My Favorite Day: Getting ready for a gig is bliss for Three Chord Whore
| Wednesday, Jul 02 2008 02:34 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:25 PM
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Where do you like to go, what do you like to do, who do you like to hang with? We’d love to know. If you’re interested in writing a My Favorite Day piece, call or
e-mail Lifestyles Editor Jennifer Self: 395-7434 or jself@bakersfield.com.
Images
A trip to Front Porch Music is part of a favorite day for Three Chord Whore. Heather Mercer, left, and Darcie Blake spend some time checking out the gear.
Three Chord Whore singer Darcie Blake with her daughter, Veronica, 20 months, during a stop at Front Porch Music. Darcie says Veronica is already into instruments.
Drummer Shantell Waldo seems quite at home in Front Porch Music, the long-time downtown Bakersfield music store that is a regular stopping spot for the group.
Three Chord Whore stops at The Mint, where the group plays. From left are drummer Shantell Waldo, guitarist Heather Mercer and singer Darcie Blake.
So when we, the ladies of Three Chord Whore, Bakersfield’s only DIY all-female band, were asked about our favorite day, we all immediately agreed that it would be a Saturday show day.
Singer Darcie Blake: I wake up in the morning and the monster zit that was on my chin the night before has vanished. Now I’m in such a good mood I decide to make a huge breakfast. My breakfasts are usually good, but today I even surprise myself.
Drummer Shantell Waldo: I need to get to the farmers market before all of the good stuff is sold out. I make one very important stop at Dagny’s for a Zambian zing green tea and then I am off again.
Guitarist Heather Mercer: There is no way I am getting up early on a show day. I can sleep in and make my own breakfast out of the stuff Shantell brings back to the house. The afternoon is where all of the pre-show action takes place.
Darcie: My best friend, Terra, my daughter, Veronica, and I go shopping at Gigantic Vintage, at the clothing store in Timeless Antiques and at a couple of cheap stores in the mall for disposable outfits for tonight’s show because we are playing at The Mint and that means anything can happen.
We eat an awesome lunch at Jake’s Tex-Mex and drop my beautiful daughter off with her aunt Sherri because she loves her aunt Sherri.
Heather and Shantell: It’s off to Kinko’s to make fliers for the show. Heather calls Kinko’s a working band’s best friend.
Shantell wants to take some downtown: If we leave some fliers in Downtown Records, it gives me an excuse to look for more vinyl to add to my collection.
Heather reminds her about having to get to Front Porch Music to pick up a PA for rental because “dive bars don’t have PAs, and Three Chord Whore doesn’t have one either.” Later, the three all meet up and, as Darcie tells, it: We go load band equipment and I get ready with “the girls,” Heather and Shantell. We rock out listening to music — “because of the cool records I bought,” adds Shantell.
Then we do our hair and makeup and none of us have a liquid eyeliner malfunction. We head off to The Mint, which is the perfect place for a Three Chord Whore show. We all play our best show ever, in front of our friends and families and we end the night by celebrating and hanging out with the colorful crowd of bar locals.
Just before 2 a.m., Heather, our trusty sober driver, gathers us up, gets to Taqueria Los Altos before it closes, and gets us all home safe.
This is the perfect ending to our favorite day.
