Welcome to the Sea of Echoes

Went to Bottom of the Hill tonight to catch Pebble Theory and was lucky to see Cast of Thousands, Company Car and Vin Rouge to boot.

All of the bands were really tight, though Pebble Theory had the cleanest sound.  The have this one number that starts with the ending lick from “Stairway to Heaven” and then goes off in a different direction totally.  It borrows just enough to make you think you’ve heard the song, but not enough to be obvious.  The girls liked their sound a lot and the guys in the band are pretty nice.  Nick said they’ve been playing together for four years - they’ve got two EPs released and they are pretty solid.

Vin Rouge had the best stage act and the most driving danceable music and people seemed to get into their stuff the most.  It sort of seemed like their trick was pretty basic tribal beats driven relentlessly.  The lights dont hurt either.  We really need to figure out what makes these songs tick.  Interestingly they replaced the click bass with a real bass player.  Most of their songs don’t have too much fancy bass stuff.  Just a straight-ahead driving beat.

Listening to the way these bands sounded and how strong their music was I’m thinking we have a *long* way to go before we get anywhere near headlining Bottom of the Hill.

Great venue.

Today Thiago and I did the scene from Life is a Dream.  We had already done it before reading from the text, and today we did it partially off book, but not quite.  We were both into it a lot, and I think that the audience could see it, especially we were pretty good with the expression of restrained anger.

During rehearsal, Thiago made a good suggestion around a certain line that I should change my presentation from being angry to being kind of hurt.  Initially I resisted his suggestion, but on further thought I saw the opportunity to express a different more complex set of emotions and I tried it out.  I’m not quite where I want to be with that line because it’s such a quick change of feeling, but I think I’ll get there.

One thing I want to do more is try to play with space more.  Thiago is a powerful person and he approaches the scene with the idea the that father/king is the dominant person in the scene.  This shows in his body language because he is always approaching and getting into my space to show his dominance.  The only thing about this is that it doesn’t give me any room to play with the distance between us for dramatic effect - in a way this dramatic choice shrinks the stage.

I guess my choice at this point is to either convince Thiago to lay back a little bit, or to take the comfort zone that he’s created and push it even more. 

Today we acted out a scene from “Life is a Dream” by Pedro Calderon de la Barca.  I played Segismundo, the maniacal son of King Basilo.  Opposite me is Thiago - who is really good as an actor. 

We ran the scene once reading dialogue, once acting out drama silently, and once summarizing the scene.  The non-verbal part was the hardest because this scene doesnt really have much action but is a lot of dramatic speeches.  It will be tricky to do this without making it seem melodramatic.

Yesterday was probably the big event of the year.  We were able to weasel our way onto the list of bands for bay to breakers and we were given a choice spot near the starting line of the race at moscone center.  We had a lot of things planned for the show and the logistics for getting things set up were quite daunting.  John and I spent a couple hours Saturday tearing down his PA and loading into the van, and then we got up at 3:30am Sunday to drive to SF to set up.  It took about two hours to unload everything and get sound checked.

The race staff at Labrynth were great and gave us the green light to go a little ‘Kamikaze’ in our setup decisions, so we took some stairs and made them into a little stage.  Someone from the center was a little upset with us, but we were gone before they were even officially open, so I don’t think it was a big deal.

We ran through the set twice as a literal sea of people streamed by.  People were in all kinds of crazy costumes.  It was just awesome being out there in the city with all of the people and the sun.  :-)  Even though there were a fair amount of technical glitches, people were definitely in a great mood and appreciated us being there.  It was so fun playing for a crowd that size.  I totally want to do that again…

Things to do differently:

