Daron's Guitar Chronicles: Vol 4

237 DO YOU WANT TO TOUCH?

DO YOU WANT TO TOUCH?

I don't think there was a single person still working at Tower from the days when I'd been there. Michelle had been one of the last ones left, and since she'd quit, I was pretty sure I didn't know anyone. That didn't stop nearly everyone on the staff from acting like they'd known me all along. Apparently the film crew had pre-arranged to film a segment there, and what was funny was from somewhere they got someone to bring us a second guitar, and the next thing you know, Bart and I ended up doing that duet of "Just Like Heaven" in front of an impromptu lunchtime crowd. What was funny was that we couldn't remember which of us played the solo and which the backing version.

"You played the solo, it had to be you," Bart insisted.

"I think you're wrong. When we used to play it at school, I swear, it was you."

"Well, you're better at faking that kind of thing than I am. Man, that was like four years ago. I can't remember it."

Then we played an all acoustic version of Candlelight, which is pretty acoustic-y anyway, and the fact that we didn't have a singer with us didn't matter because the people all around us sang. That was a pretty cool feeling. We played Wonderland, too, and then finished with another cover. It took Bart a moment to figure out what I'd started playing, maybe because I was confused myself. I was trying to hit the riff that opens "I Love Rock and Roll" but I missed and I ended up on the one that opens "Do You Want to Touch" instead.

Neither of us knew the actual lyrics to that song, but the key thing is that the chorus is basically just "Yeah, oh yeah" over and over, and so it worked out because that's what the crowd sang, and once he was well established with the chord progression, I just played a solo on top of it and everyone was happy.

"Okay, back to the hotel grab something to eat, and we're going to swap crews," Cameron said, as we went back into the Green Line. He filmed a bit of us waiting for the train and riding it, and a bit of us walking past the Boston Public Library. Then he stopped us and we sat down and he filmed a couple of minutes of me sitting on the steps of the library, playing guitar.

The crew did tech-related things while we picked over a typical cold-cuts spread in the suite. "How was Wonderland?" I asked Ziggy.

"Cold. It's too early for the beach, man," he said, as he flopped down into an armchair with a plate of food, looking tired.

I washed down a bit of sandwich with some Coke from a can. "Question for you. That day we met in the park, what song were we playing?"

He thought for a minute. "Was it 'Close to Me' by The Cure?"

"Couldn't have been Close to Me," Bart said. "I don't think we ever did that one..."

"In Between Days, then," Ziggy said, and started to sing a snippet, "'Go on, go on, just walk away....'"

"Yeah, that's it," Bart said with a nod. "You were right, Dar'."

"We could do a completely killer cover of Just Like Heaven, though," I said. "If we made that solo line into a bass line, and changed the time signature."

Bart's eyes lit up. "OOh, you know..."

"Next tour," Ziggy said, getting to his feet again. "Come on."

Out we went again, this time each of us with a single cameraman, hitting a checklist of places. I didn't know until later where the others went. Cameron stuck with me, which suited me fine. We went to Kenmore Square and they filmed me in front of the Rat, and on my suggestion we did some in front of Hi-Fi Pizza in Central Square.

By four o'clock we were headed back to the hotel and the director finally spoke to me directly other than the quick introduction we'd had that morning. He was another young guy, or at least looked it, named Antoine Brevard. Everyone on the crew called him "Tony," but since he had introduced himself as Antoine, I didn't feel like I knew him well enough to call him that. But he wasn't enough older than me to be Mr. Brevard, you know?