Allright kiddies... our first gig since the cancer diagnosis.
Good news and bad news:
Good news, Roger is now DONE with the chemotherapy. He had his last Bliomicin last Tuesday. Bad news, he always has to puke after the Tuesday treatments, and this past Tuesday's was the very worst he's had. He was wretching so hard, he hurt his right shoulder and ribs. He hasn't slept in his own bed since then, cuz he can't lay flat on his back without severe pain. Something really got messed up in there. Not cool, especially since we had the block party to jam for. We had band practices last Saturday and Sunday, and we all felt really really good about the songs, and Roger was feeling quite normal and had high morale for the first time in weeks. Then he goes and wrecks his shoulder! So we really didn't think we'd be able to pull off the show the way he was feeling. So he called the doc, got extra-strength Vicodins, and got all hopped up and dopey for the week. REALLY dopey. He sat in the couch for a whole day and stared at the wall, and he told me he was content as a pig in shit. Folks... you gotta be completely OUT OF IT to be content with one of my walls!
Saturday morning came, and he felt reasonably good. He wasn't much help hauling our gear, but we still managed to get everything set up and ready to rock. Then we talked about cutting down the song list as we go, but he said he felt good enough to play. So we just started, and did pretty good. We played all but only one of the songs we had ready, and that was cuz I burned out my voice by the end of the show! The crowd loved the show, and a whole cheering section exploded when Kevin played Joe Satriani's Summer Song. They loved it! We played 21 songs and people loved it all. We finished the night with Freebird, and we had people slow-dancing in the street in front of us, and then we kicked into the super-long guitar solo and the crowd went crazy! They didn't want us to stop, but Roger was getting tired, and Jeremy burned out cuz he was really showing some heat exhaustion. His drumset was under the canopy just in case it rained (it always seems to try to rain on our block parties) and it acted like a sauna by trapping all the warm air. He got off his drumset, went in the house, and wrapped his head in a cold wet towel.
But it was a great party, and the crowd loved it, and we felt really good to know we can still rock.
So yesterday, Roger had the CAT scans of his head and torso, and next Monday the doc will tell us the results of the exams. Then we'll know where we stand, and how well he fought this fight. Manticora is less than two months away... he just might live to see them!
That's all I've got to report! If I can get some pictures from people, I'll put them up on our website and you can check them out.
Good news and bad news:
Good news, Roger is now DONE with the chemotherapy. He had his last Bliomicin last Tuesday. Bad news, he always has to puke after the Tuesday treatments, and this past Tuesday's was the very worst he's had. He was wretching so hard, he hurt his right shoulder and ribs. He hasn't slept in his own bed since then, cuz he can't lay flat on his back without severe pain. Something really got messed up in there. Not cool, especially since we had the block party to jam for. We had band practices last Saturday and Sunday, and we all felt really really good about the songs, and Roger was feeling quite normal and had high morale for the first time in weeks. Then he goes and wrecks his shoulder! So we really didn't think we'd be able to pull off the show the way he was feeling. So he called the doc, got extra-strength Vicodins, and got all hopped up and dopey for the week. REALLY dopey. He sat in the couch for a whole day and stared at the wall, and he told me he was content as a pig in shit. Folks... you gotta be completely OUT OF IT to be content with one of my walls!
Saturday morning came, and he felt reasonably good. He wasn't much help hauling our gear, but we still managed to get everything set up and ready to rock. Then we talked about cutting down the song list as we go, but he said he felt good enough to play. So we just started, and did pretty good. We played all but only one of the songs we had ready, and that was cuz I burned out my voice by the end of the show! The crowd loved the show, and a whole cheering section exploded when Kevin played Joe Satriani's Summer Song. They loved it! We played 21 songs and people loved it all. We finished the night with Freebird, and we had people slow-dancing in the street in front of us, and then we kicked into the super-long guitar solo and the crowd went crazy! They didn't want us to stop, but Roger was getting tired, and Jeremy burned out cuz he was really showing some heat exhaustion. His drumset was under the canopy just in case it rained (it always seems to try to rain on our block parties) and it acted like a sauna by trapping all the warm air. He got off his drumset, went in the house, and wrapped his head in a cold wet towel.
But it was a great party, and the crowd loved it, and we felt really good to know we can still rock.
So yesterday, Roger had the CAT scans of his head and torso, and next Monday the doc will tell us the results of the exams. Then we'll know where we stand, and how well he fought this fight. Manticora is less than two months away... he just might live to see them!
That's all I've got to report! If I can get some pictures from people, I'll put them up on our website and you can check them out.
