We played after a poetry reading and a Pavement tribute act. It was dark on stage.We were under-rehearsed and made lots of mistakes but several in the crowd said we were "tight". I started Tame in E instead of D...I think because of the light I just went to the wrong fret...didn't get it resolved until just after "cookie I think you're tame." I don't know why it took me so long to correct because I knew what I'd done right away but I somehow got out of synch with the chord progression trying to switch to correct key. Ironically 2 people later told me we "nailed" Tame and that it was amazing. It is so hard for me to believe anything an audience member ever says. I know they probably really believe whatever it is that they say...but even when I'm not being unreasonable hard on myself I rarely agree with their assessments. I have, at least, learned to just say "thank you" and not argue with them or make excuses.
RS went straight into Something About You after Broken Face without calling it and it took me a second to remember what song that is, but I figured it out in time. We should go back to testing ourselves like that.
Drinks were had but were not a factor in my performance. I'd been sober a week prior to show. I regret breaking the streak. I think we took home $35. I borrowed Pavement guy's rig, which was a tube amp head played through an Ampeg 4 x 10 I think. The red bass sounded better played through that than it normally does, maybe that's the key.
Setlist:
Wave UK
Nimrod
Here Comes
Bone
River
Space
Subbacultcha
Debaser
Holiday Song
Isla
Crackity
Dead
Monkey
Dig
Motorway
Bird Dream
Hey
Gigantic
Gouge
Tame
Vamos
Where is My Mind
encore by request:
Broken Face
2nd encore cause RS felt bad he messed up lyrics to Broken Face:
Something Against You
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
SVFD, 9/7/2013 private party
We played for B's wedding reception party thing. We played almost everything we know (no setlist provided here cause we just called songs). About 5 or 6 tunes into the set, the cops showed up. We were playing amplified outdoors in the middle of a residential neighborhood starting at 9pm...so really it was warranted. They waited for us to finish Je's ska arrangement of "I Will Survive" and then asked us to go acoustic or go inside. So inside we went. We regrouped and played until 11pm. I was shocked that the small crowd stuck around, stood in the house with us, and danced their asses off.
Only blip of the night for me was that I thought we were playing "Spiderwebs" for the encore, but the bride apparently yelled "Came Out of a Lady" right before we started to play and the front line called an audible without consultation. Unfortunately I am a lynch pin in the start of the song and wasn't ready. I should have just gone with it, but instead tried to get my bandmates to start over, which of course they didn't because they are professionals and know how to roll with the punches. I regret not being able to go with the flow and not have a reaction disproportionate to the confusion in the moment. But I can't really control a reflex so I should get over it. Still, it bothers me that I couldn't just jump into it without hesitation, and further, that I made a big deal out of it. Alas.
The calling of the cops was fun though, and we all clucked about it on the internet for hours after the show was over.
Only blip of the night for me was that I thought we were playing "Spiderwebs" for the encore, but the bride apparently yelled "Came Out of a Lady" right before we started to play and the front line called an audible without consultation. Unfortunately I am a lynch pin in the start of the song and wasn't ready. I should have just gone with it, but instead tried to get my bandmates to start over, which of course they didn't because they are professionals and know how to roll with the punches. I regret not being able to go with the flow and not have a reaction disproportionate to the confusion in the moment. But I can't really control a reflex so I should get over it. Still, it bothers me that I couldn't just jump into it without hesitation, and further, that I made a big deal out of it. Alas.
The calling of the cops was fun though, and we all clucked about it on the internet for hours after the show was over.
Friday, September 6, 2013
SSW, Mr Roberts, 9/5/2013
w/ Meat Faucet and Dirty Nigel & the Strap Ons.
We played so freaking late. Lots of beer was drunken unfortunately. There was no rehearsal. I have the muscle memory still, even after a year of nearly no rehearsals...but my endurance is completely gone. The performance was completely adequate, though each time we play without rehearsals things get marginally worse. A small but supportive crowd. We took home $60, which seems like way more than we were likely owed, but I think the bartender likes us. Had new heads on the kit...but I played with ear plugs in so I really have no idea how they sounded.
