Journal: News & Comment

Rock life

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I make about half my living as a drummer in the Neurotics, in which I'm known as "Sticky Neurotic." We're doing a lot of shows over the next while -- three on July 1 (Canada Day), and others on July 20, 21, and 31, and August 3, 7, 10, and 17, then into the fall. We even have shows booked for the Christmas season, and one for June 2003.

One of my friends asked today, "Do you rehearse before your gigs? You sound very busy." My response was:

We haven't rehearsed for at least a year, and we only do so when we need to work out new songs. (Often we don't even then -- we just work out our individual parts in advance and maybe run through once or twice during soundcheck.) We've all been doing this for a long time (13 years in Seb's and my case, about 16 for Adam, and over 20 years for Dave), and this particular band has been going in some incarnation since late 1993, so we're pretty seasoned at it. Seb and I were in the Neurotics back then, Adam joined in 1996 or so, and Dave has been in the group on and off since 1998.

Even when we need fill-in players, we have guys who've been playing with us and in similar bands for years, so they can fit right in.

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