*** Capital 8 ***

So, Michelle and I formed a band called Capital with two of my co-workers - Mike Christiansen (vocals, guitars, bass) and Gia Cypert (vocals, keyboards). John Lucas (drums) was a client of either Mike or Gia's...I can't remember at this point. Mike and I had been talking about starting a band for several months and somehow all of the interested parties gathered into Gia's Shorewood basement.

We were just working on a set of covers and then Mike and Gia starting bringing some originals into the mix. Both are very talented songwriters. Learning and helping to arrange others' songs is a quick study on how to put a well written song together. So, for really the first time, Michelle and I were getting some good experience on writing songs. As a group, we put together our first set, did some really basic recording on my old tascam cassette based four track and went in search of gigs.

The joy of just playing music for fun is extremely energizing. Each practice was a time to enjoy music, enjoy a beer or two and socialize about what bands and music we loved. There were really no expectations for Capital 8. Just to play music and have fun. Playing a gig at a real local venue seemed impossible.

Somehow either Gia or Michelle managed to get Capital 8 booked to "new band night" at the now defunct Globe East in Milwaukee (I'm still a little bitter about it going under...when we still lived in Milwaukee, I would roll my window down and yell "rock 'n roll!" everytime I passed the restaurant that replaced it. Childish, yes...but somehow it made me feel better). The Globe was one of the better rock clubs in Milwaukee generally the spot to see up and coming national indie bands.

New band night was on a Wednesday. We were paired up with some other local outfit, whose name escapes me right now. New band night is a grab bag...not sure we ever heard from them again. Anyway, the first show is pretty much getting your friends out...I think we probably set some sort of record for attendance at a new band night. I think if we had played Captain and Tenile covers all night (at a rock club) they would have asked us back for a weekend gig. Needless to say we didn't play horrible covers all night, but it was a very successful gig. Adding to the success and building for the future were Gia and Michelle's choice of pants - leather for Gia and red satin for Michelle. Those pants probably brought more people to the first few gigs than anything.

With a little success comes expectations...