Well, I did the Frescaroma gig last Friday night. It’s only taken a week to write this because I had company for a number of days and work has been hell this week.
I had never been to Frescaroma before and didn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be very small but had a really nice ambiance. I found out about this place via myspace because I somehow ended up on the friend’s list. Previous acts had led me to believe that this was a really up spot and when I sent out email announcing the show, I told everyone that I expected it to be pretty jumping and that I would play mostly uptempo/hi NRG stuff. In fact, what transpired is that I played one of the mellowest shows I think I’ve ever played. I have to say though that I was really on. I was even doing improv stuff that I’d never played before, just going with it. There was a very small crowd of 9 people but they were all really appreciative and really listening to what I was doing. I discussed this with Bill, that I’d rather have a small crowd that was paying attention than a big crowd that wasn’t. It just makes all the difference. Even at the Sofa Lounge, you can have a very small crowd, but they’re so noisy and you really don’t get the feeling that they’re listening. You may as well play to a wall.
Anyhow, any of you musicians out there, I recommend Frescaroma. The owner was really nice. Cosmo is the one who does the booking. I’m not sure of his exact affiliation with the place but if you’re interested, let me know and I give you his contact info.
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Last Saturday night was my first gig in Santa Cruz in 4 years. I played at The Ugly Mug in Soquel. There were quite a few people in there studying when I started. My friends started rolling in a little after I started: Andy brought her friend Laura, Jacob and Jen came in, said hi, and ran off to grab a burrito before they both sank into blood sugar comas and came back afterward, and Robin and Bruce wandered in late because they got the time wrong, God bless’m, and of course Kirby was there to show his support even though the poor guy has heard my songs 1,000 times. It was a nice night. I tell ya, it makes all the difference in the world to be playing for friends and family. The audience was very appreciative though and the tips were really good. As a venue,… eh… the seating arrangement is really odd but the vibe is good, and it’s always nice to be in the Cruz. We all went out to dinner afterward at Mobo Sushi and closed the place. It was a great night.
Tonight, I did the featured artist position at Red Rock Coffee’s open mic. That was nice because I hadn’t been in there since the new ownership took over. They put in actual stage!! That was awesome. It also got a much needed paint job. I really liked the new seating arrangement for the open mic and Scott and Steve were just great. I really like it there. It was nice to see some old faces in the crowd too. Autumn and the Fall Guys Chris and Hank were there, along with Andrew whom I haven’t seen in ages. Props to Bill for hooking that up. He gave me Steve’s email addy and I mentioned that Bill gave it too me and he’s like, “Well, if Bill gave this too you, I don’t even need to hear you, I’ll go on Bill’s recommendation.” I’m like, “Damn Bill, got any connections at the IRS?” Bill did the harmonies on Helplessly Hoping with me which seems to be our cursed song. We jacked it up one night at BRS, totally my fault, just couldn’t hear the harmony. Tonight’s catastrophe: Two people sitting in the front of the stage decided to sing along with us. I just kinda fell into a trance listening to them listening too us when suddenly I realized that Bill and I were not singing the same lyrics. The people whom I started following weren’t singing the correct lyrics! It was quite comical but I stopped the song and started over. It’s just too pretty a song to butcher. The second time around was much better.
I’m playing Frescaroma this Friday night. First time there, I haven’t even seen the place before so we’ll see. They’re supposed to have a bit of a hip hop flava to the place so I’ll be playing more uptempo, higher nrg stuff. We’ll see how that goes. I’d sure like a percussionist. Anyone, anyone?
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It’s funny missing the Sofa Lounge for a week and coming back. Tonight, the two SM57’s and one of the SM58’s was missing, so I had to do the night with one microphone. Luckily that’s all I needed because Racket didn’t show up tonight (bass player out of town). But jeez, it’s always like potpouri of musical equipment. I never know what’s going to be missing. I got to play a couple of songs which was the first time in a while that I’ve been able to play. I did The Wisdom of Trees and Bitter Storm. They went over pretty well. We always let others play before us and if there’s time, we’ll sneak a couple songs in.
