Short Change Band - End of October, 2012

Greetings Everyone. By the time you read this, Halloween will once again become a memory.


The events that were planned for late last week were probably the only real Halloween memories you will have for this year in lieu of all the events and damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. I am sure it had an impact for many of us in one way or another.

Reviews: Last Friday - The almost annual 4th Halloween Costume Party at Davy's Last Chance Saloon. It was another in the series of great parties for 2012. There were some fabulous costumes as well as some great musicians who came up and partied with the band. Thanks to all of you all who helped rocked the place.

Check out Shortchangeband.com website for some updated photos from this event. DD has been busy again updating the website.

Upcoming Shows: This Friday night at 9pm - come down and check us out at the Infamous Martini Room in Kirkwood as we debut yet another venue in the Triple cities. We'd love to see you all once again.

Saturday - we are way up in the North Country to debut in yet another new venue - The Easy Street Tavern located in downtown Cortland. Stop in and say hi. This is an ABATE event that is open to the public that evening and sponsored by the Chenango Cortland Chapter. The show begins 5pm, so bring your scoot along and take a ride and finish up the season right.

Don't forget this Saturday we begin daylight savings time, so turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed.

Have a great week and don't forget if you see my charming other half out an about this week, make sure you wish Andrea a happy birthday.

Peace out,

Mikee^Dee

Welcome back everyone. I had to fight the pirates to get my email and address book back.  I think for now I won.  This week most people will be celebrating with annual Halloween parties and we are no exception, but first we’ll review last week’s shows:

Friday Night at Birtchy's  was  a smokin' show with a great crowd and a great turn out.  I’d like to give special thanks to our musical guest Wally Jo Webster from the band “Ring of Fire” for coming up and jamming with us.  Also congratulations to my EMS/Fire buddy Joe and his sweetheart Emily for their engagement news. (what a sweet couple! Best wishes to you both)

Saturday night The band showed up and we played another smokin' show but hardly anyone got to hear the show.  It’s a shame, because we came locked and loaded too.  I’d like to give special thanks to Dominic who help us close the show that night, and thanks to our friends who showed up too.  We had a   smokin' finish!

And on to Sunday I was at the “Meet and Greet with Frank Revoir for Judge in Chenango County” at the River Club in Afton.  It was a perfect ending to an otherwise fabulous music weekend.  We also added about a dozen new tunes to the set list as well.

I also spoke in length yesterday with friends about the music production business and the use of processors and click tracks when playing out live.  In my opinion, every tool has its place in music, but after being on a drum kit now for just about thirty five years, I think I can hold my own with the best of them when it comes to holding time.  I didn't learn that from using a metronome or any track machine.  It comes from practice and getting the feel of the music.  Look, feel, and listen.  That's the ticket!

Music is an expression of spontaneous creation and not like putting the mussel on a dog. (so to speak) So what if the song is a tad faster in tempo at the end then from the start.

Well hell, if you can go into a studio now and sing like shit, the computer can correct it so it sounds perfect to your ear, even if your timing is off, the computer corrects that too.  The list goes on and on… “Live” should say it all.  It doesn't lie either or make you sound like something you are not.  Production is a beautiful tool as well and one guy can do it all in the studio if he wants too.

My philosophy is we are here to “make music" - we don't “play music" and that's our difference.

Great for some, but not for all.  Like Tabs for music - the digital age is changing everything but us analog Gods.  (enough said) I'm the guy who doesn't like wearing a lid while I'm riding Scoot either.  (so that about sums it all up now doesn't it?)

Finally, we have one show this week - Davy's Last Chance Saloon - 4th annual Halloween Costume party with none other than the Short Change Band hosting this year once again.  (Yeah baby)

There will be a costume contests, fun and prizes, so c'mon down Friday night at 9pm.

We’ll see ya there!

Peace out ,

Mikee^ Dee

Early October, 2012:

Greetings everyone.  My goodness, it’s mere weeks before we move into another year (where does the time go?)

We have a couple things to report on this week. We continue to play some pretty awesome shows over the past few weeks. We have begun to add some additional tunes to the set lists. Mostly classics and even a few new chart tunes as well.

We tried a few of them out last weekend at both the Hitchin' Post and Seebers with great success.

We like to give most new music a try for a week or two and see if it's well received (or not) so it's really up to you guys if we add it to the set list for keeps.

We like some of that new tunes from Eric Church and even the Old Crow Medicine Show tunes.  Like I mentioned earlier, they went over quite well first time out. We also added a killer Neil Young tune.

We've had a ton of people coming up and asking us for both Neil Young and Tom Petty tunes.  We got it covered now.

We're off this weekend but we're back hitting it hard again next week with shows at Birtchy’s on Friday, October 19^th and at the Central Hotel & Tavern on October 20^th.

Be well, Be Safe, Be good, see you all soon.

Peace and love,

Mikee Dee^^