Paul Vieira

Tonight is music night. Yes! It`s one of the highlights of my week. This is the night for rock and roll. I`m in the process of forming a band to perform my music. So far it`s just the drummer and me, but we`re looking at adding an electric guitar player and bass player. It`s been a lot of fun so far and we`re taking our time to create our sound and perfect each song. My goal is to be able to play live by next summer. A friend has given us space on the third floor of the building of his business to set up our equipment and practice. The business? A funeral home.

Yes, each week we gather in a funeral home and rock the house. Some of my friends think its a little weird but I think it works very well for several reasons. Playing music to the dead has certain advantages:

1. It gives us an opportunity to test our music out on a captive audience.
2. The audience is not likely to “boo” us or throw tomatoes at the stage if they don`t like the music.
3. I hate it when I`m pouring my heart out in my music on stage and people in the audience are chatting with each other. The annoying chit chat rarely happens at our practice on Wednesday nights.
4. The audience is a little “stiff,” but overall, they are helping me build my confidence at playing in front of other more lively audiences.
5. I like to perform my original music, so I appreciate the fact that the audience at the funeral home doesn`t constantly ask us to do cover songs.
6. It hasn`t taken us long to get fairly popular. People are “dying” to get into that place to hear us play.
7. It`s much easier to focus on the music when your`re audience is peaceful and predictable; no surprises to distract you. (Well, except for that one night that we foolishly decided to play our first cover. Of all songs, we chose Thriller by Michael Jackson. What a mess that was! I try to forget that night.)

It`s close to midnight and something evil`s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You`re paralyzed
cause this is thriller, thriller night

(Note: For those of you who are really freaked out by the fact that we play in a funeral home, maybe it will help you to know that we play up on the third floor that is used for storage and the dead are kept down in the basement. Other than thriller night, we don`t ever see them.)