The Weekend in Review

So it seems I have dropped into a schedule of updating only on Tuesday through Thursday when I am the CGC. It's just that when I am not here, life is non stop. This is one of the reasons I like this job. It's slows things down. I can't do anything but sit around, so I try to use this time productively. Hang on to your seats, a decent amount of content is coming your way.

Thursday Night.
IHOP night. Because of Luke and I going to the studio on Sunday I didn't attend worship practice prior to IHOP. Instead I went home and practiced my piano parts and started two loads of  laundry. I met the dudes right at 10 and it was a great time. We had a new face, a guy Adam met named Dylan. He and his wife apparently live real close to me. Also, Thursday night marked the 3rd consecutive trip out for Tytus Planck, the pastor's kid from Journey. So we had Me, Chaz, Luke, Adam, Dylan, and Tytus. A great group of dudes.We ended up hanging out 'till 11:30 and then Chaz and I stayed just after midnight.

Friday
Started out like any normal Friday. Delivering coffee. I only had a few stops, with Chris' being the last stop. We hate lunch together and I headed out around 1:30. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I then headed down to the CGC where I picked up my check and drove to the bank to deposit it.
Stuart and I hung out for a bit, grabbing some Jersey Mikes for dinner.
At around 8:30 I headed over to the 86 Club in Clifton to see my friends in Wolves at the Gate play. I met them a couple years back while I was hanging out with the guys in Same As Sunday. The SAS dudes had stayed at my place over a weekend with two Cincinnati shows and at the second show they played with WATG.
We got talking and I found out they all went to Cedarville and we knew a lot of the same people. Their guitarist Jeremy and I have stayed in touch the most. They're all great dudes, with a solid foundation. Musically, they play a post hardcore style of music with plenty of screaming, breakdowns and big vocal hooks. If you like this style of music (as I do), you will like them. They recently signed with Solid State Records (Underoath, As Cities Burn, etc...) and have started touring a lot more.
The opening acts were real solid with a band called Come Wind standing out in the most. They were fantastic live and their sound was comparable to bands such as Moving Mountains, My Epic, As Cities Burn, and the likes. Real solid.
I hung around for a bit after the show, wished the guys luck, and headed home.

Jeremy and I talking  after the show.

When I arrived back, there were already people at the apartment. Bish left when I got there as he wasn't feeling well. Michael Rogers made the trip down from Franklin. Alison Schlau, Paige, and Jarrod rounded out the night. We hung out for a while, playing a couple of games and talked until people started leaving around 2:30. This has kind of started becoming a thing we do often and I really enjoy it.

Saturday
Michael spent the night and we all woke up around 10:30 and headed over to First Watch for our traditional Saturday morning breakfast. It was raining pretty hard, so we drove. The wait wasn't too bad and we were out of there by 12:15. After dropping the dudes off at the apartment, I headed to work at Tazza where me and Ashley had a tremendous close. We walked out by 5:15, which is pretty awesome. I headed home where Stuart and Huxley were hanging on the couch watching TV. I ran through the songs on the piano and then fell asleep watching the Saves the Day Under The Boards studio documentary. When I woke up a little later, Stuart and I ordered our favorite buffalo chicken sandwiches from Rusty Bucket and walked over to pick them up. We ate them back at the place while we watched Netflix. I headed to bed around 11:30 as the next day would come quickly.

Sunday

Tracking piano for the record in Chillicothe.

I woke up at 6:15, showered and headed to Luke's where I picked him up and we headed straight to Joe's. We made great time and actually arrived at Joe's by 7:45. We took Joe's car and his dad Ken accompanied us to Chillicothe. We arrived at The Recording Workshop around 9:30 and studio engineer Brian Muth wasn't far behind. I jumped right on the piano and started playing through some of the songs. It sounded amazing. The piano was a Yamaha C7 grand. These puppy's run for around $35,000 bucks. Compared to a $100,000 Steinway, that's not a lot. But perspective is that I play a $1300 Yamaha keyboard. The tone was  very diverse. When I was banging on it, the piano gave this very full almost twangy (in the upper register) sound. When played softly it was delicate and light. We hammered out the session in about 5 hours and finished tracking for all 7 songs on the record plus the b-side single.
We arrived back in Cincinnati around 6 and Luke and I went to Five Guys where we destroyed some food.
I watched the Super Bowl at my parents house, then headed home for some much needed sleep.

Monday
I got to sleep in a little! I woke up around 10:30 and laid in bed for quite some time. I worked at Tazza at 1:30, so I got up, showered, grabbed some lunch and headed into work. I worked with Ashley again and we got out of there at 5:40. Pretty sweet. I got home and started cleaning my room. It has been messy and disorganized for quite some time now and desperately needed some attention. Luke came down around 7:30 and we headed over to Potbelly's so I  could get dinner and then to Starbucks for coffee and Canoes planning stuff. We mapped out the the next month and what we need to do in order to finish tracking this month. Lot's of fun ahead. Jarrod and Evan came over for a bit last night and we all sat around and talked. It was a great time.

It feels good to get all that down!
Today it was pretty chilly heading to work. So far I have had my two regulars come in and a lady to pick up some flowers. Pretty typical slow morning.
Today I am drinking a La Armonia Hermosa Direct Trade Guatemala via pour-over method. This is a coffee that Bob, Rob, Ryan and Les were able to help harvest and process.

Check out Canoes blog for more detailed updates about the band here! Or follow the link under the blog header.