| Matt Wessel Music.com |
| Matt's Journal May 1 2005 First of all, happy May! Mother Nature helped us Gurnee folk celebrate by sending a hailstorm our way. It was short-lived, though. Only about 10 minutes. Of course, it was the 10 minutes Beth, Amy and myself were trying to load a drum set into my car for today's CFL. Yeah. Anyways, speaking of the CFL ... what a show! I’m happy to report that the entire afternoon was a great success. We raised about $8,000 for the American Cancer Society at today’s Concert For Life in Libertyville, Illinois. My guess is that there were probably about 400 people there. It reminded me a lot of the first CFL we did in Gurnee, back in early 2001. We've now done CFLs in Gurnee, Libertyville and Milwaukee (two at Marquette University in 2002 and 2004). The kids that put the show together did an amazing job of organizing everything. I’m taken aback every time I see such determined youth come together to raise money for the ACS. It’s an inspiring thing to witness. The music itself was top notch. Now, I’m a pretty harsh critic of my own music (which I’m sure most musicians – if not all musicians – are. But I can honestly say that this was one of the best shows we’ve had. Kelly (violin) and Molly (flute) were great as usual. We got to do both “Kate’s Song” and “Wedding Day”. Afterwards, people kept coming up to me and telling me that “either one of the two would make a great girlfriend” … or “your violin and flute players are good looking … why don’t you date them?” That’s great! Beth and Amy were there to sing. I’m not sure what it is, but the two of them seem to really jell together. They sounded really good tonight, especially on “Live, Jesus, Live”. Chris, the drummer, was filling in for Jason (who usually plays but couldn’t make this show) and I was floored by his ability to just pick everything up, especially “Beautiful Day”. We practiced for maybe a grand total of 15 minutes before the show. But there he was – playing along to everything like he had played the tunes 100 times before. Dan, my old roommate from college, played the guitar (Mike, who usually plays at these shows in some capacity, was out of town). I’ve always told Dan he’s one of the best pure guitarists I’ve known. It was great to work with him on a more involved basis. I usually try to get him in these shows for at least one song, but it’s usually no more than that. He kept telling me how great it was to be on five songs tonight. I just smiled. It was great to have him playing so much. He sounded great. And Seth, the bassist/cellist who I’ve now had the pleasure of working with for two shows, was perfect. He added so much to “May The Lord” and “See Them” with the cello, and his bass skills were the perfect fit for songs like “You Are The Voice” and “Be With Me”. And as an entire group, I think we sounded pretty darn good. WHAT ARE THE WORDS? I did manage to forget the words to “One Step Forward”. During the second verse, I started singing the words to the third verse. Upon realizing this stupid mistake, I tried to switch back to the correct words from the third verse and did a horrible job. While the words were supposed to be: “And tomorrow will come like it has before, No matter how hard you try, you can’t shut the door on time. It will come, it will go, it will sweep you away … Take one step forward …” I ended up singing: “And tomorrow will come like it has before, Except your need for her will be no more. While your time may come and your time will go, It’s your time ta go fer nah … Take one step forward …” WEDDING BELLS After the show, a couple came up to me and asked when the big date was. I asked them what they were talking about. They said they wanted to know when I was getting married. I explained to them that I wasn’t getting married. And they said that they thought I had mentioned earlier in the show that I was engaged. Hmmmm. What’s weird is that I think I more-or-less said the exact opposite. Oh well. I think it was somewhat hard to hear in the back. They were in the back. BEST PART OF THE SHOW I didn’t get a bloody nose. TOTAL MONEY RAISED AT CFLs TO DATE $73,000 + NEXT UP Now I have some down time before the June 4 show. I’m planning on going down to Barrington in a few weeks to scope out this “outdoor stage”. It sounds really neat. But at the same time, it also sounds like it’s rather primitive. I hope there’s an electrical outlet within a few hundred yards! BIG MEETING On May 13, I have a meeting with the Regional Vice President of the American Cancer Society (based out of Chicago). I’m not sure what his department is exactly, but I think it’s Program Development. He wants to meet and talk about the “Concert For Life” and how to better market it (I think). It sounds like they want to play a bigger role in the event. The potential for this meeting is very high. The same goes for my excitement level. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for reading. Thanks to everyone who came out this afternoon to show their support for the fight against cancer. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did! Pictures will be posted soon! |