With less than two weeks until our big Sunset strip premier of Virtual Reality at the Whisky a go-go opening for Green Jelly (aka: Green Jello, another Buffalo based band) we hunkered down at a local studio near Hollywood to go over the entire show-set a few dozen times or until we got sick of it. (For us, that was usually about three of four times.)

We had the dancers ‘Untamed’ with us. They tried their best to rehearse their thing but had trouble considering the room was a long and narrow.  After this was over, we had to work harder at finding a studio equipped with a big stage and a huge dance floor with mirrors.  After all, this was Hollywood, there had to be a place out there like that, right?

The Ethical pool was good for rehearsing music; it had a nice P.A., stage lights and a functioning toilet. A big band like ours could line up against the wall in the same position we have onstage.  You could crank the sound and there were no neighbors around to complain.

By now most everyone in the band knew their musical parts inside out. What took up most of our time was working to co-ordinate the acting and the playing simultaneously and have it flow and look natural.  Then once the band had its stuff down, we had to merge all that into what the girls were doing in front of the stage.

We were no stranger to the Ethical Pool. Parousia had rehearsed here before as a four-piece band, and we knew the ropes.  Parking and loading in and out of the place was a nightmare. No parking lot and no loading zone. There were no stores around so if you wanted food and drink you had better bring your own or be prepared to walk blocks.