The First Annual HomeRec Canadian Mini Jam Fest, aka Voxfest 2003, is now history. Much jamming, drinking, eating, and carrying on with brothers and sisters from Hamilton, London, Detroit, and Utah (!!!). A jam purist would denounce some of the jamming as something other than true jams - multiple takes til we got it right, and not much extended group creativity, though there WERE moments that were more like a traditional jam. Some last minute cancellations from New York, Detroit, and Connecticut made for a smaller turnout than anticipated, but plenty of talent at every position.
It differed from the much larger Connecticut jamfest, not only in approach and size, but also content - very few 12-bar blues, or 60s/70s warhorses got pulled out here - much more GreenDay / 3EB / 90s rock content. A couple of key players, Simon and Myke, were my son's age. Creative guys with a great future, I think.
Musical highlights:
Home For A Rest, aka the Newfie jam, a hard-rocking Celtic flavored Canadian Classic - new to most of us there. We just followed Myke;
Stooges'
I Wanna Be Your Dog, featuring my brother Rats on vocs and keys, and my recording debut on the guitar and airsynth;
Billy J's
Still Rock & Roll, starring Myke, but I get a piano solo - big fun, much cooler than the fake sax thing I used to do in it;
Britney Spears' (!!!???)
Hit Me Baby, completely reworked as a grungy punky moshpit jam - big fun!!!;
our
Warren Zevon tribute (RIP, man...),
Werewolves, with me singing and butchering the first line (bad notes, wrong words), but it got better as we went along;
a Sex Pistols cover, featuring rats again (title escapes me); and
rats'
We Are All Clones, recorded by ratso, Voxxy, and me after everyone else had left - a great "end of the fest" tune.
Major props to the other jammers: Simon, Myke, PartyPants, Voxxy, Chris, ratso, and Voxxy's bass man (name has now escaped my so-called mind). What an absolute blast. We also had DJ Li'l A (Alyssa, 2) sit in on the DJBox, and minivox (Johnny, 3) was bangin' the drums. Voxxy actually played mini-v's tiny set on
Clones!!! Great trashcan sound.
Other firsts:
poutine,
absinthe,
a brown beer whose name I've forgotten, but there's a 6-pack waiting at home to remind me, and
an unfortunate visual of a very drunk, very naked Voxxy, stumbling around his house after skinny dipping and drinking WAY too much - not necessarily in that order. Big thanks to my wife, who insisted we stay at a hotel!!! I need that sixpack of temporarily unnamed beer, just to help me forget the horrors my eyes have seen...
Heh heh.