The Night when I was a Zombie in a Band

Last Saturday I performed on stage with the guys during the company annual dinner. At first I was supposed to sing Patience, but after a couple of practice sessions I didn’t think it was going to work out. Then, two days before the big day, the lead guitarist brought a pair of maracas to the office and told me to play. So I was in again.

The theme for the dinner was “Movie Night” which meant that we put on costumes as well. The lineup was as follows:

• Lead: Zeff a.k.a. Dracula a.k.a. Ritchie Blackmore
• Rhythm: Mahzan a.k.a. Innocent Bystander a.k.a. Sting
• Bass and Vocals: Ady a.k.a. Morpheus a.k.a. Eric Clapton
• Bongo and Vocals: Fadzli a.k.a. Qui-Gon Jinn a.k.a. Abiet G. Ade
• Maracas: Yours truly a.k.a zombie (Eddie the Head, actually) a.k.a. Kitaro

We played the following songs (vocals in brackets):

1. Wonderful Tonight (Ady)
2. Patience (Khairi)
3. You’re Still the One (Khairi and Farah)
4. Berita Kepada Kawan (Fadzli)
5. Heal the World (group: office newbies)

Wonderful Tonight and Berita Kepada Kawan were the most satisfying numbers for us. I would like to give special mention to Zeff for his Wonderful Tonight solo; to Fadzli for his soulful singing; and to Ady for managing to pull it off. (Could you sing Wonderful Tonight in front of a hundred people?)

Playing the maracas is easy because there’s no pitch. So you can’t really mess things up. The nice part is that you get the freedom to play any way you want as long as you go along with the rhythm. Having said that, taste is required - you need to know when to be subdued and when to go all out. It depends on the song, the situation, the lyrics. The key is to embellish but not to distract.

It’s nice to play when you’re in the zone. By that, I mean that you’re in the music and you naturally feel the tempo and you just go with the flow.

I think we hit our peak during practice session the night before the show. We played outside in a resort environment so the ambience helped a lot. Everybody played well, we meshed, and I got into the music by sort of latching on to the rhythm guitar - listening to the strums, watching the fingers change chords. Of course, knowing the song by heart helps a lot.

During the actual performance there were a few imperfections here and there (mostly due to nervousness). For some reason I couldn’t pick out the sound of the rhythm guitar so I had to rely on lead which was harder. I wasn’t relaxed so there were times when I sort of lost the tempo. Oh well.

But still, it was a whole lot of fun.

L-R: Abiet G. Ade, Kitaro, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, Sting. Eric Clapton is belting out Wonderful Tonight whilst being Morpheus. Abiet and I are staring at the rhythm guitar for guidance.

16 June 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments