If this is real, he has the most awesome Christmas lights I’ve ever seen (well, on video anyway). He actually synched up his lights to the TSO song “Wizards in Winter”. Check out this page and be amazed. The guy even posted instructions on how to do this amazing light show. (However, at $10k, I think I’ll pass).

I just realized that this guy supposedly only lives 110 miles from me, so maybe I’ll take a trip to see if this is actually real. I’ve watched this several times and I’m beginning to believe that it’s a series of still photos put together to make it look like video. The streetlight kinda looks suspect, and the ground seems to jump around a little. Also, the camera is apparently on a tripod, so how did they get such great sound-quality from outside like that?

I’ve been playing guitar for 21 years now, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be: a guitar player. I mean, I spent an incredible amount of time learning how to play like Ace Frehley, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Vai, Petrucci, and others. When I was in high school I used to get up and practice before I went to school in the mornings, and then I’d practice when I got home from work at night. I was obsessed, to say the least. So how did I ever end up playing bass in a standard rock ‘n roll band after all these years of playing metal lead guitar?

It’s simple…I just want to have fun and not stress out about playing a solo note-for-note. That doesn’t mean that I’m a slacker when it comes to playing bass, it just means that I want to play music without being “in the spotlight”. I’m taking this very seriously as far as my playing, but the most important thing to me is having fun. We have a couple of great guitarists, an awesome singer, an extremely talented keyboard/backup singer, and a drummer who blows me away with his talent. I’m having all kinds of fun playing music that I normally would have never played.

As for my bass-playing skills, I refuse to be a bassist that keeps thumping the root note for every chord. That bores me. I listen to every song and try to play the bass line as closely as possible to the original (which usually isn’t very hard with the music we’re playing) and if the song has a boring bass line, I try to come up with something better. I haven’t had any complaints so far. =)

Now the backup singing is pretty interesting. I’ve never been a singer of any kind in any band before, and I’ve always thought it was something I’d never do. However, it’s been fun singing harmony, and I’m glad they talked me into it. Lately I’ve been asked to sing lead on some songs to give the singer a break, and I’m not sure how that’ll go, but we’ll see. I’m not opposed to doing it, it’s just that I don’t consider myself a singer (I’m a guitarist, remember?).

So I must say, it has been very rewarding to play bass for this band. Although it felt strange at first, I’m very comfortable with it now. There are times when we’re finished practicing where I’ve been watching them play guitar the whole time, and I can’t stand it any longer and I end up picking up one of their guitars and start playing. I really enjoy playing bass, it’s fun! But sometimes I miss executing those guitar solo’s.