Setlist
Part Time Punks
Bosocobel Breakout
Mr Suit
Teenaged Kicks
We Are the One
Political Song for MJ
New Rose
Helicopter (nearly forgot how to play this AGAIN)
Dance 4x
One Track Mind
Too Drunk to Fuck
I Am a Cliche
Suspect Device
You Drive Me Ape
Warsaw
I've Been So Mad Lately
Fucked Up and Wasted
We played so freaking late. Lots of beer was drunken unfortunately. There was no rehearsal. I have the muscle memory still, even after a year of nearly no rehearsals...but my endurance is completely gone. The performance was completely adequate, though each time we play without rehearsals things get marginally worse. A small but supportive crowd. We took home $60, which seems like way more than we were likely owed, but I think the bartender likes us. Had new heads on the kit...but I played with ear plugs in so I really have no idea how they sounded.
Setlist
Part Time Punks
Bosocobel Breakout
Mr Suit
Teenaged Kicks
We Are the One
Political Song for MJ
New Rose
Helicopter (nearly forgot how to play this AGAIN)
Dance 4x
One Track Mind
Too Drunk to Fuck
I Am a Cliche
Suspect Device
You Drive Me Ape
Warsaw
I've Been So Mad Lately
Fucked Up and Wasted
Thursday, August 29, 2013
CJ, HNS, 8/28/2013
41 paid in attendance for a stunning $144! But it felt pretty empty.
We played 2 sets and got through them all but dropped #13 for no good reason just the same.
I had given CT some free strings that were donated to GRC and I guess free strings aren't worth having. Apparently age is not good for a string. I'm guessing these were years old before we ever saw them and have sat in storage with us for over a year. So yeah...he broke 2. Whoops. As a result played most of first set on the backup strat. Changed whole guitar at set break with less shitty strings. That's what I get for stealing things from little children.
Due to the whole string situation we moved Vamos from the last song of the first set to near the middle of the second...and he killed it even though RS started the song really fast and I thought EH might have his arms fall off. It's a simple drum beat, sure, but people don't realize how hard it is to keep up for 4+ minutes.
Mostly we played well. RS jumped one measure in "Space" after the Perry Mason thing, but we'd already prepared to just go when he said "he so" ...and so all was well. He also skipped a progression ahead in "Manta Ray" and got to the bridge too early...which resulted in the rest of us playing a kind of comical sliding scale into the chorus. I thought it was kind of funny. I flubbed a note here or there but generally played well. My mic had this dent that you had to sing into or it didn't work right but I figured it out quickly enough. The whole "pick-no-pick" and associated tone/volume adjustments with the new bass worked out pretty well. My amp, which worked fine with a direct line out on Tuesday, didn't work that way on Wednesday and he had to run it through a DI box. It was rattling by the end of the show too in the way that it does (it really doesn't like the frequencies in "Monkey" on that front). The lights were effing with me for a while so that I couldn't see my fret dots, but I moved and it was resolved. My vocal monitor was perfect and so my vocals were better than average. I even sang "Nimrod" right.
At least four or five people we didn't know came up at end of the show gushing and loosing their shit over how awesome we were. It still surprises me.
I had not a drop of alcohol and was so very glad for that.
Set 1
Debaser
I Bleed
Holiday Song
Sad Punk
Blown Away
Dead
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Letter to Memphis
Lovely Day
Velouria
Isla
Crackity Jones
Gigantic
Ed is Dead
Here Comes Your Man
(we skipped Vamos and put it in set 2)
Set 2
Bone Machine
Wave fast
Cactus
Bird Dream
Space
Subbacultcha
Dig for Fire
Down to the Well
(We skipped No 13 Baby)
Manta Ray
River Euphrates
Hey
La La Love You
Nimrod's Son
Vamos
Where Is My Mind
Gouge Away
Tame
We played 2 sets and got through them all but dropped #13 for no good reason just the same.
I had given CT some free strings that were donated to GRC and I guess free strings aren't worth having. Apparently age is not good for a string. I'm guessing these were years old before we ever saw them and have sat in storage with us for over a year. So yeah...he broke 2. Whoops. As a result played most of first set on the backup strat. Changed whole guitar at set break with less shitty strings. That's what I get for stealing things from little children.
Due to the whole string situation we moved Vamos from the last song of the first set to near the middle of the second...and he killed it even though RS started the song really fast and I thought EH might have his arms fall off. It's a simple drum beat, sure, but people don't realize how hard it is to keep up for 4+ minutes.
