Screaming Mimes Blog

The beer has finally drained from my system from the 1st Annual Chicken & Booze Golf Outing this past Saturday. What an incredible event. Special kudos (accolades, not the little chocolate bars that act like healthy snacks but are actually really bad for you) to Dean, Scott & Leann for pulling off such an incredible event. The weather was better than perfect (it gave 110%). Jim M. and Becky kept everyone stocked with booze, Michelle & Michelle & Michelle & Michelle brought it to the "Puttin' With The Chicken", & Renee & I brought our "A" game to the registration table. After that the talented and PA-rich Randy arrived and we set up under the sun on the patio... Jim & Preston came next and we got into full band mode... after my normal run through of bad Van Halen riffs, we were ready to rock.
The crowd was cheering, raffles were raffled... we raised a lot of money for the Autism Society of Greater Cincinnati... and had a few laughs.

Thursday night (5-18) Randy and I met up at Sonic Arts to work on vocals. Walked in with no notion of what we might record... didn't bring lyrics or practice anything. Randy had "Everything To Me" up, so we started with that!
Randy has done a lot of guitar work on this one and it was great to hear what he'd laid down. Cool acoustic/electric combos, very interesting stuff.
"Everything To Me" was in the upper register for my voice (everytime I write something in the key of E I get into trouble) but since we'd started playing it months ago I'd gotten more comfortable. The mood of the song is this kind of desperate joy which lends itself to a higher vocal sound. The first take was pretty close but had some technical flatness... the second pass was much stronger. Randy and I chopped elements from both together to create the final version... a line here, a verse from this take... the funnest part was finally singing the "bridge" they way I'd imagined it - combine two vocal takes so that they almost overlap. Live this part comes off a bit rushed, but the recording will reflect the original vision.
"Superdave" was next. Note the lower case "dave" in the title. Very important. This song is more along the lines of some of my older material like "Wedding Day" and "Man on the Phone"... the character singing is a bit of a sad sack and is confessing to his love that he will never be the romantic hero she deserves. In my own relationship it was a big blow to my ego when I realized I had limits - I couldn't pull off the impossible and be a knight in shining armour all the time. We're only human... and though our relationships make us stronger, we'll always have our weaknesses.
This was a fun one to sing... the intentional falsetto bits at the end of each stanza used to be tough to pull off but listening to the first and second take together it was very consistent and had a nice effect. It took me a couple tries on the bridge - I wanted some power in my voice there but I'm singing some pretty rapid-fire lyrics. The best was the "up up and away" bit - we did a big series of these and picked the best and repeated them... they kind of grew more operatic was we went on. It was nice to pull this off after I choked on them so badly at the last gig... sometimes your voice just can't do it (particularly in cold air!).
"Only Love" was next, the oldest song of the bunch... I wrote this right after we finished recording "Live My Life" and it was one of the first songs we introduced to Jim when he rejoined the band. This song is very emotional and personal and has a lot of dynamics... I didn't know how far to go with the whisper/scream stuff. Don't want it to sound "over-wrought". In the end I think we found a good mix, although it took a lot of takes on the post-guitar solo breakdown... got right in there and kissed the microphone for that bit.
Randy and I had a nice discussion about lyrics and I explained some of the "Bonnie & Clyde" references.
After that Randy bounced out backing tracks to "Suddenly" & "Happening" so I can start laying my guitar bits down. I've been looking forward to these two songs because they are very different from some of our other material and I get to play guitar god on them. "Suddenly" will require some new sounds and strange approaches and "Happening" is more of a classic rock approach from my teenage years. Rock rock on!

What an incredible weekend. We just played our show at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, May 13th - and it rocked! We got there early in the day to set up... despite forecasts of rain all day the sky was clear and a warm breeze was blowing through the ballpark. We slowly unwrapped cables and tuned guitars, all the while watching this deep bruised cloud coming in from the west. My heart sank as predictions of concert-cancelling rain started to appear accurate. We couldn't soundcheck as the drizzle started to appear. I went into Eeyore mode and sulks around the stands as the Cincinnati Reds took the field. This was one show I had been looking forward to for a long long time and now it looked like the dream was going to be whisked away.
But the 3rd inning the rain had subsided and a spring chill had taken over - not ideal but still playable conditions. What should have been a sold-out crowd at the ballpark was about 10,000 short due to the weather, but it was still a mighter crowd than we have ever played for. As the 7th inning approached, we tuned up and took the stage to introduce the crowd to Screaming Mimes with our own unique rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" and to encourage them to stick around after the game to watch the show.







We sang... the crowd cheered. Calmed nerves shredded. What was left of the sunlight began to sink over the skyline & river. As the last out approached, we stood at the ready, waiting our cue. Then... - we're off! "It's Not Me", remember all the words, here's the guitar solo, the crowd is building - bang, it's over! "Medusa's Garden", quick quick... then a new song. High up in the register... people are applauding, getting into it - it's GREAT!

The set was over in a whirlwind... George Foster came and signed "Cincinnati Clutch Hits" CDs and Raquel & Rich Aurlia showed up to support us as well. A ton of friendly faces and some new ones danced along. Mr. Red, Gapper, & the Reds Crew danced and got a big group of kids jumping right in front of the stage. Overall a dream night. Cold, but perfect in every other way. Thanks so much if you were able to stick around and watch us... I hope you liked what you heard. I know I was blessed to have such a dream come true.

Dave