BATTLE OF THE BANDSSS!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhh it was homecoming day today!  I had to get up fairly early because I had lot sof stuff to do before band rehearsal at Nat's dads house at 11.  We met there and played through our song a few times, then headed over to the school for a sound check at 1.  It took forever just to get the amps and drums and wires all set up that I had to leave for my 230 hair appt before I even got to play through.  But anyway, I got my hair done and did all the homecoming stuff which by the way, was amazingly fun and incredible.  Thank you Bryce Sulecki!!  I was all antsy at  the dance because I wanted to see what Natalie looked like (she was getting her makeover done right before the dance), and I couldn't find her anywhere!!  I spotted a camerawoman (there were three, rather than one, for the occasion), who said she'd be in soon because he makeover was taking longer than expected.  Finally she walked in, but was unrecognizable.  

Her waist long, limp black hair was short, crazy layered, and teased.  Looked joan jet-esque and incredible.  Her eyebrows were waxed and she was wearing makeup and wearing her amazing dress.  She seriously looked INCREDIBLE!  And everybody was telling her, even with no cameras around, which was really great too see
   
       At 930 I had to go get ready for the big show.  I wanted to wear my homecoming dress with like fishnetty-ish tights and gloves but camerachick said I couldn't because I had to wear the hott topic clothes since they were free.  So I did.  We played a little bit of our song when a few people were sitting down (spoiling it, dang) but we had to stop.  We were the last band to play.  The first band was really good, it had a bass trumpet and drums and thats it.  But it was catchy as hell and I loved it!  I thought they'd win for sure.  Second band was full of good musicians, but very heavy and screamo, which is awesome if you're into that.  Also mid-song they shouted "Hey mom, I'm on MTV" and their name was "The empty seats" which is a slap in the face to Latrobe's "No empty seats" policy and hilarious. 
Anywhoo, its our turn.  I'm feeling pretty nervous

   The crowd is pretty rowdy, forming a group right up against the stage.  I like do that stupid famous person thing where you walk to the end of the stage and stick your hand out and everyone wants to touch it.  it was sweet.  I tell Natalie "you are stage diving at the end. do it."  We start playing.  

Everyone goes crazy.  I suck badly, playing more wrong notes than ever, but I don't think too many people noticed.  At the end of the song theres this crazy part where natalie starts screaming and I just go nutso like Shawn Perry made me do in practices and like get on my knees and  play all crazy and then throw my guitar on the ground at the end.  Then me and Natalie both stage dive.  

Freaking cool.  I had to do it, I only get to be a rockstar once.  The dropped me but It was towards the end and close to the stage so thats sort of acceptable.  I'm probs to heavy to be a stage diver.  Never the less, bucket list item can be checked off.

   The judges gave scores for the other two bands, both getting really high scores.  Then they give us our score, and WE WONNN!!!!

yayyyyy and I can't even play basssss!  So lucky to be in a bad with so many talented people.  So that was freaing cool.  Then I get interviewd and stuff and go home.  Best. Night. Ever

I cant believe this whole thing is over.  I met some really incredible people.  Shawn Perry was all happy go chats with my family and said I could crash at his place in Cleveland if I ever visit Case Western again.

 Hope one day I can play with these guys again.. I'm going to miss everybody so much!  It's been so wonderful and interesting to be not only on a reality tv show, but in a band.  Thank you so much to everybody that let it happen!





Until next time, rock on.

Dress shopping

So its Saturday and I forgot to post about friday.  Me and Natalie went to Charlotte Russe to look for a homecoming dress for her.  We had a new camerawoman than we're used to but she was very nice.  All the employees were super nice at Charlotte Russe and excited and told me I looked like emma stone, which I loved. haha ok but Natalie tried on a bunch of dresses and she has a smokin hott figure.  She wears like baggy clothes to school so you wouldn't know she has such a good figure but she looks so dang good in dresses its ridiculous I'm so jealous.  Natalie thought she looked hott too, she like was doing model poses in front of the mirror and catwalking and saying how all the guys would be jealous.  It was adorable. Ok well they made me try on some dresses too which was awkward and forced because I already had a dress and its not like they were gonna give it to me but I just tried it on anyway.  They already had all these dresses laid out but we had to go and pretend we found them ourselves.  Then Natalie tried on heels for the first time, but walks in them like a pro, something I have yet to accomplish.  We talked about the dance and stuff, got personal interviews aka OTFs (on the flys) and that was basically it.  I knew Natalie would look dang good at homecoming, especially after her makeover the next day (this morning).

