Knock, knock, knockin' on Heaven's door

You will never believe what happened last night.

I am now the new (or at least temporary) pianist/female vocalist for an amateur Israeli rock band playing covers of American 70s-80s rock songs.

At around 9:00 last night I went in search of a piano.  I had seen an old baby grand in a building adjacent to the chadar ohel, likely never tuned, so I went there first.  The door was locked but there were two guys inside cleaning, and I would have asked to come in if they hadn't started blasting their own rock music.  So I decided against bothering them and turned in the direction of another building that I was told houses a piano.  Upon approaching it, my spidey-senses started tingling and were confirmed when I heard music coming from within.  Lights were on, a door was open, and in I went.  To my left was a room with men dressed for a martial arts class and a few of them had stepped into the hallway for water.  "Is there a piano here?" I asked, and they pointed me in the direction of a hallway with at least one practice room complete with an upright piano!  Ta da!  Not a grand, and not all that great, but a piano nonetheless!

I played for about a half hour before leaving the room, at which point I bumped into a trio of guys from another room.  Little did I know that my piano snobbery would land me jamming with a band!  I asked them if there was another piano in that room to which they responded "You play piano?"  They didn't care that I was only classically trained - they needed a pianist.  And they didn't care that I was incredibly hesitant about my singing - they needed a singer.  So I joined them in a larger room complete with piano, drum set, some amps, microphones, and what may have been recording equipment.

They had  a comparatively small collection of music, including some of the darker Leonard Cohen songs, some Pink Floyd, REM, and the Doors.  They only had a couple Hebrew songs, but for nearly every piece they had the chord chart for me to read.  I've never had much practice with improv so I mostly stuck with the chords, though I'll try to branch out in future sessions.  They also wanted me to sing which I finally did with the lead guitar/singer away from the piano.  And guess what - THEY LIKED IT!  I've been invited back for next week's rehearsal with the stipulation that I listen to the music I was otherwise unfamiliar with.

As I said, this is an amateur rock band.  Drums, bass, guitar/vocals, and none of it terribly refined.  But mostly they have fun.  I really enjoyed playing with all three guys - all very nice, all have good English, so it's easy to communicate with them.  Only one of them is a kibbutznik, a guy who's dad works in the garden with me.  The other two - the guitarist and drummer - are from outside the kibbutz.  I'm guessing they're in their late 20s/early 30s, though really I don't know for certain.  I'm not entirely sure what happened to their last pianist, if the guy left or was kicked out, and I have no idea if they'll want me to stay with them the whole time I'm here, but it's pretty fun in the meantime!

For those of you who know me, you'll know this is not at all my usual scene.  Seems that Israel is proving to be a wonderful experience for a bunch of unforeseen reasons.  And I've only been here a week :)