A Rambling Astronaut

The rocket sits, idle on the launchpad. To onlookers it appears as such, but for the three soon to be thrust into orbit it appears differently. For David, Jeff and myself we share a certain calmness inside our chaotic pre-launch week(s).

Our routine gets thick right about now while each of us 'gets in the zone' and attempts to juggle more flaming bowling pins than we're used to. We have our usual rehearsals which tend to be more labor-intensive along with everything from buying a new GPS to reconstructing our new touring merch display and launching our online store to fine-tuning our brand new touring PA system. David has been a busy bee finishing the production of new loops and climbing 'tax mountain' trying to get 7k's tax-related business affairs settled early (since we'll be mid-tour by tax day). Jeff discovered his 'band nutritionist' hat again and has begun meal planning for the entire tour while doing merch organization/inventory and memorizing complex vocal arrangements. I hunted for our new tour bus and finalized insurance and pick-up details last week, all while sketching the alterations I'm making to road cases this weekend before our big loading day.

We've added a few new, top secret cover songs to our ever-expanding pool of fun covers for this tour, and we've revisited some older 7k material in hopes of clearing some cobwebs. A revived version of 'Wrong Girl' surprised us and has made its way onto the setlist for a few shows on the tour- we're excited. The new cover songs are as challenging as they are a BLAST to play!!! We keep thinking outside the box, trying our very best to bring an extraordinarily fun, interactive rock show to everyone. Four cameras and a beautiful digital audio recorder will follow us around this time, so we hope to have some fun stuff to show you all when we get home.

The weather on the last tour, found us bundled-up, buying jackets, sporting beanies and cursing our wiper blades. This time around, in addition to the usual I'll also be packing shorts, flip-flops and keeping my fingers crossed. Our bus, is bigger, better and newer which should hopefully limit the number of mechanical challenges we faced last year. See any reference to St. Louis in previous blogs, LOL. Incidentally, new wiper blades were installed on our new beast last week. Aside from the chilly, wet weather and mechanical difficulties the only other element we're aiming to reduce on this tour is a faint sense of aimlessness. Last time around, we might as well have been orbiting the moon. It was a brand new experience. It was our first time in a rocket. We'd never been to most of the places we played. We determined where to sleep some nights totally on the fly. That sensation is both freeing and restrictive. In planning the logistics for this tour, we've plugged-in target cities and sleep cities for every night. Because of that, this tour is more concise and well-planned.

With everything I've said, I am now officially, completely freaked out. Until writing this, it hadn't really hit me that a week from tomorrow we'll be rolling for our target sleep city: Tucson, AZ. Now I have the frantic urge to start jotting lists of things to pack, things to be sure not to forget, things that I need to buy before leaving (my Mom's voice now: don't forget your vitamins...oh and buy some airborne). Yikes!! I re-realize every-other nanosecond, that packing for a month-long road trip is almost entirely different than the junk you fling into a duffel for a weekend in Vegas.

Oh, and one more thing. A conscious choice I make about two weeks before leaving is to really flip my memory bank in my brain to 'record mode'. I photograph stuff that I normally wouldn't. There's my bed--click. Here's the street I live on--click. Look, a beer on the counter in my kitchen--click. Mid-hug, no matter who it is, I close my eyes and tell myself 'remember this'. Special moments when sun shines, slight perfume, brief eye contact, a kiss and hair grabbing onto my somewhat unshaven face like velcro as we pull away to say 'goodbye' for the day, the little voice in my head screams 'are you recording this?'.

When I was a kid, I thought orbiting the moon was going for a ride in outer space and being in a touring band was simply playing a bunch of shows.

"7k rocket, you are cleared for launch. Initiate launch sequence on my mark in T-minus 192 hours and counting."

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ...TOUR!