Last Band Practice/ SHOPPING SPREE!

Holy crap, I'm going to have to magically turn into a musician by this Saturday.  Or fake it.  Or just suck (most likely option), no one expects me to be good anyway, so it's basically a win-win sitch.  Well our last band practice was tuesday.  It went pretty well.  Too be honest, nothing really stands out completely to me except for I was taught how to act like a rockstar on stage, which if i don't chicken out, should be pretty interesting.  involves guitar throwing...
          Shawn Perry said we were just ok, and we may or may not win.  Also that I don't know my part and suck.  Fair evaluation.  Natalie and Kesslar are going to homecoming together so that's adorable.  THis is sort of top secret and Natalie doesn't know about it but tomorrow I'm helping her pick out a homecoming dress.  Also, she doesn't know how to do makeup.  So maybe I'll help her with that.

      Then he told us that on thursday (today) we are going shopping at monroeville mall.     So today after school Me, Jim, and Tom were in a car and Nat, Shawn Perry, Rhiannon the Camerawoman, and Kesslar in another car.  I love Jim Ritenour and Tom Maroon.  Probs the best things about this was getting to know two awesome people.  Anyhow so they tell us we can go to Hot Topic and but head to toes clothing except shoes.  But then we get there and they're like, ok you can get shoes too.  So this is sweet, free clothes, even if it is Hot Topic.  Before I knew about this I jsut wanted to wear my dress with like a leather jacket, some funky black fishnetty-but-not-as-slutty tight and some sick earrings and accesories.  But rhiannon and shawn perry  told me to get another outfit anyway cuz its free.  So I start looking for clothes I would actually wear in real life, but shawn perry was like no that isnt rock and roll at all.  He makes me wear some skin tight purrply slightly acid washed pants.  Urgh, i had found the cutest pair of dark jeans too :(   I had to beg Shawn Perry to let me get a size bigger because he seems to think muffin tops mean your clothes fit properly.  I disagree.  I found a sort of cool indian shirt I like that matched the pants though.  Then i got a belt to match and these sweet black and silver sparkly lowtop chuck taylors.  Also got these long, up your arm lacey black gloves that look stupid with the outfit but cool-ish with my dress.  and I got some tights too.  So this is all good but I think they probs wont let me wear my dress because I got all this free merch, which sucks because I still like my dress with accesories better.  But I'm super happy.  I got some fake ray bans too because I need those for Halloween, errr, I mean the rock show.  I got earrings and a necklace too.
      The funniest/most awkward moment was when Rhiannon asked me to buy some sexy underwear and tell Natalie to pick a pair too because it'd make her uncomfortable and be good for the camera.  So I even got some free bra and panties outta this.  but see, I'm shy, I don't like going underwear shopping it makes me uncomfortable.  So the comfort level takes an even steeper nosedive when I'm doing it in from of my male classmates, shawn perry, oh yeah, and a national television camera.  All and all though the day was pretty sick I got a bunch of free clothes and who could ever complain about that!
    Oh I forgot, I was being a bit sassy today because Shawn Perry MADE coach was trying to tell me like "dont curl your hair for homecoming thats so not rock and roll" and "dont do and updo thats so lame" and im like, shawn perry sorry i don't care its my homecoming too I'm doing whatever I want with my hair.  And there were these pink hair extension things and hes like you could clip this in and I was like but My hair will be curled in an updo and hes like so you can just wear a straight strand and I was like uh, no, not gonna work.  And the hot topic old employee was like it'd be good.  And I'm like no.  And hes like fine don't listen to me its not like I work in fashion or anything.

OH MY GOD.  you work in hot topic.  you don't work in fashion.  I could work at hot topic.  for real? like youre gonna pull the fashion card on me?  Maybe if you worked at Banana Republic.  Even still I'd say, YOU SELL CLOTHES YOU DON'T MAKE THEM.

ugh

So yeah.  Two days.

Band Practice 6

Well basically the practices are beggining to all be about the same.  Like interviews and practicing and such.  Nothing really new or exciting.  Oh well I don't want to spoil it but since no one reads this now anyway except for college kids, Natalie like can do some crazy screamo shit.  Which is totally nuts and contrasting of her personality/normal singing voice.  So that's something new.  Also, during a conversation consisting of what MADE coach shawn perry thought our heritage would be, Kesslar was lke I'm German.  And I was like, I'm Irish.  And MADE coach shawn perry was like "I would have guessed that you were German, you have that whole master race barbie thing going on." UHHHHHHH.  I can't decide what is most inappropriate about that statement.  Ok Shawn Perry.

