Last Tuesday night we had an interesting conversation at PJudd rehearsal, a discussion that probably would’ve spelled the end of the band 10-15 years ago. Back then, egos played a stronger role in how adversity played out, and emotions ran a little hotter. In this newfound age of maturity, somehow the conversation seemed as natural as the sun’s daily brush against the horizon each morning. As I rode home from practice two weeks ago, an eerie thought entered my mind: Pondering Judd was becoming a museum piece. We were no longer in production mode, the hum of industry long silenced since I began work on my solo record in spring ’09. Pondering Judd was suddenly operating in survival mode. We were getting together merely to run through material in preparation of a gig. No new songs were shared, not even an interesting cover to learn.

This development concerned me on many levels. It’s almost as though we’d become a tribute to a band that once prided itself in its prolificness. We’ve all witnessed bands who have stayed together too long. It’s not always pretty, and the way I feel about life is you go out on top, or at least go out before you make a fool out of yourself.

Have I stopped writing? No. In fact, I’ve written more over the last year-and-a-half than I have in the previous three combined. But my focus has changed, altered by the lens of the Lost Sailor Records deal. I no longer write Pondering Judd songs. I just write without channels, and some of these songs will eventually find their way onto PJudd set lists. But with a full schedule of solo shows and a new set of obligations, it’s been impossible to do anything but operate in survival mode.

With this in mind, we all agreed the strategy must change. If Pondering Judd is to live to see its 20th anniversary (and perhaps beyond), we’ll need to change the way we do business. Could we continue to operate solely in a static realm? Absolutely, but one of the things I love about our fans is that they love new music, and above all, they deserve nothing less. Will people still love us if we never wrote or recorded another song together? Perhaps, but I have to much respect for them and the band itself to keep going to that well forever.

I love the dudes in my band, but after last Tuesday’s discussion, I loved them even more, because somehow it was as if someone had stepped off the throat of Pondering Judd and let us breathe again. No pressure. No obligation. Just a commitment to each other to keep everything out in the open, and to revisit this same conversation should things feel compromised. Bullet dodged. Onward, upward.

I mention this discussion for one reason: it was the fuel which powered us all Friday night at Fury’s Publick House. Our first set had to be one of the ten best we’d ever performed, and much of that had to do with the fact we’d navigated through some potentially tricky, even deadly, waters together and still managed to step off the boat without a single scar among us.

As for the show’s details, I’ll just say it was like a class reunion without the awkwardness. Many familiar faces, some from the far reaching past, showed up to revel in the return of PJudd, packing nearly every square inch of the bar. In our first visit back to Fury’s (formerly Biddy’s), we did not disappoint, and we certainly didn’t make fools out of ourselves.  The place has changed a little since we’d last played here. A new extended stage, some new tables and chairs, but overall, it still feels like pulling on a pair of well worn jeans.

I will share an anecdote which someone epitomizes what we’d been through just three days prior. During our first set, six songs deep at most, we overloaded the circuit breakers, thus killing the club’s power. Ten to fifteen years ago we would have panicked. But instead, we simply made an adjustment (remembering an old trick we’d learned back when Murphy owned the place) and forged ahead. Onward, upward.

Thanks to all who came out to the show. Pondering Judd has no shows currently scheduled but we’ll be changing that, so stayed tuned.

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