretty awesome). I then got together some clothes and guitars and other things that may or may not have been needed at a photo shoot and headed to Micheal's house to meet up with the mike and Ben. Ben is a hair stylist so he gave me a trim and fixed up Mike's hair. Which I gotta say...getting a hair cut on a balcony overlooking Hollywood while drinking a bud is definitely the way to get a haircut! Of course having the barber drink too got a little nervous...I think I've seen some casualties of drinking and hair cutting! But not to fear with Benzo...when done he said it looked a little more “Mitch Mitchell” which was fine with me...although I was going for more of a Jimi Hendrix.
We loaded a few guitars and our changes of clothes into my car, put on the new black keys album and headed around the corner to this photo studio...or really a large studio apartment that was set up with a back drop, lighting and computer screens to show images. Quite the professional set up if you ask me. We started out sitting on these boxes under the lights...the photo man Myles told us just to act kinda natural...i think we started just talking about Ben's tattoos which gives us a lot to talk about and can cover quite a bit of time. Also the handle of Jack Daniel's probably didn't hurt in getting us to jabber amongst one another. After a bit of time doing that we got our guitars and started running through songs and singing and playing-the whole time Myles was there with the flashing lights. We would stop and take breaks like we usually do in a rehearsal but this time we would look at pictures and laugh at what we were doing. It was a fun night but like recording in a studio, it does start to cross the line a little into being a touch tedious. All in all it was a blast...definitely felt like we were on the precipice of fame and fortune. Which maybe we are maybe we are not but it felt good to have that feeling. Hopefully these shots will go well in press kits to send to club owners, bookers, promoters etc...and we'll be off and running!!
ps...i think there are some uncanny parallels between Ben fixing my hair and the pic of Jimi doing Mitch's...that's my opinion anyway