This week, there was a new guy named Jeremy. Played guitar alright but needs work in the vocal department. I think he was really nervous. Then there was Leroy who did a couple soul tunes, most enjoyable. Then there was Christy Bryce. She was dragged in by her bass player and forced to drink a couple beers. We were out of time but I made sure she went up and did at least one song. She was really good. She had seen me play before somewhere but I’m not sure that I recognized her. Anyhow, she has a band but she’s been out doing an acoustic thing. We’re going to book a show together at The Blue Rock Shoot in November. I’ll keep ya posted on that.
The first featured performer was Chris Hanson who is one of my favourites. His overhand guitar style is interesting to watch and his voice is really haunting, and he’s really just a great guy. He’s set up a concert for the Day of Peace tomorrow in Santa Cruz with Univeral Language and Dis Moi at the Vet’s Hall. We’re going to try to set up a show together in November as well in Santa Cruz at E3. More coming on that one.
The second performer was Tiffany Joy. I don’t know much about this young lass but she played pretty solid and had a nice voice. I didn’t stay for her set though as I’ve been sneaking out to La Victoria to eat. I just can’t go the entire night without food, my blood sugar drop to my socks. She said something about playing the stage at Santana Row soon.
The third performer was Kaila D’Sa who consistently puts on a great show and tonight was no exception. He really can draw a crowd. I didn’t stay for his entire set since we let the performers play longer than a half hour. By 10:40pm, I was done. I need to practice a little from my show tomorrow night at Orchard Valley Coffee and take a shower. I’m actually up way later than I should be right now. argh.
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Just a friendly reminder of the upcoming shows this month:
This Thursday night :|: 9/21/2006 8pm
Orchard Valley Coffee
349 E Campbell Ave, Campbell, CA
Next Wednesday night :|: 9/27/2006 1/2 hour set between 8:30-10pm
Sofa Lounge
372 S. First St., Downtown San Jose, CA
Next Saturday evening :|: 9/30/2006 7pm
The Ugly Mug
4640 Soquel Dr., Soquel, CA
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I was walking through the office but it wasn’t my regular job/work office, it was the “dream” office that I’ve had a number of dreams in. I had spilled something on my shirt and had removed it and was walking through the office shirtless. I realized that I shouldn’t be doing this and rushed over to my desk to put on another shirt. Next thing I know, I’ve been called into a meeting that’s taking place at a restaurant. I’m thinking, oh great, I’m going to get fired. Instead, I find that I’ve been called in with others, mainly Adrienne, Shane, and two girls whom I don’t know. They’re asking us to work on a very important project though they don’t tell us what it is.
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Thursday night at Katie Bloom’s was quite interesting and different than what I expected. I was opening for David Ross MacDonald who I had played at the Sofa Lounge with the night before. Had the night before been any indicator for Thursday night, I would’ve known that the place would not be what it was the last time I played there.
I did my first gig at Katie Bloom’s about two months ago. I had never been there before and didn’t know what to expect. What I found when I got there was a total party place, in the middle of downtown campbell. The crowd seemed to be a mixture of comefuckme’s, can’tfuckme’s and jock supporters. I was scheduled to play with my man, Kaila D’Sa who is a downtown musical hero… Campbell is his domain and he has quite a following in the area. We were supposed to start at 8pm and were all set up and ready to play but there was a basketball game going on. Now, I don’t follow sports; I know the difference between the different balls and pucks used in each game and I can tell when someone sucks and someone doesn’t and that’s where it ends. The jock supporters were in a frenzy over something and it couldn’t possibly be interupted, especially not by a couple hippy guitar players, so we waited and waited and waited for the never ending game to finish.
