RE: [Harp-L] band drinking, minimal harp content

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you need a policy about drinking in the band, then somebody is drinking too much.  One drink per set means 4 drinks or so in a night, too many for a good performance in my opinion. I stick to water and fruit juice when I perform. 

Bassist Will Lee of the Paul Schaefer Band and Rob Paparozzi's Hudson River Rats (among others) did an interview in Keyboard magazine a decade or so ago in which he said that the essence of the drug experience--ANY drug experience--is alienation, and it's never helpful to be alienated from the people you're playing with.  Lee said in that interview that he tended to play very defensively when he was high (on cocaine), taking no chances, and that meant he didn't play his best. I think Lee had it right.   

I know a lot of people who think they play better on alcohol, weed, etc., but I've never met anyone who actually plays better loaded.  It's recreational, but it's not professional.  When the performance counts--and every performance for an audience counts--it's better not to be loaded.

I saw an interview with Carlos Santana recently in which he described how he played his career-launching performance at Woodstock while loaded on LSD.  The band had arrived onsite in the early afternoon, and he thought he was going on late that night, so he dropped acid.  Then the schedule changed, and he had to go onstage in the midst of a full-blown acid trip.  He said in the interview that he was praying all through the performance that his guitar would stay in tune and the neck would stop turning into a snake.  It was a good performance, I think, but the interview made it pretty clear that it wasn't much fun for Santana. 

Regards, Richard Hunter



  

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