Fault Lines Journal (Mid February)

The beginning

We were very excited to be asked by Horsehead Theatre Company to work with them on the play "Fault Lines". "hat had happened was" was that one of my neighbors (who is often found amongst a group of people standing and sitting in front of my house drinking beer) is the cousin of the wife of this dude named Drake. Drake began drinking beer in front of my house on occasion and came to see PLUMP several times, and I guess liked what he heard. It also happens that Drake is a damn fine actor, is a member of the theatre company, and played "Bill" in this here play.

Anyhoo, when they started doing prep work for the play, they decided they wanted some sort of live band for the play. As such, due to our connection with Drake, they approached us about possibly doing the music. Which was very nice. Especially since we had limited experience doing this type of thing. Although Al and Jason might have, now that I think of it. But so what. SO, all they had to go on was what Drake had heard. So then Drake asked for a "meeting" and so we had a "meeting" with Drake and the Director of the play (another dude named Kevin) in which they came to our practice studio and discussed the particulars of the play, what they wanted from us, etc. And they brought a bunch of Lone Star beer (and I immediately knew that they were our kind of people). (Of course, Drake already knew of our speciial affinity for Lone Star.) So, back to what they wanted of us-- which happened to be an "overture" (if you will) which they call "Ceremony" that had to be raucous and raw and loud and building up and up (and lasting 5-10 minutes). And then they wanted us to provide the underscore for the play. Which meant playing quietly underneath the play action. We thought this was a capital idea. They thought this was a capital idea. Etc. Still, the director hadn't really heard us.

So, our first assignment (two weeks away) was to come up with the Ceremony part. After some starts and stops and misunderstandings and Doug even yelling at Jason (for god know's what), we had something that we wanted to show them. We wanted to give it to them a bit early so if they hated it, we would still have time. Luckily, they really liked what we had done, and even said make the beginning part much more long and early Pink Floyd-like, which we liked. Kevin told me, "I didn't know if you guys were any good or anything. I asked Drake before we went in there--what if we hate it, What do we do, and what do we tell them? " Luckily, they really dug it, and we shook hands and laughed and ran around in circles. Good, great, wonderful. And we were on to the underscore. To be continued....