Now, I many times like to pick my songs on the fly rather than making a set list. This is good and bad: Good because I can leave things to how I’m feeling at the moment and bad because I can often take too long in between songs deciding what to play. This night however, I picked out a few songs that I intended on doing. Big mistake; this crowd wanted to party and I had picked and freshened up a number of songs that just were not party songs. Oops. I can’t stress enough how hard it is to play a song to a crowd of people and not one claps when you’re done. Ouch. My friend Richard, head of Thriving Artists will attest to this as he just called me this morning to tell me about his experience at Coffee Society last night where a similar thing happened too him. He pulled out of it by digging deep into his self and pulling out the courage to keep going and the wisdom of where to go with the music and made what he said was the worst and best musical evening he’s ever had. When the going gets tough, the tough get going… that’s it, no ifs, ands or buts. What I did that night was press on, but I learned a valuable lesson as Richard did, you really have to know your audience and really play to them. If you think that you’re going to change them, you’re wrong. You adapt to them and integrate with them… then groove with them.
So back to the present… Wednesday night at the Sofa was just DEAD. What I neglected to forsee was that this was the week after Labor Day weekend, and people were either burnt, broke, or both, and they were not coming out to party this week. David Ross MacDonald is from Australia and used to play with The Waifs. He’s a very good guitar player but his music is very mellow, sensitive and introspective. So Thursday night, not learning me lesson from the night before was expecting this large party crowd, and I get there and there’s a 1/4 of the people there from the last time I played. I had put together a list of my most energetic songs like Sweet Obsession, Sinner and even started with I Gotta Know just to set the pace. You know what? It just never really worked for me. I kept thinking that I was just playing too aggressively for the crowd. I got a decent response from them and got some email addresses on my list and handed out a couple business cards so it went alright… but I really felt bad for David who played very sensitively and got little response for it. His sound just seemed to get drowned out by the place. I on the other hand was singing so loudly that I over compensated for the noisy crowd and was hoarse the next day.
Live and learn I guess. I’ll try it again I supposed… but next time, I’m making my set list at the bar just before I go on. I think that’s the happy medium here.
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Dr. Ali Khan, chiropractor and musician and Thriving Artists set up a benefit show for the Ethiopian Orphans of AIDS Foundation on Saturday, August 26th. Guest performers included Robert Perala from Music for Relief, Von von Lindenberg, Richard Adoradio founder of Thriving Artists, Jessica Stein, Jeff Wood, Stephanie Johnson, Larry Rosenthal, Louis Costanso, and myself. The show opened with a talk from J.N. “Seamus” Boylson who talked about the plight of Ethiopians trying to survive AIDS, drought, lack of governmental structure and militants in an area of the world once known for it’s wealth and opulance.
Overall, the night had high points and low points. Jeff Wood’s sax playing was great although a bit loud. The Coffee Society has a really big sound due to it’s high ceilings making it difficult to temper brass. Drums don’t go over very well there either. Richard played guitar sang harmonies and I sang on “Norwegian Wood” and “Listen to the Music” which IMHO sounded awesome. Richard is a delight to play with as his rhythm guitar (a dying art) is superb. Richard later performed “Lalainia”, a song of his and he sounded awesome. Von did some originals, Ali played some originals as well as some covers, and Jessica (9 y.o.) sang songs acapella and with Ali. I’m not sure about hearing a 9y.o. sing about partying and being “here for the money” though; something about that just seems wrong. Robert joked that we’d explain the meaning of the lyrics to her later. Robert also did some originals and played bass for much of the evening.
We were trying out the new Bose LS1/PS1 sound system that we got for our shows. We intend on putting this system in each of the locations that we book and I have to say that this is going to rawk. There were a few things that we learned from using this system that night that will help us dial it in like some of the gain settings that we can set on the system and how to position mics around it. The most incredible thing about this system is the dispersion of sound. There’s such clarity and projected length of sound waves that the musicians when placing the unit 5 feet behind them can act as a monitoring system negating the need for a separate monitor system to hear themselves, and be the speakers for the audience to hear the amplified performance. This is obviously suitable to smaller venues and perfect for the cafes that we play in. I can’t say enough about he great this system is.
I talked with Seamus during the show about doing more benefits for their organisation which helps to send medical supplies to Ethiopia. It’s a great program and he’s a great guy. I’ve been wanting to send my tips somewhere because I’d rather my tips for playing go somewhere that it’s really needed, so I will be making a sign for my tip jar very soon and sending this money onword. I’m so fortunate to live where I do and not have a fraction of the problems that many other people in this world face.