• The drummer should not double as the sound guy - John at one point almost had a meltdown and if John’s friend Chris hadn’t come along, we would have totally freaked out.
• We need to plan the stage layout ahead of time if possible and make sure that we have enough power cords and extensions for outdoor monitors.
• I spent a lot of effort on signage trying to get people directed to our web site, but it was pretty ineffective.  I think so far we’ve only had about five hits from the tens of thousands of people who passed by.  Maybe we were too far away, or maybe people just had too much going on to pay attention to our signs.
• The first three songs for me were a total fingermashfest since I didn’t bring enough warm clothes and had no circulation in my fingers.  I guess I should practice more with a pick or bring a sweater next time.
• My wireless setup didn’t really work, which was a big disappointment for me since I couldn’t wander out into the crowd at all and missed out on that interaction.   I still need to figure out what went wrong there.
• People generally wont get out of bed at 6am to check out a gig, and not many people came by.  I’m starting to think that the way to
• We need a mailing list or some way of contacting fans after the show.
• Need another instrumental number handy in case Rich needs a break from singing.
• For me I wish I had saved a couple hours the week before to run through the songs more.  Wishes Curse is still rough for me in the intro.  Man made and Kris’s song are ones I still haven’t practiced much with the band and don’t have the changes down.
• Tuning might have been an issue - hard to tell, but I think we were out of tune in some spots.  Also I think my setup was clipping when I turned the volume up since it sounded a little distorted and broken up standing in front of the amp.

Things I liked:

• The generator worked great even though it wasn’t the super quiet model.
• Pretty much every decision to spend money was worth it.  I’m still thinking that an extra $100 on a sound guy might have been a good idea.
• The van was expensive, but definitely a good value.  It was just the right size for all of the gear and it’s a lot cheaper than what I’d be paying if I had bought an SUV.
• I’m getting more comfortable with crowd interaction and finding my stage voice.  The high point of the show in terms of crowd participation generally was when we would say things like ‘Hello San Francisco’ and talk the audience up.  It’s also good to be out in front and away from my fx pedals and mics so I can move more.

I really like playing outside for people who are just cruising by.  We should try to figure out some other opportunities for this.

This weekend we had two daytime shows back to back and it was totally awesome playing outside in the sun.

The first show was Saturday afternoon for the Organization of Special Needs families.  They had set up a family festival in a park near the Cupertino Civic Center with lots of bouncy houses, food and vendor booths.  There was a pretty big crowd there consisting mostly of families with small children.

The show started with the Number Fox who played a nice set.  They had a mellow, but cool weezer like sound.  Although the sound system was pretty simple (a couple of drum mics, miked amps, two 400-watt PAs), the sound was surpisingly balanced and clear.  Even though our sound guy didn’t do this for a living, it turns out he did a really good job.

Our set wen’t fairly well and the crowd was fairly supportive.  There seems to be a critical mass in terms of applause - less than 50 people and there isn’t much applause at all, but once 10-20 people start clapping other people pretty much join in.  Stand out songs in our set included Fall, and surprisingly Rich’s new song Guilt got a lot of applause even though it’s still not very tight. 

Things to keep in mind in the future: it’s hard to read digital displays in sunlight, so there were some problems getting tuned.  Rich’s vocal fx unit is still causing feedback problems which people are complaining about.  Sound check and setup took us 30 minutes, and we need to get that time down to 15min.  Also I forgot to push record on the video player and to ask someone to take pictures with my camera.

The sound quality was so much better than JohnnyV’s and the show had a much better vibe and I really liked the fact that we weren’t playing in a place where we needed to draw a quota of people who were going to spend XX on drinks.  It’s great playing outside during the daytime - we definitely should try to get more gigs like this. 

:-) Gigs like this are a lot of fun :-) 

During drama class this week we were working on our scenes, and Lili and I progressively got better at breaking down and understanding the scene from Amadeus.  It’s really interesting how the exercise of breaking down each scene into mini-scenes with changing motivation applies to daily life.  People’s goals and motivations change so quickly from moment to moment and now when I’m in a room with people I just watch who listens to who and why.

One interesting thing happened during warmup though.  Florentina asked us to imagine that we were in our childhood bedroom lying in bed, and I became quite sleepy in real life.  It’s weird how imagining that you are tensed or relaxed can produce a similar physical state.  Maybe this is the way for me to get to sleep at night.

Last friday we had another opener at Rooster’s Roadhouse in Alameda.  It was kind of a last minute gig and since I don’t know anyone up that way I didn’t bother to promote the show at all.  Rich was optimistic that he’d get 10 people or so there, but there were three other bands playing so it looked like it would a chance to play in front of some other folks.

