Did I mention this? The other guitarist begged off this weekend, so I played two Sundays in a row (and will get a third next week). And it was fun. Let's discuss the differences between the bands.

• Drums - My regular band has a drummer who was so jazzed that he got to see August Burns Red recently. Here's some August Burns Red. C is for Christian Metalcore, that's good enough for me. I like him, I'd gladly play with him wherever, but he's slowly growing from a mindset where his dynamics go from 9 to 10. The sound guys are gladdened that now, he's getting to the point where they can have him in the house mix, and not mute his mics and STILL have him too loud. The other band normally has a guy that's closer to a jazz drummer, never too loud, but he also skipped out, so the normal Wednesday night drummer stepped up. I think the oddest meter we did was 6/4, which, as things go, is pretty simple, but I've seen drummers I was greatly impressed by fall flat on waltz time, but the new guy handled it.
• Bass - My regular bassist is a metalhead. He's picking stuff up, but he knows so little theory that my second favorite bassist joke ("How many bassists does it take to screw in a light bulb?" "1. 5. 1. 5.") fell flat with him. The other band's bassist is much more technically adept. 
• Piano - The guy I normally play with will tell you that he's a P&W keyboard player who's learning to play the roll of a piano player. Today, I played with a piano player. The biggest difference is that with the keyboard guy it's very clear. "Now, I will play chords" "Now, I will improvise a solo." Today's pianist is much more integrated in the way good piano players (pianists?) are.
• Guitar - no second guitar today. Which I do like.
• Sax - Our sax guy can't make it to practice on Tuesdays and sounds like he didn't practice with us. I don't want to say bad things about him, but I don't really know good things about him beside "he shows up". But the other band's sax guy was a gigging musician for years with a deep and abiding love for Tower of Power. 

I think I'd fit in a lot better with this band. I had a lot of fun.