Any ways, if we don't place in B.O.B (battle of the bands), I'll be seriously sassed x7.  Our song is decent enough to get at least 3rd out of 5 bands. bahahaha.

Band Practice 4 and 5

      It was so late when I got back from Sunday's practice that I forgot to blog!  Oh no!  But basically the made coach wasn't there and we just jammed for like an hour and a half and left.  Oh Natalie was wearing this outfit shawn perry, made coach, bought her and made her wear.  It was like deep purple and velvety with a sassy matching hat.  And lots of jewelry.  Looked sort of wizardy to me, but what do I know?  Also we were told to think of band names for next rehearsal, which was tonight.
    Ok so tonight I got there and the whole band waited on her front porch for like and hour because the camerawoman/producer was what shawn, made coach, described as "a call form Oz" which I guess means a call form the MADE head honchos in New York.  Then they filmed Natalie for a while but we still ahd to wait outside.  I guess Shawn broke her Finger 11 CD in half because thats all she listened too and needed more musical influences.  We didn't know this was happening at the time though from outside but shawn came outside and was like "I'm leaving, be ready for a meltdown".   When we were finally let inside it was clear that Natalie had been cr peaced ying so I asked her what was up and she talked to the band about the circumstance and then the camera chick like asked us all what we thought about it.  Then we talked about band names.  No one liked any of mine :(  Natalie said she had a dream that the band was going to be called "Heaven's Vengeance".  SO thats what we chose.  Personally, I'm not terribly fond of the names;  it's a tad dark and metal-y for me but whatevss I'm cool with it, and who can argue with a dream right? SO we  finally played our song and it was pretty good.   Natalie had this cool idea for the ending where she switches up the piano playing a tad and makes it crazy awesome and climatic.  It was really great.  Then we interviewed and out.  Our song is really getting better.  Plus Shawn Perry said I could wear my homecoming dress with a leather jacket for the show so I'm happy abut that.  Apperantly the thursday before the homecoming dance we're (the band) is going into Pittsburgh for some reasons currently unknown.  So idk what thats about but I'm up for the mystery.

Band Practice #2

So second band practice.  We all show up but Natalie and the camerawoman and the made coach arent there yet, so we just like jam for a bit.  Then Natalie and the camerawoman come and we take forever getting all setup and whatnot.  Like a good solid 40 minutes.  We finally start playing but everyone is unfocused and we're not getting anything done.  Also, we kept getting insanely awful feedback from the amps so that sucked.  Anyway we finally start legit playing our song and I'm feeling pretty good because I'm actually playing notes instead of air-guitaring it out like last practice.
      In terms of how much "reality" goes into filming this reality tv show, I'd say it's like 70% sincere.  Many times the camerawoman (who is also the producer) would be like "I didn't catch that, say it again." and shes constantly like "Say it more sincerely. That sounded contrived".  She would ask us questions prompting us to say negative things, and when I refused to answer anything negatively she was like "ok guys, I know in the real world it's really good to be nice and positive about everything, but it is so boring on tv.  And this is a television show.  Instead of making everything sunshiny and qualifying anything slightly negative with a positive afterthought, be honest and tell me if something is going poorly."  So then everybody started saying bad things, I tried to still be pretty nice though.  At one point the made coach was like "you guys need to get strap locks" and I'm like "whatt?" and he's like "they keep the straps on your guitar better" and I'm like ohh like  dreadlocks?  The camerawoman tried to capture that idiotic blonde (literally) moment of me but it turned out too insincere upon further attempts.  The made coach proceeded to telll me I reminded him of a girl he dated when he was 15 who started crying at a restaurant because she saw that they had chicken fingers and shes said "chickens don't really have fingers, do they?". WTF. idk if I'm more weirded out by this or insulted that I apparently remind him of the stupidest most emotionally unstable person ever.  Whatevvs.

Oh well I guess I should rewind a little bit.  The coach eventually showed up to practice and was like "I've been outside for 45 minutes listening.  It sounds pretty bad." bahaha, bummer.  But basically he just told us what to fix and we played the song a few more times, did individual interviews again, and called it a day.  Then me and the rest of my bandmates minus Natalie loitered outsider her house for a good solid hour and just talked.  So I'm glad I'm making good friends with these people, they're really great!  Also, I jokingly mentioned to the producer that we should have a band photoshoot and she was like hmm, I'll consider it." so that'd be super cool.  I hope it happens.

