Saturday night was it… the last hoorah for Mystery Road as we know it. It was a really fun night and many friends were there. The night started off with our good friends Birds and Arrows who played a really great set of a few old tunes and a bunch of great new material that I cannot wait to hear on their new album. They expressed their appreciation for being included on our final night. They opened for us on our very first show ever so having them join us for our final show was like bringing it back around full circle. We had some great shows with them and we couldn’t think of anyone else we’d rather be part of it.
Before the show started, I presented the band with flasks that were engraved with “Mystery Road – Have A Good Time…All The Time. They all seemed to really love them and we ll bonded over a beer took a shot of Bushmills from my flask. Over all, I thought we played pretty sloppy but I feel that a lot of this was due to the horrible sound in The Cave. As much as I love that venue, it’s always so hard to get the sound right in there so it makes it hard for us to keep focus and keep on time and even in tune sometimes. I felt like the energy was so high and everyone was so into it that it made up for any and all musical imperfections as far as I’m concerned. The audience seemed to really enjoy themselves and from what I could see and hear, nobody wasn’t having a good time so I call that mission accomplished.
After the show we all loaded up our gear, thanked friends for coming out and took some photos w/ Birds & Arrows and bid farewell to everyone. The band’s spirits seemed to be high and there were no tears. In all honesty, I’m not disappointed about this and in all honesty, I didn’t shed a tear… not a single tear. I’ve really been analyzing this since the day after the show and I’m not quite sure what to think. I was talking to Lady L. about it and she thinks that I should ask my therapist what I need to do to mourn and part with this aspect of life or if I even need to. I don’t mean this in a negative way but I’m not sad nor do I feel the need to really mourn. Maybe it’s because when I put the band together, I was honest with them in letting them know that this was a short term thing and that it would have a potential end date. I knew I had about 2 years before we would be moving to “somewhere”.
I feel like I was sad about 6 months ago when I knew it was all going to come to an end. Even then, I didn’t really cry or get super sad. Again, I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that this isn’t a negative thing. It’s not like we’re moving because I got laid off and we have to go someplace else for work or that something bad happened. It’s a really positive thing. Lady L graduates from grad school, pretty much gets her dream job in Atlanta and in return, I get to only work part time and pursue my dreams of doing something or a few things dealing with music. It’s a pretty sweet fucking deal if you ask me so no, I’m not sad about it. I will really miss my friends, my band and even my job but trust me, the future looks really great for us and my friends I will keep for a lifetime. So maybe I answered my own question as to why I dont’ feel like I’m mourning or sad.
I’m really proud and happy about what Mystery Road accomplished. My first show ever at The Cave had about 3 people there and my last show with Mystery Road was a full house of screaming, cheering dancing Mystery Road fans that seemed to have the time of their life. I feel that I learned so many important lessons with this band. I learned with a lot of hard work and dedicated bandmates, you can set out to do just about anything. We really pushed hard and worked hard to get to where we were. I learned many lessons that I will take with me to Atlanta and maybe things will be done a bit differently.
So what’s next for me? I’m not really sure. I’m not trying to set too many goals for myself just yet. I wanna get there and I wanna get acclimated to the Atlanta scene and feel it out. In all honesty, maybe I’ll try and join something that’s already up and running. I’m kinda thinking that maybe it would be nice to just be a band member/collaborator in a band. I’ve spent a lot of years booking shows, sending press releases, updating MySpace pages, etc and to be honest, maybe it would be a nice break. You know, maybe it would be nice to just get to be a musician. Then again, maybe this is how I work the best, with my hands in the pot. See, there I go already, trying to make plans. I’m just going to take it day to day and let the music lead me into wherever it is I’m bound to go.
Today, I’m packing up my gear. All my harmonicas, my strings and even what’s left of my Mystery Road guitar picks are going into a box and getting sealed for their journey to our new, exciting home. It’s going to be a fun and exciting transition I just know. For now, I bid you all farewell…
Thank you North Carolina… GOODNIGHT!