Felsen played on Thursday night at the Red Devil Lounge in SF. We performed at a monthly variety show called W*A*S*H* curated by local musician Kevin Seal. Each month’s show has a musical theme, this month’s was Talking Heads. Multiple bands performed a tune or two by Talking Heads as well as a few of their own songs. There was also burlesque dancing to TH. I’m still a little freaked out/oddly aroused by the knife-wielding, tassel clad vixen’s scary/sexy performance of “Psycho Killer”. Thank you ma’am. Felsen performed as a trio as Dylan was unable to join us. It’s a different sound and vibe for sure. My guitar playing is pretty meat and potatoes so when it’s trio time, the sound is more punk rock and less artsy spacey sound effect-y. Our 30 mins of music was really fun and we rocked extra hard.
We played “Heaven” by TH and we brought up a few friends to join us: Dara Ackerman on backing vocals and Michael “Pie Face” Fiorentino on guitar. When Kevin asked me to get Felsen on the show and told me it was Talking Heads night, I knew right then that I wanted to sing “Heaven”, a song I’ve loved since I first saw “Stop Making Sense” in it’s initial cinematic release (yeah, I’m that old) with my cousin Ann at the Fine Arts Cinema on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It’s a really beautiful idea for a song which compares Heaven to a bar where everyone goes, all your friends are there, your fav band is on stage playing your favorite song....When I was learning the song and digging into the meaning of the lyrics, I knew it would have a special meaning for me on stage at the Red Devil Lounge which is sadly closing at the end of this year. This one is real sad for me as I’ve performed on that stage with easily 30 bands since 1999. A partial list: Jesse Denatale, PC Munoz and the Amen Corner, Rich McCulley, Dave Armanini, Paul Manousos and the East Bay Wrecking Crew, Hey Hey Mama, Dog Man Joe, Luce, The Delta Wires, Brad Brooks, Victor Jon and Greg (of Camper Van Beethoven), One Velvet Down, Dry County, Viv, Felsen...This is a special place to me. When I would get a new band together, we’d call RDL and they’d give us a gig--including Felsen. About 6 years ago when I was very sick with cancer, Pie Face organized a benefit concert for me, Coconut Bangers Ball. The good people at RDL were gracious enough to host that event, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. That night 14K was raised to help offset medical expenses and keep me and my little family afloat (we pretty much lost all of our money during my long illness). So many friends came out for that show and that really lifted my spirits. We finished the night with a really incredible version of “Good Vibrations”. We had about 15 people on stage, possibly still being the highlight of my humble musical career. A few years later when my health was SLOWLY improving, I organized a benefit for ongoing cancer research done by my doctors at UCSF. Again I turned to RDL and they obliged. I was also a performer at another cancer research benefit hosted at RDL, Cancer is My Bitch. That night was also the debut of me and Pie Face’s new Zep Tribute band, Hey Hey Mama. What a fun night that was! The Owner Jay Siegan is also the manager of a slew of high-end cover bands. He uses RDL on weekends to showcase these bands bringing in lots of potential wedding clients and lavish corporate parties. The place is pretty much always packed on weekends. Jay once posted online that it’s these cover band shows that allows him to gamble on booking local original rock bands. Gamble he did with the many local original rock bands I’ve brought to him.
good vibrations.
