AlanV

Great stuff! I'll have to keep my eyes open for their albums in my travels.

Settin' The Woods on Fire, actually.

Then there was the gig at a backwoods place called the "Eagle's Roost" in waaaaaaay northern NJ near the NY state border. We were a Grateful Dead covers/original project. After the first set the owner said, "I dig your stuff, but any band that plays here damn well better play 'God Bless America'." This was several years before 9/11 and way before smartphones so none of us had a clue as to the words or chords, just the basic melody. Thankfully he let us get away with "American the Beautiful." Never played that joint again.

I had set up my keyboards the night before a major gig at a local bar. I showed up the next night (OF THE GIG) and the drummer and bassist told me, "Oh hey, after you left yesterday we stayed and did some jamming. There was a girl who wanted to sit in on keyboards and we didn't see any harm in it." Thankfully nothing got messed up with my setups I had spent hours arranging for the gig. As it turns out, the "girl" was a local pro who happened to be a friend of my brother and who actually knew the tech. She was insanely jealous of the Nord Stage 2, especially. Small blessings, but I never want to hear the words, "we let someone play your stuff" EVER from a bandmate.

Here's the "music nook" at the new apartment. It's since evolved to have my 2 lefty basses hanging in the back right and various artwork on the walls. I'm going to ask a carpenter friend to build some sort of sliding platform for the Rhodes so it can easily be slid out of the wall there for playing. Going out live usually is just the Kurzweil and the Stage 2 SW73. Maybe the ION if the gig calls for it. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/PianoDemon/MusicNook_zpsffe85973.jpg

Hi everyone. My name is Alan and I'm currently based in Montclair NJ. I've been playing piano since I was 6 and gigging on and off in various bands for the last 20 years. Primarily Grateful Dead and classic rock. I've gone through a slew of keyboards in those years, mostly a ton of Rolands of assorted ilks, but I'm currently happy with my Nord Stage 2 SW73 for most gigs with maybe my Alesis ION adding some synth support. I recently did a Pink Floyd gig where we did all of Dark Side of the Moon for set 1, which necessitated me bringing out my Kurzweil PC3LE7 for most of the piano/e. piano work and dedicating the Nord to B3 duties. I'm actually between bands right now, but am still practicing and keeping up on the technology and any new toys that might compliment my stage rig.