It’s crazy to think that at 15 years old I played at the Whisky a Go Go with my band, Crimson Revolver.
Jan. 11 we opened for the 60s psychedelic-rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock (“Incense and Peppermints”) on a bill featuring two other artists.
The day before I was kinda nervous because it was the biggest show we have ever played. I was trying to get the thought out of my head. So I did what anyone would do: put on a movie just dozed off on the sofa. I wasn’t asleep for long though cause my band woke me up to practice for the show for about the . . . nevermind, I lost count. We practiced it about three times and made sure there were no mess ups and that everything was perfect. After practice we called it after a couple rounds of rummy and poker. So I got my clothes ready for the next day and went to bed.
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At 3:30 the next day, we left for the Whisky. We parked our car and got our special wristbands and got our own room to sit in before and after we play. In the room we were given markers because bands could write on the walls. One of the writings on the wall said “Linkin Park.”
Anyways I hung out in our room for a bit, then I heard some music down on the stage. I went downstairs to see what was going on and it was Strawberry Alarm Clock doing their sound check. While they were doing their sound check me and my other bandmates got our equipment and got it ready to put on stage after Strawberry Alarm Clock was done.
As I waited to go on stage for our sound check I was thinking about how crazy it was that I was about to play at the Whisky a Go Go, the place where bands and artists like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, and Jimi Hendrix played before in the past. It was awesome to think about.
As I thought about how crazy this show was going to be, the nervousness started to kick in. Then I went back down to the stage and we were setting up and getting up on the stage was all I needed to get rid of the nervousness I had before. Once I stepped foot on the stage I said to myself “This is it,“ and started to set up my equipment. After we got everything ready we were all talking about what song we should do for soundcheck.
There were a couple of our original songs thrown around, but we all agreed on “Sympathy for the Devil“ by The Rolling Stones. Once the sound guys got our vocals set and instruments even, we went back to our room and waited till we had to go up on stage. Our manager walked in the room pretty much saying that all of the work and practice was for this moment and this is what we’ve been working for and waiting for.
After we all got each other hyped up for the show we were ready for it and once the clock said 7:30 we all went down to the stage and got ready to play a show we would never forget. Me and Elijah, our drummer started our first song—one of our originals, “Loves No Thing”—with pauses and gave people in the crowd a sense of suspense and excitement for the show. Then Danny, our piano player transitioned into our next original song, “Good for the Soul,” which personally is one of my favorite original songs. After that Ethan, our guitarist and lead singer started our first cover of the set—“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.
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Then it was my turn to start off another original song—“Burning Love.“ The song is hands down my favorite original song to play. Once that song was over we all played our best original song, “Baphomet.“ There are three parts in the whole song and each part had its own uniqueness with it. We played one more original song—“My Golden Whiskey Bottle”—and one more cover Children in Heat” by Misfits to end off our show.
After our set we went to our room and celebrated. We got to meet three members of Strawberry Alarm Clock and got a CD signed. Later on we met the other opening bands and they were pretty cool. We stayed to watch Strawberry Alarm Clock play and after making sure we packed everything up, we left.
We got home at around 2:30 a.m. and let me tell ya, I was so tired that I only stayed up for like 20 minutes before passing out. My last thought before I fell asleep was simple: “I played at the Whisky a Go Go.” If I ever become a dad, I’m gonna have some INSANE dad lore and that’s for sure.
