It was almost noon on Friday when I got a call on my personal phone. My ride along (I was training someone to allow me to take my first day off in over two weeks) asked if it was my phone ringing. "Yeah, it's probably someone from my band," I replied.

I didn't check the message for a bit (because we were working), but it wasn't from my band. It was from Grandma's Music, and my new drum set had come in--a couple weeks early. On my lunch break (an hour or more later), I picked it up. It was in three boxes, and the big one took a little struggle to get into my company rental car.

But the timing was fortuitous as my band had two gigs over the weekend.

I was tired. I couldn't remember my last day off. And we weren't playing until midnight or later. But the coffee, excitement about playing a show (it had been two months, not counting a short radio show gig) and the new set kept me buzzing. I tried to lie down for a while, maybe take a nap, but even then my heart was beating too fast to really relax. My body wanted to ride the nervous energy for the rest of the night.

I ripped open the boxes, wrapping paper and plastic wrap and put the set together. It took a little longer than I thought, but I got it together and tuned (in a sense) for the show.

We were playing two nights with the same bands. An old friend of our lead singer/guitarist was releasing a CD and both shows were part of this endeavor (one in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe). Since half the band had to work late on Friday, we were going on last.

To be short and sweet, we sucked Friday night. The keyboards, melodica and one of the guitars went down (or never even got working). Maybe we couldn't hear each other well. Or there might have been a bit too much drinking before hand. But whatever it was, we played our worst show ever, hands down.

My brother just kind of shook his head when I asked him about it. A couple other friends, who hadn't seen this band yet, just said, "It's different." Meaning, mostly, that we're different from Old Beans (very true). But certainly no rapturous reception after seeing this new band.

But I have this new drum set. Doesn't that count for something?

On Saturday, my first day off since I can't remember when, I walked around in a haze. The check out girl at Wal-Mart warned me not to drive in such a daze (I'm not sure what she thought I was on, but it was only lack of sleep), and I just said, "Can't help it."

After another attempt at a nap (working only slightly better than Friday), I went to the practice space. I set up my new set again, fine tuned it a bit and then played for about forty-five minutes. I had to familiarize myself with the feel of this new beast--even though the set up is essentially the same as my old one (27 years young). On Friday night, it felt like playing someone else's set. But after my jam, it was mine. I even nicked it up a bit to drive the point home. Broke it down, loaded it up and drove to meet the band in the City Different.

The stage, sound and general ambiance of the Santa Fe Brewery is amazing. And the beer ain't bad either.

We took the stage just a bit before midnight announcing that Paper Sleeves had been unable to make it, but the Full Speed Veronicas would be taking their place. And we ripped into our best show ever.

I'm not saying we played everything perfectly (I could tell you were I screwed up a few things), but whatever plagued us the night before was nowhere to be seen on Saturday night. The crowd had dwindled to twenty or so (from much more earlier in the night), but the response was palpable. We had recovered, and, as one band member noted, this was the set we always wanted to play.

As I drove home, still sweaty enough to have to use defrost to unfog the windshield, I thought, y'know, maybe Santa Fe isn't as bad as I've always said. Of course, the brewery is on the edge of town.

Matt Worley's band made enough this weekend to cover rent at our practice space. First time ever.