Happy Birfday illWill!

reprinted from August 31, 2009 


I "have a band", Hayday - go to the link on the right and download the album for free!!! And by "have a band," I mean that once every two or three years the right people will fall into my lap, and we'll play a show with the same old crap songs I've been slugging around for years to the same 4 people obligated enough to come, and then having gotten some excitement back I'm continue after the show, thinking okay, now I'll restart everything and go about playing/recording songs that weren't written in the Nixon Administration (first one), but then the endless frustration of trying to find a drummer goes on for weeks until I finally find somebody and, masked through incredibly high levels of beer along with being thrilled there's a warm body hitting the skins (not in my usual way, here I mean playing drums), will be all excited for a while, until after a few weeks it becomes apparent that the drummer DOES suck, that I really was that drunk and desperate to make myself believe "he's the one!!!!" so that I can get back to rocking in the free world on a normal basis, therein sapping all the energy I had built up and then I'd eventually figure out a way of firing him without firing him ("I'm being shipped to Iraq/incredibly sick/died") and spend months laying around bitching and crying and moaning until the whole process starts up again. That's pretty much the extent to which my band "exists" these days.

And then earlier today I get a call from my little brother, illWill, who is calling to warn me that there is a band in Colorado that is named THE HEYDAY, and he's worried about it and will I call him so we can think of what to do. I don't know if that's sad, or funny, or if it makes me wanna fucking play drums with my face while simultaneously playing guitar and singing, "fuck anybody else!" etc. God bless illWill, the little bastard :)

Years ago Hayday went down to Richmond to play a show, about an hour away from where illWill was currently going to high school, and he came to watch big bro blow the roof off the place. Of course his being in high school and obviously underage (and him being an fucking Eagle Scout) presented a small concern, but we just told him to help lug the gear in, looking like he was a part of the "road crew" or something, and try to look older than he looked at the time - think Opie, but younger and with glasses. And then take a nother few years off that. After we were loaded in he was all worried and nervous so finally I pointed to a booth in the corner off to the right of the stage; I said go sit over there, look inconspicuous and just don't move, don't go anywhere, and he'll be fine.

So the show starts and I'm pulverizing people's face with my rocking, cuttin' heads with anyone who had the balls to take me on as I, I mean we, changed people's lives. For about 35 minutes...then I guess their lives went back to normal, I dunno, I am not a social scientist.

So after the show everyone comes up to say how great the show was (duh!), and as it's Richmond I got a lotta friends and family there (Brothatime!! and Sistatime! were both in da house), and after awhile I hear someone shout-whispering to me from across the almost-now-empty room, and it's illWill. Still pinned in the seat, not having moved an inch since I told him to sit down. and he loudly whispers "can I go to the bathroom now?"

Poor kid had had to piss for the whole show, but was told to not move, and didn't move, not wanting to fuck anything up, to the point of almost gotdam pissing hisself. Fucking illWill. Here's to you buddy! :)

ps - neither the song or photo are from the Richmond show. Fuck it, what'm I, a fucking curator?

Hope You Had Fun (live 11_6_07) - Hayday

And fuck it, cause I like you people, here's sumpin nobody's heard - a slow jamz, Keith Sweat number for you ladies. A very serious song. Cough.

NEVER SAY GOODBYE -