These Infinite Spaces

I didn't manage to learn all of the songs by the following week, but had them all down pat by week 3 or 4. We rehearsed every Sunday for up to 6 hours, going over the playlist again and again. And there was no time for stuffing around - the rehearsals were pretty solid. These guys had a level of professionalism I hadn't encountered before, and it took me a while to catch up.

Regarding the music, it was a fun list of party songs. The set list changed over the next couple of years, dropping songs and adding new ones. Here's what immediately comes to mind -

We've Got to Get Out of this Place (The Animals)
Raise Your Hands (Bon Jovi)
No Lies (Noiseworks)
Take Me Back (Noiseworks)
Are You Old Enough (Dragon)
April Sun in Cuba (Dragon)
Don't Change (INXS)
Never Tear Us Apart (INXS)
Twist and Shout (Beatles)
Revolution (Beatles)
Celebration (Dragon)
Rain (Dragon)
Long Way to the Top (AC/DC)
Working for the Weekend (Loverboy)
Counting the Beat (The Swingers)
Clarity of Mind (Spy vs Spy)
Wild Thing (The Wild Ones)
Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)

A fun list, right? So how did we sound? Pretty good, I reckon. Nowhere near the standard of a pro band, of course, but better than most of the garage bands around our wayWe .

A couple of months passed, and we got to the point where we were ready to gig. One problem - I didn't have a decent amp. So I scoured the papers and found what I was after - a 100 watt Fender head with a 4 x 12" quad box, for $500. The quad box was *huge*  - it was about 5 feet high and had it's own wheels. The guys laughed their heads off when I first wheeled it down Andrew's drive. They nicknamed it the "Fridge", and Andrew said he'd hide in it if the crowd ever got too wild. Most importantly, though, it had a *big* sound - just what I needed.

Our first gig was at someone's party, and it was there I discovered how wonderful it was to be in a rock band in 1987. The party was in an old community center and it was packed and humming. We climbed up on the tiny stage and the background music was turned down, while the crowd turned an faced us with an expectant silence. Justin counted us in and we began playing "Twist and Shout". The crowd erupted with people cheering and jumping around.

I'm sure you know the song, and you will know there is a break in the intro just before the vocals come in. Well, we played the 4 bar intro and broke, and the crowd turned to us as one and sang, "Well shake it up baby now!" That was one of my most magical moments as a musician, when I realised the power of music to take hold of people and pull them into your world. I played the rest of the gig in a daze, a kind of euphoria. Afterwards lots of people came up and told us how awesome we were, and we were stoked. And that was only the beginning...