I’ve known Pie Face since 2002. To be precise, I met him (as well as bass player/vocalist Eric Semo) on Sept 13, 2002 at Albuquerque Airport (that’s ABQ for you frequent flyers). I’d flown out there to do a gig with Viv, a new band put together by Matt Ostrander, whom I’d then known for about 3 years. Viv was starting to really take off and they needed a sub for one gig in Albuquerque, NM, the last stop on yet another one of their non stop tours. At that time, Viv was hosting a weekly Monday night indie music, film and art showcase, called Viv and a Movie at, you guessed it, RDL. This went on for about 2 years. Classic Viv disfunction/disorganization, I had this ABQ gig on my calendar for a few weeks, Ostrander promised to send me a CD and I promised to learn the tunes and show up prepared to do the gig with no rehearsal, I waited and waited for that CD to arrive, but no luck. I’m a prepare-aholic and I wanted to do a good job. Where’s that CD Matt? Finally the CD arrived the night before the gig. I got in late at night and just had time to listen. I instantly loved the CD. Have you ever had a crush on a band? I sure did. I couldn’t sleep that night as the songs just kept swirling around in my brain. Maybe this was the band I’d been waiting and searching for all these years. I was hooked. How long is a non stop flight between OAK and ABQ? Not long, right? Long enough to transcribe a whole album’s drum parts? I furiously scribbled and erased and scribbled and rewound and fast forwarded and ate the peanuts and drank my obligatory apple juice and scribbled some more until those big wheels touched down. The people on the plane must have thought I was nuts. Team Viv picked me up at baggage claim and took me to lunch. I immediately felt right at home with these guys. I took a nap under a tree on the lawn at UNM where we would later perform outside on a little stage in the middle of a field to about 30 college kids. We stayed at a motel by the airport. We drank beers and played cards. The glamorous world of touring. Check in hand, I got up at O dark 30 to catch a flight back to OAK and that was it. I didn’t see or hear from those guys for another couple of years. Flash forward now to spring of 2004 and Viv was just on the cusp of blowing up. They had a new album coming out and just had a shake up in their band’s lineup. They had a new drummer, former Counting Crow, Steve Bowman. Bowman had a knack of swooping in on another drummer’s gig at precisely the moment when it was clear that that band’s star was on the rise (he usurped his drum student’s gig--Classy!) I had played a few times at RDL for Viv and a Movie with my band Du Jour, Rich McCulley Band, whom I had been touring with since January 2003. In 16 months we did 180 gigs and put 70,000 miles on his van. I co-wrote maybe 20 tunes with Rich and we were working on a new album. I was studying with a great drum teacher, Alan Hall and I was practicing and gigging and teaching non stop, probably doing about 200 gigs a year at that time. I was starting to produce other people’s music. I’d grown up a lot as a musician. My stock value as a bay area drummer was on the rise. I met Bowman at Viv and a Movie one of those nights playing with Rich but didn’t get to hear him play. I inquired about drum lessons. I went out to his place in Walnut Creek for a lesson and was totally knocked out. Finally I got to hear him with Viv a few weeks later at, you guessed it, RDL. I remember walking up Clay street and hearing Bowman absolutely crushing it. I went in and was totally and completely knocked out by Steve’s playing. This was how rock drumming should be: powerful, propulsive, exciting, simple and song oriented. He didn’t overplay. He didn’t underplay. Damn. Viv now was a world class band. They had Danny Eisenberg (google him) on keyboards and the giant Hammond B3. These guys were now days away from becoming huge, huge stars and were, IMHO, way better than the other really big SF bands at the time: Train, Counting Crows, 3rd Eye Blind...They were on par with Radiohead, Weezer, Blur, Wilco... Their new songs were deep, profound, really honest...I couldn’t think straight. That night changed everything for me. Yup. That year I continued to tour heavily with Rich and then got sucked into LA based band the Bloody Lovelies. I was in the middle of a 5 week east coast tour with the Lovelies when I heard from Bowman that he was quitting Viv. He told me to go for it. I called Matt and we made plans to get together once I got home from my tour. I ended up doing a 5 and half week east coast tour with Viv and stayed with them until the band imploded in the fall of 2005-winter 2006. I loved the band. This was the band I had been looking for. We could do anything. Fearless ensemble. We were working on a new album, meanwhile wives got pregnant and there was no money despite how great the band was and the multiple record contract offers didn’t pan out and the level of stress and friction between Pie and Matt and Eric just got the best of them and it was just too impossible to keep it together after 6 years of major effort and crushing credit card debt accrued, and lots of people wanted their money and…oh and some lawsuits were filed at them...the list is long. There was some major carnage at Viv inc. Blood on the Tracks. To me, Viv was like the fish that got away. That’s one of those great mysteries of my life why that one didn’t blow up huge and take it’s place with all the greats. This all came flooding back to me yesterday morning hanging out at Felsen’s West Oakland HQ thinking about the previous night’s gig at RDL, playing music with Felsen and hanging out with my dear old friend Pie. I had a few minutes to kill waiting for a rehearsal and I listened to some Viv for the first time in a long, long while. I got kinda verklempt.
Dear Jay and all at RDL: Thank you for all the wonderful gigs. Thank you from all of us musicians. Thank you for allowing us to hone our craft and advance the artform. Thank you for hosting countless benefit concerts. Thank you for great sound and lighting. Thank you for all the many great times I’ve had hanging out backstage with my friends. Thank you for the nights that sucked when the draw was really low and you allowed us to try again another time. I am proud to say that as of today, Rock and Roll’s Not Dead. Thank you for doing your part. I will continue to do mine.
Sincerely,
Andrew Griffin & all at team Felsen.