Mostly we played well. RS jumped one measure in "Space" after the Perry Mason thing, but we'd already prepared to just go when he said "he so" ...and so all was well. He also skipped a progression ahead in "Manta Ray" and got to the bridge too early...which resulted in the rest of us playing a kind of comical sliding scale into the chorus. I thought it was kind of funny. I flubbed a note here or there but generally played well. My mic had this dent that you had to sing into or it didn't work right but I figured it out quickly enough. The whole "pick-no-pick" and associated tone/volume adjustments with the new bass worked out pretty well. My amp, which worked fine with a direct line out on Tuesday, didn't work that way on Wednesday and he had to run it through a DI box. It was rattling by the end of the show too in the way that it does (it really doesn't like the frequencies in "Monkey" on that front). The lights were effing with me for a while so that I couldn't see my fret dots, but I moved and it was resolved. My vocal monitor was perfect and so my vocals were better than average. I even sang "Nimrod" right.
At least four or five people we didn't know came up at end of the show gushing and loosing their shit over how awesome we were. It still surprises me.
I had not a drop of alcohol and was so very glad for that.
Set 1
Debaser
I Bleed
Holiday Song
Sad Punk
Blown Away
Dead
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Letter to Memphis
Lovely Day
Velouria
Isla
Crackity Jones
Gigantic
Ed is Dead
Here Comes Your Man
(we skipped Vamos and put it in set 2)
Set 2
Bone Machine
Wave fast
Cactus
Bird Dream
Space
Subbacultcha
Dig for Fire
Down to the Well
(We skipped No 13 Baby)
Manta Ray
River Euphrates
Hey
La La Love You
Nimrod's Son
Vamos
Where Is My Mind
Gouge Away
Tame
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
SVFD, HNS, 8/27/2013
I have two shows this week, both in same time slot and at same venue on two consecutive days. Gig #1 was last night. SVFD opened for Something To Do. It was our first double ska bill.
It was a good turnout and we brought in $127, which I feel like is good for a happy hour gig. I think that we could have played better but the audience insisted it was great. Beverages were had. Too many. But it did not affect my performance. Still, tis a trend I'd like to reverse soon. Had the guitar in the monitor, making it the first time I've really heard what she plays. It kind of threw me off a bit.
Setlist
Rascal King
Came Out of a Lady
Metro
Sergio
Mr. Smiley
About a Girl
Thigh High Nylongs
I Don't Love You Anymore
Lost Again
Red Rubber Ball
It was a good turnout and we brought in $127, which I feel like is good for a happy hour gig. I think that we could have played better but the audience insisted it was great. Beverages were had. Too many. But it did not affect my performance. Still, tis a trend I'd like to reverse soon. Had the guitar in the monitor, making it the first time I've really heard what she plays. It kind of threw me off a bit.
Setlist
Rascal King
Came Out of a Lady
Metro
Sergio
Mr. Smiley
About a Girl
Thigh High Nylongs
I Don't Love You Anymore
Lost Again
Red Rubber Ball
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Memo to Myself
I write out painstaking tab for most of the songs that I play on the bass because I have a poor memory. If I figure it out I have to write it down or else it is gone in no time. Then I practice them until they are memorized and ditch the notes. Later, when muscle memory has finally failed from too much time past, I can go back to the notes and remind and refresh.
Some songs, though, just come naturally and I write very sparse notes. "The Sad Punk" is such a song. I wrote down the chord progression, but felt the incidental notes were so natural and obvious that there was no need to write out.
Fast forward three years.
*blank stare at progression*
Memo to myself...always write it all out.
Told you so for future me..."Don't Change" by INXS is also this kind of song. Write it all out dumbass. Though, if we're still playing "Don't Change" on or after Oct 27th I'll be shocked.
Some songs, though, just come naturally and I write very sparse notes. "The Sad Punk" is such a song. I wrote down the chord progression, but felt the incidental notes were so natural and obvious that there was no need to write out.
Fast forward three years.
*blank stare at progression*
Memo to myself...always write it all out.
Told you so for future me..."Don't Change" by INXS is also this kind of song. Write it all out dumbass. Though, if we're still playing "Don't Change" on or after Oct 27th I'll be shocked.