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It just dawned on me that this dream switched on me. When it started, I was with Andy and I was supposed to be going somewhere with her but first she had to run an errand first which was to supply a customer/friend with some product. I was following her along this very strange trail. It seems that she lived in a remote place and shared a driveway and walkways with others and she was having me follow her to someone else’s home nearby. I thinking I was floating. The terrain was very beach like with few plants and those that were there survived in arid climates. We finally made it to this huge party where some people were having their hair done and each was wearing a cape. A few people came out and started chatting. They all seemed to be wealthy and really or pretentiously sophisticated. The person that she was to give the product to was a blonde man who was really sophisticated and I felt a little uneasy. Next…
I was playing this game with some kids and we were able to fly. TI don’t reallyl know what the rules ofe the game were… When I came into the dream, I jad just won something very good. I was able to go to different pots and collect whatever I anted out of them The pots were in different places and there were two at the moment that I was fetching items from. They were both up in the air about 20 feet and I had flown up to them and was reaching into the one on the right and gravving these egg shaped translucent, red balls. There were toys and and candy there also but in tis particular pot, I’m was more interested in these than anything else. The on on the left didn’t have these balls so I was picking ou some candies that I liked. One of hte kids was complaining that I was going to be taking everything and I replied that that wasn’t so, I was leaving plenty behind for other kids. I descended down near the ground to get some from another pot but the game wasn’t waiting for me so I hurried at this one as the game continued.
It was a sort of hide and seek cum tag thing and there was a kid that was it and he was pretty furiosly after me. I had to do something to free the other kids that had been caught by him. He pursued me into the sky and was so close to catching me but somehow I kept alluding him. At one point I blew a gust of air at him and managed to keep him just far away enough that he couldn’t tag me as we flew through the air, twisting and covorting. Finally I descended again to get closer to the the area where the game was taking place and hovered around the constructions built out of wood that created the fort-like atmosphere where we played. It seemed like at some point, we were even under water. The kid that was “it” was younger than I and we must have been between 10 – 15.
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I was driving my truck and Kirby was in the apssenger seat. We were getting ready to enter a freeway and I was really wanting to play guitar and really wanted to ask him if he would drive but I didn’t. Next thing I know, we’ve gone to our destination separately and I’ve stopped at a cabin that we own in some remote location. I’ve stopped there to write. There’s a phone on the wall, an old phone like that one my mom has with a long spiral chord. I dial his number and I’m not sure if I ever made contact wih him when I look out the window and I see a car in the driveway. I have one neighbor next too me and I’m wondering if they’re going over to their house but it ends up stopping in front of my place. A group of people get out. They look like college students, male and female. They’re drinking beer. There are about 6 of them. I shout out the window that they need to leave but they’re just ignoring me. One of the walks up to the front door and walks in which freaks me out. Another, a girl in black walks up to the side of the house because she hears me, obviously not realizing that someone is here. I decide to call the cops and dial 0 but no one is picking up. The girl comes into the room somehow and I’m really freaked. I have a pen and mechanical pencil set, both black and silver. I put both in my other hand and am threatening the girl with them saying that I will use them to harm her if she doesn’t leave. She cowers like a crab and is slinking back away from me.
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There was a very large lake with three boats in it and there were two golder retrievers. People on the boats were playing fetch with the retrievers. They would throw things from boat to boat and the retrievers would jump from one boat to another going after the thrown item. They were juming incredibly far and I was worried for them because the surfaces of the boats that they were landing on were wet. Finally, one of the dogs injured its front right paw landing on the ramp of one of the boats.
I stepped to the side of the lake and realized that is was actually an enormous swimming pool. The water had become incredibly still and I was able to see down through the murking green water to the bottom. What I saw were lots of fish, but they weren’t swimming, they were just sitting at the bottom of the pool. I saw killer whales which seemed out of place, and a very long pecostamous looking fish but with many fins and it was attached to the side of the pool and still moving. I got some gaugles and put them on so that I could get a better look at the fish at the bottom. I reached my hand in to stir the water and get them to move but they didn’t. They didn’t seem dead but they didn’t seem alive either.
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