Yes, there is even music during a Palmer Station winter. A surprisingly huge turnout actually. There are 18 of us here for the winter and 7 of them show up every Tuesday in TerraLab for band practice. That's almost half the station! Sweet.
Some of us played a little open mic in the bar before the last boat left, but now that we have months ahead of us we can really sit and practice some songs. There are people of all different skill levels so it's nice to learn new things and teach some things as well.
This is Johnny on the right and Cory on the left. Johnny was actually at Pole with me last winter. He didn't play there so it was awesome to see what he can do. And he rocks! Singing and playing!
This is Sean our Electrician. He just picked up the mandolin when we got here in April and hasn't put it down. It sounds great with all the songs we picked, especially the bluegrass tune!
This is Steve Sweet in the front and Buttercup in the back. I know Buttercup (Andrew) from my summer at Pole. Both Steve and Drew make up the acoustic section of the band. And I included Steve's last name because one band name in the running is "Steve Sweet and the Sweet Steve's." Can't get much more apropos than that!!
This here's Cory our one resident scientist. I guess this makes him the chief scientist. He's here studying fish. He's actually mating them! NOT mating with them. Let's make that clear. There are no Troy McLure's down here...
Cory is our shredder guitarist. Not much more to say. Slash, eat your heart out!
I find these next two pictures awesome! This is the Palmer Station drum kit. Perfect for the little space that we have. But it is literally a Playskool or Fisher Price first drum kit. Note the empty buckets used as toms. Classic ICE.
And this is Capt. Dave Bardun. Some of you may know him. He is of April the Leukemic Cat fame. This is the guy that goes home and plays awesome music in his basement on a huge drum kit. He is clearly not a Fisher Price guy. But he makes do. He's also singing on a couple songs.
Look at that friggin bass! Awesome! We dub it "Satan's Bass" because it was most certainly forged by the Dark Lord himself in the 7th circle of hell. I mean, LOOK at it! Sweet.
Now I'm not one to TOOT my own horn, but I've started learning this and I think I'm catching on. I've never been much of a guitarist. I can read tab but not notes. I've never done the percussion side of things before and it is a change. But I'm catching on and really liking it.
Johnny, Cory and myself are putting together a lengthy acoustic Metallica medley with all our favorite parts of various songs. We can't really loud here like we could at Pole, we we can definitely wail on acoustic guitars/basses. And Satan's Bass.
So far our set list is...
Island in the Sun-Weezer
Used to Call Me Baby-Split Lip Rayfield
Creep-Radiohead
Out Loud-Dispatch
And we have a couple more to practice as time goes on.
Stay tuned for Mid Winter Photos...
That bass is bigger than the drum kit! Next time, you guys should splurge on an electronic kit...it'd take up even less room, and you could control the volume as you see fit!
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