This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to play at the Ballroom lounge at an antique hotel in Atlanta called the Highland Inn. It was a very good experience as it was the first show that I really felt like a performer: My name was uniquely written in chalk on the sign in front of the hotel, they provided free beer for the performers, they even gave me some money ($10) at the end of the night and I didn’t even expect it! This was also my first show having a drummer, which thankfully, Jack Preston, a friend of a friend, agreed to do. The people who were over the show were super cool and the sound engineer even gave me some tips on my sound and helped me configure my new Vocal effects pedal. All in all, I walked away with a very good experience.

This show was definitely a lot different than my other shows especially with the aid of a drummer. I was able to be a lot more flexible musically and was able to even have a jam session on stage. For the show, I featured a new song that I made called “Selfish” which is a song that I had been working on for months, trying to figure the arrangement of the music . I told myself that i wasn’t going to ever perform the song unless I had a drummer and thankfully the time came. It’s a song that’s heavily influenced by blues music as I sing about doing what I have to do to survive in this world and not allowing anything else to falter that. With Jack on the drums, the song turned out to be better than I thought.

I also performed two songs from my Melodic Monster EP, “Wasted” and “Isabella” which gave more impact than before with the inclusion of the drums. It actually turned out better with the way Jack played the drums, giving them more excitement than usual. After performing these songs, we proceeded to rock out on stage with a 12 minute jam session that could’ve gone on for hours.

I’ve always wanted a drummer to assist me and this has definitely proven why. This performance has also given me insight on what my future shows should be like. Hopefully I can have a drummer for future shows so that they will be just as exciting as this one and enable me to be just as flexible with the music. If I could just get a good bassist with a drummer then that would definitely enhance the sound and bring the sound of my music to its full potential.

Later Days…

Go here for more pictures from the show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdaye/sets/72157624466743981/

Go here for videos of the show: http://www.an-mag.com/ben-carson-live-at-highland-inn-ballroom-in-atlanta-ga/