I was in a Southern Boulder (CO) Rock Power Trio from about 1992 - 1998. I played drums and shared singing duties and wrote a lot of lyrics. I say 'Southern Boulder Rock' because the guitarist/singer and bassist were natives of South Boulder. So they gave it that flavor (I'm being serious, and humorous). I was from North Boulder (maybe 5 - 8 miles away from South Boulder. Not the distance that made it different, it was all about attitude.
We called ourselves 'Table Mesa' because that was the largest suberb of S. Boulder. It also represented an attitude. We'd see some guy walking and say, "Damn, that guy is so Table Mesa!" It basically means "bedroom genuis". Someone that is brilliant but self defeating and doesn't make the jump from his infinite badroom realm into reality. The BG comes up with amazing ideas and creative projects, but never shares them. Why not? Well, they are tired of being picked on and criticized by parents, teachers and peers, so they fear a negative response and just shoot it down anyway before other get the chance. They also fear success. A catch 22. So they create this huge and impressive body of genuis work and it stays in the bedroom. I was a bedroom genuis that made it out and so were my 2 compadres in Table Mesa. Our message was "Come out of the bedroom and check out some guys that dared to. We are embarrassing, but we have the courage and the integrity to keep grinding it out.
We were actually okay. We weren't easilly accessible. We challenged the audience to listen and understand what we were all about. No party here, just 3 guys making some different music. Rock, metal, old school country (Haggard, George Jones...) music in one sound and grating vocals with good lyrics. We were our own biggest fans.
We actually produced and printed 2 cassettes during our existence. The debut was: Table Mesa: Verde. We recorded it in a basement studio in 5 hours. I think we had 9 or 10 songs and they were raw but decent. I actually can't believe how good we were in some parts. We were just different. I played the drums with my aggression and anger more than talent. The guitarist played a Gibson Les Paul through a giant Mesa Boogie Tube amp. It sounded like pure peeling out in gravel. Niel Young comes to mind. The bassist was probably the most talented musician, but very eccentric and shy. Played his bass so well though.
2nd release was more for fun than exposure or as a demo to get gigs. It was called: "Table Mesa: Get Your Weird Sticks". Much more diverse quality of production and sound, but memorable and worth getting on tape.
I am proud of it and think if I could do it now, I'd take it a little more seriously and take some drum theory and practice a lot more. It was a blast and at some point a saving grace for me. We had fun. We played a lot of clubs in Boulder and Denver and even were slated to open for Sublime at the Fox Theatre. They didn't make the gig... We came across badly because the sound guy turned the 'suck' knob up a little too high (Far Side that is eerily familiar).
We toured and made no money, backed up a sewer system, our biggest crowd was 10 in a small lounge in Vegas. Went in a 69 VW bus through Arizona New Mexico, Utah and Vegas and showed up at these clubs and they did zero to publicize. It was purely and simply fun and something that gave us ample time to practice in front of small groups. One huge club in Arizona shut us down on Halloween night because it was costing more for them to have us onstage than they were making at the door (which was 0).
Anyway, that's my band stuff. Long and tired, but a really good time for me.