Monday, August 12, 2013
SSW, GTMW, 8/10/2013
SSW played GTMW for the second year running. I brought my homemade "mini-kit"...for future reference noting in detail here:
-floor tom tuned loose
-wood floor tom stand
-my cheapest bass pedal
-my lightest hi hat stand and the scimitar hats
-my lightest snare stand and the all silver snare
-HH splash on an adapter arm connected to hh stand
-tambo on my super-duper adapter connected to hh stand (played it on only one song...don't bring next time)
-small rug
-used rods for everything except Stooges medley with shaker egg
-my lightest throne
-put everything on my cart. Floor tom in case, snare in case (with all cymbals and throne top), stands in blue bag, sticks and music in a small bag that fit inside blue bag. Also brought a tarp that I used to reserve space for friends (no rain thankfully). Took cart apart for cab ride. Cab was able to get me to top of hill for drop off and pick up was easy just down the hill. Cart worked like a charm. Perfect.
-5 bottles of water...wasn't enough (by my count I drank 144+ ounces of water over course of day and still felt like shit)
-hat, sunglasses, rain coat...brought sunscreen but didn't use it and that was a mistake (got a little burn on my face and I think this was a significant contributor to feeling like shit). Wore my black Keen's, blue jean shorts, and my Brigadoon t-shirt.
-Took a cab...$14 plus tip to gig, $1 plus tip away
CJ also played two very short sets. I brought my acoustic bass for this purpose and it was inaudible in the drone of people. Next year leave bass at home. Note that a not insignificant number of people stopped to listen to the Pixies tunes (though most people ignored our 70s punk sets). Recall telling at least 4 people who CJ was and when our next show was. I am forever amazed at this phenomenon.
Two different drunk guys asked it they could play my kit. This was new.
Best beer of day was "Rabbit" something or other brewery (I think it was 5 Rabbit Cerveceria and I think I had their
"hUitzi: Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale. O.G.: 1.07. IBU: 22.0. ABV: 8.7. A refreshing and
elegant Belgian-style, strong golden ale brewed with hibiscus blossoms, Roman
chamomile, pickled ginger, Thai palm sugar, and local Chicago honey"
RS had their "5 grass: Style: American Pale Ale" I think he also liked it.)
Was not actually hung over next day...but did feel like total shit all Sat night.
SSW setlist to come.
-floor tom tuned loose
-wood floor tom stand
-my cheapest bass pedal
-my lightest hi hat stand and the scimitar hats
-my lightest snare stand and the all silver snare
-HH splash on an adapter arm connected to hh stand
-tambo on my super-duper adapter connected to hh stand (played it on only one song...don't bring next time)
-small rug
-used rods for everything except Stooges medley with shaker egg
-my lightest throne
-put everything on my cart. Floor tom in case, snare in case (with all cymbals and throne top), stands in blue bag, sticks and music in a small bag that fit inside blue bag. Also brought a tarp that I used to reserve space for friends (no rain thankfully). Took cart apart for cab ride. Cab was able to get me to top of hill for drop off and pick up was easy just down the hill. Cart worked like a charm. Perfect.
-5 bottles of water...wasn't enough (by my count I drank 144+ ounces of water over course of day and still felt like shit)
-hat, sunglasses, rain coat...brought sunscreen but didn't use it and that was a mistake (got a little burn on my face and I think this was a significant contributor to feeling like shit). Wore my black Keen's, blue jean shorts, and my Brigadoon t-shirt.
-Took a cab...$14 plus tip to gig, $1 plus tip away
CJ also played two very short sets. I brought my acoustic bass for this purpose and it was inaudible in the drone of people. Next year leave bass at home. Note that a not insignificant number of people stopped to listen to the Pixies tunes (though most people ignored our 70s punk sets). Recall telling at least 4 people who CJ was and when our next show was. I am forever amazed at this phenomenon.
Two different drunk guys asked it they could play my kit. This was new.
Best beer of day was "Rabbit" something or other brewery (I think it was 5 Rabbit Cerveceria and I think I had their
"hUitzi: Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale. O.G.: 1.07. IBU: 22.0. ABV: 8.7. A refreshing and
elegant Belgian-style, strong golden ale brewed with hibiscus blossoms, Roman
chamomile, pickled ginger, Thai palm sugar, and local Chicago honey"
RS had their "5 grass: Style: American Pale Ale" I think he also liked it.)
Was not actually hung over next day...but did feel like total shit all Sat night.
SSW setlist to come.
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