First and foremost, Jeff, David and I would like to thank all of you for coming out to the shows last weekend, clearly you had as much fun as we did. You may have noticed cameras everywhere at both shows, and then again, you may not have noticed since our new HD cameras are literally the size of an iPod. Film director Sam Lembeck offered his expertise and vision to help us test different camera positions for use in our next music video. We plan to shoot many hours of performance footage on our upcoming US Tour. Who knows, maybe even a bit of footage from last weekend will make the final cut.

We've officially shifted gears into tour-prep mode, although preparations for this tour should be a bit less intensive as our last experience taught us SO much. We're adding a few more songs to accommodate some of the longer shows and I'm determined to completely overhaul the 40 song set list we took on tour last year. We're also excited to be taking out a bigger, newer bus this time. We've got quite a few dates booked at various university campuses and we're stoked about being able to play in places we've never been. In about a month, the rubber meets the road as we depart April 6th. Again, we'll be playing all the way to the East Coast with our last show of the tour in New Britain, Connecticut. Click 'tour' for a complete list of dates.

When we get home in May, our plan is to have a big, fun summer filled with lots of shows!! We had so much fun playing at Back Alley and were overwhelmed by the crowd and management response. Currently, a regular gig there throughout the summer is one thing being discussed. Another branch of that discussion involves doing many other similar shows in venues throughout Orange County. So, bring your sunscreen for your summer days on the beach and your thirsty singing voices for your summer nights with us at the shows.

Last weekend's power-packed shows also marked a few milestones for us. In back-to-back nights, we played 49 songs!! I can only think of maybe ONE other time we've done that in Orange County (just before the last tour). Two milestones within that, though, really made last weekend special for us. One, was that we were joined onstage by our dear friend Carlos Rivera, Jr. for an improvised funk jam and blistering version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'. It was a heartfelt blast as each of us sported Cheshire Cat-like grins. The other was, I performed a dueling drum duet with comedic twist, alongside my good drummer friend Charles Wiley to open the Spark Lounge show. It was truly a thrill for me to think outside the box and explore some new sonic territory. In doing the drum duet, my total for the two nights jumped to 52 songs. That was certainly a first for me in Orange County and Spark Lounge added another diverse opening act to its list of performers. Incidentally, you can watch the 3-part drum duet video by clicking 'video'.

Seeing all the familiar faces along with all the new faces, it's obvious the 7k family is still growing. As per usual, we had a blast and again, we have YOU to thank. We're so glad you all had fun and we look forward to doing it again this summer!!

Love and rock music.

Til next time,
Corey, Jeff & David


SETLIST FOR 7k's MILESTONE WEEKEND:

-fri-
LITTLE BIT MORE
CALIFORNIA IS THE END
WHAT YOU DO
MY HIGH LIFE
DISPENSE WITH THE PLEASANTRIES
TURNIN' IT UP
TAKE IT OFF
I KISSED A GIRL
THIS LOVE
POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME
LET'S GET IS STARTED
BEVERLY HILLS
STARLIGHT
DISTURBIA
TWIST & SHOUT
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
LIVIN' ON A PRAYER
I WON'T BACK DOWN
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL
IMPROV FUNK JAM (w/Carlos Rivera, Jr.)
BILLIE JEAN (w/Carlos Rivera, Jr.)
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU
HOLIDAY
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
BROWN EYED GIRL
HOT IN HERRE
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
LOVE SHACK
WHAT I GOT
SWEET CAROLINE
-sat-
DRUM DUET SONG 1
DRUM DUET SONG 2
DRUM DUET SONG 3
LITTLE BIT MORE
CALIFORNIA IS THE END
WHAT YOU DO
MY HIGH LIFE
SOLID WALLS (acoustic)
WRONG GIRL
DISPENSE WITH THE PLEASANTRIES
TURNIN' IT UP
TAKE IT OFF
STARLIGHT
THIS LOVE
POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME
HOLIDAY
WALK THIS WAY
WHAT I GOT
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
HOT IN HERRE
SWEET CAROLINE