Original songs and a schedule update

Band rehearsals are kind of funny. Some times, you just wind up rehashing stuff you already know just to prove that you still know it. Some times, you run through a set in preparation for a show. Some times you do a lot of work and make very little headway, and other times you get a whole lot of work done. Those are the best ones.

Today, we learned an original, currently titled "I Am Your Shadow". That's subject to change, but the lyrics are written, song is arranged, and we can start and end it at the same time. It's a bit of a landmark for us, because for the first time since 2007, we are closing the book on working up new original material.

That's not to say that "this is it". There's probably a good 10 or so other tunes that we could work up, and we probably will start on that later this year some time. But, we had decided some time ago that when we had over 45-50 minutes worth of "new" material, it was getting to be time to concentrate on releasing an actual album rather than constantly bombarding our audience with new unfamiliar songs.

So, we've come to a point where we can start shopping for a studio, concentrate on further honing the tunes we have, and start recording later this year - probably around summertime. We have no real plans yet regarding how we intend to do the full release. Obviously the classic "CDs at shows" approach will be back, maybe a few online retailers, probably get it on Itunes and that sort of thing.

Now, on to the schedule: we had been booked to play at JT Cigarro on February 22nd. That won't be taking place, as they got LA Guns for that night. So, our next appearance will be on March 23rd with Red Lamb. For those who don't know, that's former Anthrax guitarist Danny Spitz's band. It'll be at the Nestor.

Until the next update, later gators

Travis 

Rick's Recap (now with video!)

Ok, it's been a couple days since the Rule 17/Vindictus show at Rick's. It was a really fun last hurrah for Vindictus who we've played with quite a bit over the years.

Our set was the first we had played since last November, as we took December off. It went off pretty well, though. The fun thing about openers is that you can kind of concentrate more on the dynamics of the set rather than just set lengths, as often gets to be the case when you're doing the "dance band" rotation (set, break, set, break, set, end).

This time around, we decided that we definitely had to do what tunes Troy, Dave, and I had done at the first 7th Seal show. Unfortunately, of those songs there are only a couple which have survived over the last 8 years. The only original at the time was "Original Sin", and one of the covers was "Children of the Sea". Dave's wife caught video of Children of the Sea (a.k.a. "Chicken of the Sea".

At the end, I grab a pitcher of water (the post-Dio water grab - that tune does a number on me), and keel over laughing because Aaron requested "Psionic Illuminations" by the Lord Weird Slough Feg, which was also played at the first 7th Seal show (and he guessed it, too).

Another one that we had been batting around for quite a while was Powerslave by Iron Maiden. If you have 2 lead guitars, it's hard to not play a lot of Iron Maiden - it's kind of like having an Ortega Taco Kit and not making tacos. This was technically the first new cover tune since 2007, and it actually went pretty well for us only having run through it 3 times.

Vindictus played 2 sets, had a bunch of guests on stage, and a good time was generally had by all. We in Rule 17 would like to wish our Fargo metal cohorts in Vindictus (all members past and present) the best in their future endeavors. We've shared a lot of stages over the years, and have really appreciated all of the good times we've shared since 2005.

Travis