I may have left somebody out, which is my bad, but this is how it went down. We got the song list last week. I learned the tunes. Some tunes were dropped, others added, I learned those new ones. Made charts. Some were wrong. Fixed the charts. We rehearsed the night before, on Thursday, from 7:30 till about 11:30. The next day I got there a bit before 7 for a showtime of about 7:30, but we pushed it back to 8. It was a whirlwind of activity. Some of the songs we played were rock tunes that could apply to a Christian viewpoint. Here is a list of the songs, in the order performed:
Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Won't Let Go
Love Is Here
God You Reign
I Would Die 4 U
Give Him Praise
In Your Eyes
King of Pain
You Are Good
The Hey Song (What's Up?)
Redemption Song
Here I Am To Worship
O Happy Day
(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman
Security
One and Only
If you're thinking to yourself, "Hey, that's a Prince tune up there!", well, you are correct! We did U2, Prince, Peter Gabriel, the Police, Aretha Franklin (actually Carole King), Joss Stone, Bob Marley, & 4 Non Blondes too! A lot of fun this one was, and it came along at just the right time in my little ol' life. It really made me feel good to be a part of this. After the run-through on Thursday, which was rather long but we had to iron out the usual issues, I decided to play my Tobias fretless on the 1st half of the show. I really wanted to emulate Sting's fretless on "King of Pain", as it may have been the only chance to ever play this one. I've never played it before, as it is a particularly though one to pull off. Brent sang it very well, even the ending refrain where he had to catch that high "B" on "always be...". I also pulled out the ol' Funk Fingers for "In Your Eyes". Tony Levin did not use them on the song, studio or live (I believe that Larry Klein played the bass part on all except the chorus, but it'd have to go pull out my cd and check. Complicated since Peter rearranged the track order on the remastered "So" and my copy of "Hit" is an import, so the song isn't even on that one). I used them to try to inject some extra funky Afro-centric thumping into the chorus (The E --> F# --> C# --> D section that most people trivialize). For the most part that worked. I'm going to sit down with the song and really try to get these FF's to speak properly, since I've had them for so many years and never use them. Also, listening to the track recently, it's remarkable how sparse the bass track is during the verse, just a low open B. When we played it, I tried just the low B, but the keyboardist seemed to be needing more structure with the chordal vamp. I filled it out with the extra passing tones (B --> F# --> G --> D). it sounded great! Uh, except that I got a bit too into it and forgot to hold the E at the end of the 1st chorus, I went 1 too many times before realizing we were waiting to start the 2nd verse! Embarrassing moment "somewhat" averted by not grimacing too much or turning around and apologizing on the spot. After this tune, I quickly switched to the Stingray, which spoke a bit differently and perhaps more appropriately for "Lord, You Are Good", a blazing stomper featuring the horns and particularly Max on a ripping Brecker-infused solo.
Everybody did a great job pulling this together. Speech was a welcome "Star Power" moment and his voice was most impressive. His rendition of "What's Up?". retitled "The Hey Song" was a great crowd sing-along. "Redemption Song" was probably the climax of the event, so prophetic. One of those songs that everybody has possibly heard but never thought of playing at a concert with a full band. Great to perform with all of these people and I can't blather on enough about how it made me feel inside to perform for this crowd of families and children flanking the stage steps.
Speech during a last minute run-through before the doors opened.
View of the orchestra pit during our soundcheck. This is where drums & keys lived,
as well as my bass amp.
Pics were snapped whenever I could remember to grab the camera.
Marty getting his delay settings right for the opening number.
got music? The stage after doors had opened.
Brent & Speech coordinate some details.
Members of the choir.
Projectionist & audio mixing engineer position. Stars projected all over the walls.
Steve led the show with powerful vocals on the U2 songs.
The North River Horns
Speech gave a speech about an upcoming conference.
Nicha closed the show with incredible gospel stylings.
Brent & Paul reading down the charts.
It's a small world indeed. Nicha & I used to perform together in "The Creations"
(aka "Catdaddy & The Creations") circa 2001.
What do you know, we have a picture from the glory days. Taken at Houck's (now the Paper Mill Grill), just down the road from these parts.
Catfish & The Creations
shown here: Tanya Smith, Nicha, & John (most likely taken in 2002 by Nicha's then fiancé Frank)
I miss that band. Fun and super laid back. Led by Parker Tarvin (aka Catfish, aka Catdaddy). He rallied us together: Arlan Gibson: guitar & vocals; Ron Roper: keyboards & vocals; Mitch Flanders: drums & vocals; Donn Aaron: guitar; myself: bass & vocals; Jon Ripley (later Jason Matthias): saxophone; Tanya Smith: vocals; September (later Nicha, then much later was Monique): vocals. Catfish would do a mini-set with us during the 2nd set concentrating on Elvis tunes like "Suspicious Minds" but he always wanted to do "I'm Cryin'" by The Animals, "Satisfaction" by the Stones, and for our final encore (!) he would get back up with us for "We Gotta Get Out of This Place".
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