Acid Pool

The story with Acid Pool begins with me and Marc attempting to persuade Rich from leaving his band, Lenahan, which he was touring with extensively in the '90s. We were looking for a drummer for quite some time but weren't really impressed with anyone locally.

I went to see Rich perform with Lenahan and decided to ask him to jam with me and Marc. We had practiced with Rich several times and he was exactly what we were looking for in terms of being able to improvise perfectly.

The reasoning behind this was due to the fact that Rich was going out on 6 - 9 month tours across Europe and America and returning in dilapidated condition physically and also financially. I wasn't able to convince Rich to leave so I had Marc talk some sense into him and he actually listened to his perfect reasoning.

Thus ensued one of the best bands that I have ever had the pleasure of performing with. We practiced for several years without any intentions and enjoyed the simplicity of playing music that came from the heart and soul. Thankfully, I recorded at least 90% of our sessions because of the depths we were reaching musically after several years of jamming. There was no set structure and everything was always pure Improv.

It was time. I knew we were more than ready and announced that I was going to book a gig at the C note in Manhattan which was an excellent starting point with no pressure to bring an audience and welcomed startup bands. The stage manager would monitor new acts and then decide if they would perform again.

The boys thought that I was joking when I announced that we should play out. They never thought that this was going to be a situation where we would play in front of an audience. They felt that we were strictly playing for ourselves and couldn't believe that I wanted us to perform live. Naturally, they were nervous as an Improv situation done in a live setting was something that neither of us had ever experienced.

Needless to say, we were exactly the type of band that would excel in a lounge type setting. No set songs -- you can have a drink and talk to your friends and then listen to us in the background and tune in when you wanted. As it turned out, the stage manager ended up loving us and after the third gig - gave us the top slot.

Each gig was better than the next but the success was to be cut short unfortunately by the untimely passing of our friend and bassist Marc Salsedo.

I thank the heavens that I had the pleasure of being able to experience that level of musicianship with my friends.