BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

Pet Store

Today I went to the pet store after work.  I loaded up on more cat food.  Another bag of dry food and cans of the usual wet food.  Just for kicks I decided to grab a can of whitefish because Curio was a little fussy with her food last last night and this morning.  Good thing I did!  Curio usually eats the chicken and lamb flavor and Fluff eats the turkey flavor.

Well... Curio absolutely refused to eat chicken and lamb tonight for dinner.  SO, I put down the whitefish and she chowed it down like there was no tomorrow.  I guess tomorrow I'll be running to the pet store again to exchange the chicken and lamb for whitefish.  Although, Fluff licked her bowl after she was done... SO I might have to exchange it all for whitefish.  These cats are always changing their flavor pallets.

I mean, I'd get sick of the eating the same food too every day if I had to eat it every single day.  Anyways... that's the latest with the cats.  Always keeping me on my toes.

While I was in the pet store Daylight by Maroon 5 came on.  Daylight.  It made me think, I wonder if she's buying cat food for her cats and having the same taste change issue that I'm having.  Does Daylight come on in the pet store for her?  What if it's a linked system... and so ALL the Pet Valu pot stores play the same songs at all times.  And what if there's a pet value down in Florida.  And what if she was also getting more cat food for her cats... And she heard the same song playing at the same time.  And thought... Daylight.

Daylight.

And when the daylight comes I'll have to go...

Who knows right?

Pet food.  Cats.  Daylight.  In a pet store.  And when the daylight comes I'll have to go... buy more cat food for these cats because they changed their mind and don't like the old flavor of cat food and want to eat a different flavor.

Speaking of Daylight I played a show on Monday night.  It was fun!  I want to play more shows.  Unfortunately my friend that booked me is not going to be organizing/booking any more shows and is instead trying to get into playing shows herself and playing music herself.

I'm going to keep practicing as much as I was practicing before the show.  Here's the thing...

When I don't have any shows lined up... I don't play a lot.  Like, I'll practice maybe 2 songs a night.  I cycle through my list of songs that I've written... Some are covers too.  One of them is Daylight.  I just keep it in my covers lists just because I don't know why... I just do I guess.

Anyways... As I play only a few songs a night... The songs sound okay, but they don't shine.  They don't really shimmer and sound super great.  When you focus in on a handful of songs and play ALL those songs EVERY night for a week straight, or more.... They start to sound really polished.  They start to sound WAY better than just playing that song once every 3 or 4 weeks.  See my list of practice songs that I play live is about 40 or so songs long.

When I play live I make a playlist of only maybe 6 to 8 songs.  Then I focus on those songs and practice those songs.  Each time I play live I switch up the songs.  Even if it's just an open mic and I play 2 or 4 songs.

So I think what I'm going to do instead is keep a good 5 to 10 songs on rapid rehearsal and get really good at those 5 or 10 songs.  Then I'll take my other songs in and out of rotation... A lot like a radio station works.

A better live performance means I'm more likely to get more shows.  And also more fans.  If I can play a good half a dozen or a dozen songs REALLY well, that means I can play shows on a shorter notice.  And I can also play shows with out lyrics in front of me... Which is the key.  See, if I go a little while without practicing my songs, or sometimes I don't get much of a change to practice... I start to forget lyrics.  It's a problem I've had since day one.

As long as I keep them fresh... I keep them in my memory.  So I'm changing my practice routine to 'always being ready for a show' mode with a good maybe 5 or 10 songs ready for action and can be played without any lyrics in front of me.  Then I'll maybe once or twice a week sub out one song and sub in another.  And then when I get to the end of the rotation I'll practice a couple of songs that aren't in on heavy rotation.

So, we'll see how that goes.  Keep the crowd pleasers, practice those often... And practice the songs that don't quite get the greatest response less frequently.

Anyways... That's my pet food story.  And my Daylight story.  It had been a while since I heard Daylight come on.  Every now and then I'll be out at a bar, or I'll be in the grocery store... Or in this case the pet store... And it will come on.  And then I'll be like... That girl.  That one girl that the song Daylight reminds me of.

Oh, so after the pet store, I went to go help a coworker that retired recently from the college with a computer issue.  She had called asking me for help.  So, I was like sure I'll swing by and fix the problem.  Her husband was my elementary school gym teacher.  He was there too.  We shook hands and it was just like when he shook my hand to congratulate me after winning the chin up competition in 4th grade all over again.