Sound checks rarely entice one to listen to the full set. Granted if you came for the band anyway, it’s likely you will know the sound check is a test.
However, when Dreams are for Rookies‘ cellist Steven Garcia is placed directly in front with a stern, but warming look, you just can’t resist your curiosity what sort of sound this band will bring. By the time that lead singer Adam Chiarelli sings barely the notes, you’re hooked. All of a sudden, a sound check becomes a leaf cover to a book, explaining the adventure all are about to embark on. You can tell they care and will pave a way for you to care as well. After sound check however, all bets are off.
This band is no ordinary band. Bass player Adam Goff walks to the stage with a cane much like Hugh Laurie traverses a room: with power and a clear destination.
My server, Ashley Heer, a distinctly unique and happy soul, asks me if I need another, while smiling at the sound check. It seems to ignite her senses.
As the true set begins, music, pure tones and other reliable and familiarly-pleasing sounds fill Beale Street Tavern in Austin, Texas like a dense fog fills a cold morning. It wakes you up and forces you to move with it, but with most foggy mornings, you can’t help but wonder what comes next, so you just go. And it all comes. Technical difficulties, possible amp failure and high frustration. But it doesn’t fade away. Drummer, Raymond Dreamquist continues to fill as they work it out.
Isn’t that what music is anyway, one trying to work it out, or through it? With soothing Americana in the air, Adam sings through it as lead guitarist Tyler Vann Yager acts as scientist and repairman.
Goff looks young, but as he mouths the words to each song, probably not even noticing it, you can see a depth that more than likely comes from a place only music could make apparent. As the set proceeds, so do more and more difficulties, but it seems that some things in life happen as they should. I got to shake Adam Goff’s hand and thank him for doing what he does. They didn’t finish the set, but maybe that wasn’t the purpose of this one, maybe it was to make deeper connections with music and people.
Photo by Joshua Hammond
