On a dark desert highway

One of the greatest thrills a person can experience is the applause after a performance.

I think this is the loudest I've ever received:



(Special thanks to Chris Kataquapit in Moosonee for converting my dad's VHS copy of the performance to his PC and uploading it to Youtube.)

That was in my last year of high school. I was a student in the school's Music Performance Class, a unique course where the emphasis is performing onstage.
A little on how it works: to get into the course, you need to audition; a concert is scheduled and you select a song for which you'll be evaluated; you recruit whatever instrumentalists or vocalists you need; rehearsal; and then the concert.

For this performance, in April 2004, I selected 'Hotel California' not only because it's one of my favourite songs, but I wanted to do something a bit more grand -- a bit more complex than the Metallica or AC/DC songs I was doing.

It required the most classmates (seven: acoustic and electric guitarist, bassist, drummer, lead vocals and two-backups/maraca shakers), so it needed a bit more orchestration.

Thankfully for me, everyone knew their parts and were there for rehearsal.

And then of course, there was the solo. I wanted to trade solo sections with the other electric guitarist, as it's done on the recording, but before we went on-stage, she insisted I do it all myself.

So I was pretty pumped up for this song. I almost bought a 12-string acoustic just to make it that much better, but I thought 'How am I going to switch to the electric for the solo?'

One thing about grading: we had to introduce everyone performing in the song, or else we'd lose marks.

We also had to say an 'intro,' a note on why you're doing the song, or whatever -- 'something the audience will take away from the song,' our teacher always said. Students usually just said the year and album, and why they liked the song.

Fifteen minutes before showtime, I remembered an interview with Eagles' guitarist Don Felder on how he came up with the song: leased house on Malibu, chords 'oozed' out and he rushed to record idea, set cha-cha beat and tempo, singer Henley liked idea, Felder had doubts about it being a single.
It was in a guitar magazine I brought, so I scribbled the quotes down and used it as my intro, ending it with this: "Every once in a while, it seems like the cosmos part and something great just plops into your lap. That's how it was with 'Hotel California.'"

Everyone liked it, especially the teacher. After the show, as I was rolling up cables, he came up to me, shook my hand and said "Excellent intro." He started to walk away, but he stopped, turned around and said "Oh, and your performance, of course."

And the performance was pretty good. Everyone knew their parts, the sound levels were good. On my part, some sour notes still irk me but overall, I'm proud of it. It's my favourite performance of all the concerts I did in my two years in that class.

And I'm glad the audience appreciated it at the end. It's hard to see the faces out there, with the blinding stage lights, but I could hear them. I could hear their applause.