Georges Elchakieh
Founder and CEO of el-live Productions
Hello beautiful people and musicians from sunny New Delhi, India. To date, it’s beautiful here but we haven’t had the chance to discover much, because we’re on a mission!
I’m here with my friend Hyun who’s from England and Korea and he’s the reason why we’re here at the Andaz Hotel in New Delhi. What a great place. We just got back from buying a few items at the music store, and now we’re having a beer to recuperate from last night’s hangover. It’s been known to happen.
“Jade” is one of our powerful trios that sounds so full, that when you close your eyes, you think that they’re a 7-piece band. We flew the future three members to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from their respective countries. They’d never worked together before and they only had 5 days to rehearse at our studio and that’s where they made magic. Come time to hit the stage on opening night in India, they sounded as if they’d been playing together for a year. Great night.
True story: “Rehearth, Rehearth, Rehearth” (no typo here!)
When we started touring the 5-star hotel club circuit in South East Asia 23 years ago, we were preparing a promotional video to present to our designated venue in Jakarta, Indonesia. On that day, Curtis Patterson, an old friend of mine, told us about when he was gigging in Japan, and his band didn’t sound right. It seemed as though they’d been “slapped” together and just started playing. So one bad night, between sets, the club manager who had a strong lisp, went to their dressing room and slowly, steadily said: “Rehearth, Rehearth, Rehearth”!
It may sound funny. But the message to the band was loud and clear.
Rehearsals should really be referred to as dress rehearsals meaning that rehearsals are the show. We must all learn to embrace and make the most of the rehearsal time because that’s when we put the real show together. It’s when we work on sounding tight, slick, smooth, ironing out all the kinks and making sure that we’re grooving. Work on your intros, your endings, think about inserting a few show-stoppers here and there to keep the show fresh and your audiences captivated, focused rehearsals eliminate a lot of stress, come showtime.
So, this is G signing off from New Delhi, India, and reminding you to “Rehearth, rehearth, rehearth”.
