In attendance, tonight: Alex Lahoski, Glenn Hughes, Brad Hogg, Chris Paquette. Victor is in California, Rick is experiencing some un-wellness, and Dev is in the middle of a tour of the Northeast.
Everyone arrives at roughly the same time tonight, and is suited up and ready to go in a fairly short amount of time. After bringing the PA up, Glenn asks if there's any calisthenic exercises that we'd like to address. Chris explains an extrapolation of the 16-Bar exercise that he's been doing, using the middle descending section of 3rd Relation as source material. This ends up being a little confusing, so we instead use a modification that Glenn used on his Level 3: instead of playing 4 bars of each form, we cut them down to 1 bar, so the changes come much faster. We then go over some extensions of the 1st primary, including the Hammerhead exercise from Tony G. and a couple of modifications from Bill Rieflin. All interesting exercises.
We then bring up the subject of the potential gig at the end of March. Brad has put forward the suggestion of playing in Boston on March 25th to mark the anniversary, as most of the circle will not be going to Italy for the completion course. This is still up in the air, as we need to secure a venue first, before we make an official gig announcement. We run a list of songs that we'd be able to reliably play the gig with, without having to worry about missing someone for a part. A couple of old faces have also offered their availability for the gig, so even with Dev and Victor gone, this might still be a large group.
Moving on from logistics, we tackle Where's the Nurse? There's been a bit of rhythmic shifting the past couple of times that we've played it, so we move in to address those. Chris brings up a small but notable matter of ringing D strings, which is adjusted. Once more through, and we go on to Flying Home. This is played once, and fast, around 88 bpm. It is a little sloppy, but not a trainwreck (though close to it at one point), so we elect to keep that one on the "maybe" list, resolving to work on it privately.
With Victor gone, the lead section of Opening will have to be assisted by Alex. The lead team tests this out with the first chord, and it seems like it might be a viable option. File that one away, as well.
At this point, Glenn re-presents Morning is Broken, the Cat Stevens song. Working through it in sections, it's some distance from being ready, but might come together a little faster than we think. We take a break.
Back in the (abridged) circle, we play through 3rd Relation. We are still speeding up, but it's not as bad as it has been; however, there's little dynamic movement. Another runthrough, with return to the last descending section, and then on to Askesis. This falls apart in the middle, but we keep going, and end (mostly) together. Chris asks about a timing/transition issue in the bass section, and Glenn points out that there really isn't an easy way to pull off the jump up the neck. We run the piece again, and also decide to keep this one available for the moment.
For the last piece, we take on IBE. Chris and Glenn on bass, and Alex and Brad on lead. This falls apart entirely, but more due to some confusion about who is jumping where. Ending the meeting in silence at 10 p.m., we all take our leave for the night.
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