School of Rock (first band practice)

Holy crap, where to begin.  So I drive up to Natalie's house and when I ring the doorbell, of course I am greeted by a television camera.   The made coach commented on the masking tape on every single fret of my bass  that lists the corresponding note, saying it had to go.  I knew I was in trouble, he was like, you don't know the notes?  I'm like, I don't know the strings....  I didn't say that but it became pretty clear by the end of the night.  So the first hour was spent setting up the drum set, tuning our instruments, etc and lucky for me Jim Ritenour is saving my butt because he knows a lot about bass, and I know nothing.  So basically, he tuned my bass for me, and is supplying me with a bass amp since I'm using a crappy distorted sounding guitar one. lol.
     Alright so Natalie already wrote a song before we came and she played it for us on piano and sang.  It was really pretty, I liked it a lot, and I'm excited to be in a band that features classical piano.  It is a bit unconventional.  But the most awkward thing in the world is when the video camera is a foot away from your face just capturing your reaction to like, Natalie playing, and you know its right on your face but you can't look at it and you don't wanna make a ridiculous face or pose so youre thinking really hard about what facial expression and emotion to portray.  For realz, its like being in a move where you're playing yourself.  This happened about 439284732894 times throughout the night.
        So after Natalie played, the camerawoman asked for all our opinions, and we were all pretty impressed.  Then the made coach started teaching the guitar parts to the guitarists.  Like he had this all really planned out, what exactly the song would sound like on every single instrument.  So basically the band just had to show up and use their skillz to play it.  Unfortunately for the whole world, these skillz are nonexistant in my little bassist fingers.  So basically hes like "ok guitarists, play a blah blah blah chord progression with an octave here and here and then solo it out" and of course they like play it perfectly and do these incredible improv guitar solos.  Then he teaches Kesslar the drum part, which he also plays well.  And then its my turn.
    Holy embarassing.  He shows me the part like 48329473289 times, and I can't play it back (duh), so hes like "ok rebecca, C. no, no thats an F, play a C on the G string, that isn't the G string Rebecca" (oh whoa, no underwear joke intended, didn't realize I did that).  So he is spoonfeeding me the bass part.  When I finally get the chorus, I forget the verse completely and vice versa.  Don't even ask me what the bridge part is.  Also, he wants to add all these crazy octaves and run things.  I tried to be really positive and apologetic the whole time... he said I had a really pleasant personality!!
     This is my strategy.  Be ridiculously happy and sweet to everyone the whole time so I don't get kicked out.  Not that I'm being insincere though, I say things like "You guy are all such incredible musicians, I feel so honored to be able to play with you."  That is a 100% true statement.  It really is so amazing and awesome to be in a band with real, talented musicians.  Or to be in any band at all would be incredible, considering I really don't play any instruments.  But I really do have an appreciation for music and rock and roll and being in a band has always been a fantasy of mine I knew logistically would never come true.  Somehow though, it is, and it's being televised too.  It's really amazing and I'm so grateful.  And everyone in the band is being helpful and forgiving, which I totally do not deserve considering how I'm dragging them down.
      Alright enough sappy stuff.  So we play the song a few times through and call it a day.  The song I think has potential to be legit good.  Like it's pretty catchy and unique because it has classical piano in it but also like shredding guitar solos.  So we pack up and then the cameralady said we couldn't leave yet because we had to do interviews.  She interviewed me first, kind of prompting me, I felt, to say not too nice of things about Natalie.  Like "Natalie is pretty quiet, do you think she was being a good band leader today?"  And you know what, I honestly didn't have anything bad to say.  She wrote a legitimately good song and I'm blown away because writing songs is really hard!  After everyone interviewed, they filmed as we left and I went home.  Then I practiced my bass part some more so I don't look like a moron at homecoming (I already know I'll look like a moron on TV)
     Anyway, my life is basically like the movie school of rock.  We have the shy person who is crazy good at piano and can transfer the skills awesomely to rock and roll, and the big personality guy who has all the ideas and the vision and knows everything about music, the boys who are good at guitar, the drummer with a sassy personality (but a good one, Alex!), and the cellist who was foolish to believe "tip it on its side and, cello, you have a bass!".  And this is like a literal school of rock for me.  I'm learning so much!  Wish this happened to me last year, I would have some crazy college essay material to write.  Too lazy now though, I'M A SENIOR.