Pork Chops, Strawberry Milk and Ling Xiu

Pork Chops and Strawberry Milk and Soul Repair

Coz and Rob covered most of the highlights in their blogs but I thought I would cover a couple of things that made the weekend stand out for me. Angie(my wife)shared a mandarin phrase with me at the beginning of last week that was particularly relevant to the whole experience we had last week with FE. "Ling Xiu"(pronounced leeengSHE-oo) which tranlates as "Soul Repair", was a phrase that perfectly describes this experience for me. The weeks preceeding this one were particularly full of chaos, hectic scheduling and unfulfilling musical moments. These were no doubt a cumulative attackof the enemy meant to affect our outlooks and attitudes. I have to confess, to some degree He was successful. Nevertheless God makes all things work 2gther for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. This weekend was one that reminded me that what we are doing is purposeful, meaningful and just freakin' FUN!From the time we left until the time we got back we laughed basically non-stop. The comradery between FE and DWB was supernatural. We talked about some of the things going on in our families, in our lives, in our music and helped build each other up. We shared all our gear, all our clothes and most of all laughs. A cheerful heart is medicinefor the soul..SOUL REPAIR! FE's hospitality went beyond anything we could ever have imagined. They made sure we had a place to sleep and something to eat everywhere wewent. We never went without anything that we needed. It turns out both FE and DWBwere in kind of spiritual and musical desert so to speak and this was a divine appointment meant to help us both hold on to hope! The highlights for me included Diva's never ending bowl of fried pork chops and the FE post-gig ritual of aquiring and drinking the state's prize winning strawberry milk. I haven't had strawberry milk since Iwas a kid. Scratch Track jumped up and did a Hip Hop version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" w/ FE in Burlington that was off the chain! Also JR's set was phenomenal in St. Louis which included a particularly soulful version of John Mayer's "Gravity" If u haven't seen JR or Scratch Track those are acts U need 2 check 'em out too. Next time we do a set of dates 2gther be sure and don't miss it cuz we 'gon drop the joy bomb wherever we go! It was a weekend of of Ling Xiu for me, fo sho!
2 verses come to mind as I close.

He who is a friend is always a friend, and a brother is born for the time of stress.
-- Proverbs 17:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another
.--Proverbs 27:17

Be sure 2 read Coz and Rob's account of the weekend below!

RockStar Band Camp-Robby's Blog

RockStar Band camp

So going into the 3 dates with the Fundamental Elements (FE), I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew these guys were good people and excellent musicians. We first met them about 3 years ago when we played a NYE show in St. Louis. Fast forward to this past weekend...........INCREDIBLE. There are times when you are in a band and you need some positive energy and motivation. Watching FE do their thing was just what the doctor ordered. Playing with these guys was a treat, but I really enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff we( DWB) encountered. Getting to know these guys, talking about real life, impromptu jamming in their home studio, and encountering their positive energy has left a smile on my face. Here’s some highlights:
1) We came close to hitting not one, but two deer in our van packed full of 10 people
2) We realized that Cozmo is a Grown a#$ man who likes to dress like Ben Wallace
3) On Halloween, we learned Ghostbusters in a very short time and rocked it that night on stage
4) Frontman Russ from FE loves Montell Jordan’s This is How we do it
5) Robalicious dressed up as Leonardo ( yes the blue Mutant Ninja Turtle)
6) Cozmo says he has skills like a Ninja, but forgot his stage clothes for 3 straight gigs
7) Davis can cook some mean scrambled eggs for breakfast
8) FE Bass player Mark dressed up on Halloween .............................as Cozmo!
9) Jerry Reed from Smokey and the Bandit invented Country Funk
10) Mark from FE loves vanilla moon pies...............but only when Davis is serving them
11) FE drummer is in love with Keith Urban...................and once considered frosted tips
12) Diva can sleep with one eye open
13 ) Joe and Dustin came up with the best gynecologist name ever, but I can’t repeat it:)
But I think I can sum up it best when for the 2nd consecutive gig DWB and FE ended the night with Ghostbusters. The crowds went nuts and I think we rocked it harder than Ray Parker Jr. ever could. Imagine, 2 lead singers, 2 bass players, 2 guitarists, a rockin’ Diva, a ghoulish keyboardist, and a Indiana Jones lookin’ drummer. FE Drummer Luke told the truest statement right after we rocked every face in the club.........................THAT JUST HAPPENED!!!

Coz's Tour Highlights

So we just finished a three day Columbia, Burlington, St. Louis run for Halloween that was one of the most refreshing mini tours we have done up to this point in our lives. We played with our friends from St. Louis called the Fundamental Elements who are way fonky as well really cool dudes. To kick off the trip i realize about 8 hrs up the road that I forgot my clothes so Russ, from the Fundamental Elements, was so kind as to give me his Ben Wallace startup kit to wear for the weekend as I did for two of the shows. I never imagined how comfortable it feels to dress like Ben Wallace. For those who haven’t seen an FE and DWB show we usually do a big collaboration where both bands get on stage and perform a couple of tunes. Before the show on Thursday night a couple of members from DWB as well as FE approach me to give me the good news that we were gonna work up a version of Ghost Busters for our Halloween show. Yes I just said that, Ghostbusters. So we get up Saturday and chill for a little bit at Luke and Mark’s (drummer and bass player from FE) parents where we spent the night. By the way I believe I should side track just to talk a little bit about how we almost died on the way from Columbia to Burlington. We decided it would be easier to drive three hours to Burlington after the Columbia show on Thursday so we could chill on Friday and work up the Ghostbusters theme song. As we are driving through the night we constantly keep seeing deer wondering around on the side of the interstate. I didn’t have a good feeling about that. Eventually we enter the last leg of the trip and you can imagine how exhausted we were. At this point Mark DeJaynes (Bass player for FE) has taken the last shift to drive and I’m in the copilot seat where I usually am. We were spacing out talking bout something that was probably mindless then all of a sudden a huge deer appears on the road in front of us and we were driving at a steady pace of 70 mph. I was like hear we go boys we re about to eat venison all weekend, but we missed that thing by an inch. Kudos on the trailer breaks Davis, which if he hadn’t decided to put them on the day before we left it would’ve been over for all of us. We continued our conversation about loose meat sandwiches with cheese whiz because we were too tired to wrap our minds around the fact that we almost ran over a massive gorilla deer. Yes it was part gorilla part deer and it was flipping us off as it was running across the interstate. Wait a minute, I think I just blacked out. Back to the blog. After we ate some breakfast we go check out the DeJaynes’ home studio which was off the chain. We set up and jammed for a little bit then we (DWB and FE) started to work up this Ghostbusters collaboration. IT WAS NAAAASTY!!!! After we got done with that we went inside to eat about 10 pounds of chili and head to the Halloween show. It went over so well that we decided to play it the next night in St. Louis which was also a great idea. People were freakin out cuz how many times have you seen a band that breaks out Ghostbusters. I had so much fun I wore my Halloween costume at that show as well. Or wait a minute, I think I wore my costume cuz that’s all I had to wear all weekend. Thanks for loaning me some clothes Russ. From now on we have made a pact to always do Ghostbusters every time we play together.