Hey Haghj500 -

Thanks for your post! Yeah, it's certainly a thrilling ride!!!

You make a good point about moving around - it's very important. I tend to do that naturally anyway. That's something that stuck with me from a presenation skills class I took a long time ago for work. At rehearsal last night I was getting into it with my China Grove solo - leaning forward and back, holding the guitar straight up and down at one point. I need to just go with it and let that happen!

Never thought about fellow players or other bands being in the audience. It will be interesting to see who comes up to chat with us afterwards. I would be beside myself if another band approached me asking if I could play with them, or just complemented me on my playing!!

The guys that run the studio we are using said they are coming to see us - they support all of the bands that use their studio. I thought that was very cool!!!

What makes this easier is I have my open mic experience to fall back on. The last one we did was FAR from perfect, yet it came off very well AND I still had fun. Even last night, I was feeling frazzled and my playing sounded like utter crap to me. Friggin' Hard to Handle...grrrrrr... I didn't let it get to me though. Listening to the playback, my playing was perfectly fine...and I couldn't hear where I thought I messed up. So, no matter what happens on stage, I'll be smiling away rockin' my a$$ off!!

I'm going to be introduced at the lead guitarist. Never ever in a *million years* did I think that would ever happen...I was always a rhythm guy who wished he could play lead.