As we all know, all cool bands are supposed to have a blog, primarily so that the obligatory link on one's website labeled "blog" does not lead to nowhere and secondarily, so that some member of the band has a forum to spew forth a variety of random, trivial, inane and altogether uninteresting (but witty!) posts that no one reads. So, post hoc ergo propter hoc, because we a cool band, here is our blog. Allow us to officially welcome you to The Grove. If you want to stop reading now and go do something productive like watching hours of mindless television or aimlessly surfing the web, please feel free.
Why "the Grove," you ask? Okay, you didn't ask it, it's just a rhetorical device, so on to the point. It's in our name--Oliver Grove. And where did that come from? None of us are really sure. (Some say it was when Rick was fixing the bathroom window and slipped and hit his head on the toilet but I'm pretty sure that's the story of how he came up with the flux capacitor. Or was that Doc Brown...?) But it has a good cadence and rolls off the tongue with relative ease. Being the sticklers for thematic consistency that we are, we had to go with the Grove because, as you can imagine, there's really not much you could do with "Oliver" besides perhaps the hackneyed and overused, "More? You want more?" And really, we don't want more gruel Mr. Tubby, Bulbous-Faced, Mean-Spirited Orphanage Director. We'd rather have roast goose with you and the other rich, fat Englishmen and not have to clean chimneys anymore. But I digress...
What can you expect in the Grove? I'm sorry to disappoint, but there will not be any druidic rituals involving dancing in the moonlight to the plaintive sound of the pan flute. There won't even be a bonfire (knowing us, we'd probably accidentally start a wildfire and burn down half of the forests in Western Tennessee), so don't bother bringing your marshmallows for s'mores. But you can expect music. Or, more specifically, talk about music. Our music. 'Cause it's our blog. Also, you can expect to find out all sorts of things you probably never cared to know about the mundane details of our lives. So buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, you're in for the ride of your life! (This is assuming that you've never actually ridden in any self-propelled vehicle capable of speeds higher than 5 mph.)
Speaking of mundane details, we just had a marathon practice last night. And by marathon, I mean both that the practice was long (and good!) and also that we were practicing for our first ever gig along a marathon course--the St Jude marathon in Memphis, that is. We are going to be set up in front of Martin Music on Poplar along mile 10 of the course and playing for about 2 hours. We have to get there pretty darn early (6:30 a.m.) to set up, which as anyone who knows musicians, is like 3:30 a.m. for normal people (although we all have day jobs and Jock and Kevin particularly already know about getting up early), and it is going to be pretty cold for Memphis (probably around 30 degrees when we start setting up) and cold for musicians to be playing outdoors. But it's going to be fun and we're going to have a good time entertaining the runners and the others at the "spirit station" and if the big name musicians can play outdoors at the NYC New Year's event, we can surely do Memphis in early December. We are still not entirely sure whether Andres, our recent South Floridian transplant, will survive this event or not. Check the website for pictures of him frozen solid. Think of it as human ice sculptures. If that's not art, I'm not sure what is...
To interject a brief "but seriously" moment, a grove is a stand of trees and as we know, trees all point heavenward. We are just 5 dudes and a chick who love to have fun and rock out but we want our music to point heavenward. We are all grateful to God for what he has given us and what he has done in our lives and we believe that he is deserving of our praise. That's what we sing about and that's why we do what we do. If our little efforts results in some enjoyment and encouragement for others, then that's a plus for us.
Alright, that about wraps it up for now. Check back next year when I remember that I'm supposed to be writing clever posts for this wicked awesome blog!
-Steve