When we got there I was blow away by the place - big stage, generous dance floor right by the bar.  The only problem was that the only folks there for the opener were the guys in the other bands and a handful of regulars.  I could tell that the bartender was annoyed at the low turnout.  Shortly before we got on stage a couple of Rich’s friends showed up, including Jules with a new haircut.

The sound system was great and the sound guy, Bob, was a real pro.  He helped us load our gear up and sound checked us carefully.  I think I annoyed him a little when I wasn’t eating my mic during the vocal check.  One thing I need to keep in mind is to have a little mini song prepped so I can have something more interesting to sing than check 1-2-3.  Maybe that Kathie Ryan tune.

Once again sound check went too long (we basically played All That Matters all the way through) and there was some division between the band about how loud guitars should be.  Vocal FX units were causing some feedback.

The set got off to an ok start with I’ll take you, but when we hit Wishes Curse I was confused from rehearsal about how we were starting the song and missed the beginning.  The break on Sunset also wasn’t well rehearsed enough so I fat fingered a note there.  Basically it was a night full of frustrating stupid mistakes.  We stumbed our way through Stay, and then got the 8 minute warning.  Rich wanted to do Guilt, which would have made a pretty bad closer at 6 minutes.  We finally decided to do The Scar and Drunk as the closer.

The band after us was “The melting point” from berkley, a bunch of college guys, but in comparison they were pros.  They were playing awesomely with no sound check within seconds of walking on stage, and their set rocked.  Special props go out to their bass player and vocalist who really shined and basically showed us what we should have been doing.   I definitely will see them again if I get the chance.

Things that worked: awesome sound guys, great venue, great moral support from the other bands.

Things that need to be fixed: turnout, vocal fx feedback, crappy harmony vocals from me, missing parts because of not practicing the set as we plan to perform it, taking too long between songs.

A rough night indeed, but a learning experience.  Now we’re all older and wiser.

Last week we promoted pretty well and got about 20 people to show up at Johnny V’s in San Jose for Cuatro de Mayo.  I think I personally drew about 10 people, John had a couple more and Kris had five or so.  Things looked pretty good going into the show except that the streets were lined with cops getting ready for violence on Cinco de Mayo.  I guess I never realized how racially charged things were around here, maybe it’s getting worse over time.

The show was awkward from the beginning because Rich was having trouble with a cold and wanted to modify some songs before we started our set.  The planned meeting before the set never took place and instead turned into a prolonged sound check which distracted our audience.  Once things got rolling, I had a really hard time looking out into the room because almost no one was smiling or having a good time.  The applause between songs was mild at best and we had long pauses between songs that sort of killed our momentum.

A couple things worked out:  the sound guy, Eagle, was very supportive of our needs and despite the small space the place was comfortable and the drums weren’t overly loud.  People liked Kris’s new song even though we did it unrehearsed and without vocals.

Some things stand out that need to be improved.  As a band we need to move quickly from one song to the next.  Negative comments about the performance need to be squelched and in fact everyone needs to do a better job of engaging the audience.  Early on Friday nights people are still fried from being at work all day and they need to be given a reason to have a good time.  Next time I need to work harder to give people a reason to feel good about our music and our performance instead of waiting to feel the positive vibe from them.  It’s tricky to summon that vibe, since I don’t have big stores of it, but I think that’s really what was missing the most on friday.

A lot of these things boil down to stagecraft and will get better over time…

Last saturday I went on a bike ride on the Saratoga Gap trail.  It was a pretty easy ride until we got on a very narrow and steep section leading to tabletop mountain.  It turns out that this section of the trail was close to bikes, so we decided to head back before losing too much altitude.

About a half mile from the exit my front wheel slipped over the embankment and I clamped down hard on my brakes to avoid careening down the hillside.  As my bike tipped over to one side I though to myself “this is going to hurt”, but was pleasantly surprised when my fall was broken by a nice green bush with generous leaves.

 When I stood up and dusted myself off, I realized that my savior was a poison oak bush!  I raced home and put tecnu all over my arms and legs and hoped for the best.

Now it’s been a few days and the spots I got with the technu have had mild outbreaks.  I missed a big spot on my back though and that now itches like crazy.  I don’t think I’ve ever had it this bad and I can even feel my lymph nodes in the surrounding area surrounded by what must be dead tissue of some kind.

 Ick!