Unintentional Vacation

I've been sort of taking an unintentional vacation from playing - the band hasn't been ridiculously busy, and I haven't been feeling my best, so I noodle here and there, but I haven't been playing as much as I usually do. I actually have enjoyed it - picking up the guitar after a relatively long pause makes you realize even more why you do it.

I bought a new toy for my live playing, and have yet to figure it out - it's a POD X3 Live - basically similar to my old PODs in tone, but WAY different in terms of how the brains of it function. It's actually kind of frustrating, because I was used to the old system - it seemed a lot more intuitive - more "plug and play" than this one. The little beast can do so much more than my old PODs, though, so I'm actually excited about Line 6 releasing some updates (which are supposedly coming within the next couple of weeks) so that I have better functionality for my Variaxes (especially the Bass), and hopefully clean up the confusing aspects of the interface (I'm not holding my breath).

We've got a private party this coming Friday and then a long break, so hopefully we'll really get some good stuff together for the Christmas parties we're going to be playing. We're really trying to get out to public shows more (and trying some new venues), so hopefully in the new year you'll see us at a lot more places where our friends and family can come see the show. I personally think this is the best lineup of Roman Holiday, which says nothing to the other lineups (especially the trio version with Mike - that was excellent as well - Rob's singing takes us over the top of that one).

Unrelated to the band, I did have a funny thing happen at work on Halloween - I actually played the guitar and sang a little for my co-workers, and it was pretty horrible by my standards (bad cold), but now everyone who saw it was like, "watch out for that guy - he's a rock star" which I haven't decided is good or bad (since it's mostly women saying it, I'd say it's good...) Goofing around like that reminded me that I really should do something in the style of the acoustic show - either with someone or solo.

I'm going to keep saying that until it happens. Until then, check me out in Roman Holiday, and rock on!