Sunday early afternoon driving through snowy Oregon winterland, listening to Rogue Wave and heading up into the mountains now for our return trip to Oakland after a few days on the road. These were Felsen's last dates of a very busy and productive 2013. We played 2 shows in Portland this weekend.
The original forecast of 0% chance of precipitation for Friday kept getting more and more grim as the week went by. We decided to leave Thursday night for Friday's show. Somewhere on the drive the 20 degree cold really hit me for the first time at a rest stop on our way to spending the night in Redding. I couldn't stop shaking. Being a long-time Bay Area person, I've lost my ability to deal with cold weather temperature despite my lake-effect snowy Indiana upbringing. A troupe of pansies we've been called by a cold weather tough gal. Unusual cold all the locals said. Driving conditions on Friday in the mountains were pretty bleak. What should have taken 6 hours took 10. We lost about three hours in a 20 mile stretch of snowy mountain pass clogged with jack knifed trucks and cars being pulled back onto the interstate and trucks stoping to put on chains.
We got to the Ash Street Saloon for our 9pm set at 8.30. Good times. Needless to say we were pretty frazzled from the drive and also just tired. Typical Griffin, I barely sleep under the best of circumstances, getting ready for a few days on the road meant a few nights of minimal sleep. When we got to the gig on Friday I was tired, stressed out and hungry. I hadn't eaten well in a few days either. Despite all that, we had a great sound check and were pumped to play. The sound system, stage and lights were totally pro. I'm essentially a drummer who plays some guitar and can sing a little bit. I got into this Felsen front guy thing by default, without making any plans. It just kinda happened and has slowly engulfed my lifetime of playing drums. The gear aspect of playing guitar is still a bit of a mystery to me. Hell, half of my gear is borrowed. what can I say? I have a sugar daddy. Amazing how everything works during the sound check and then you come back 20 minutes later to do your set and voila, you got equipment issues that shut down your show. All you gotta do is smile. Remain calm. Pull it together kid. I cobbled together my rig and muddled through the remainders of the set. My rig crapped 2x during the show. We decided to finish with one of the quieter tunes on our new album, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, perfect as my sugar daddy's amp mysteriously wasn't putting out much volume. Despite that, playing that song quietly was a beautiful moment that made us all feel somewhat vindicated for an otherwise clumsy show. Friday we had our gal pal numero uno Dara Ackerman onstage with us singing backing vocals. She killed it. The felsen gender barrier has been officially been broken!
I play drums in Dara's band. She's returning the favor. win win. This weekend was actually a whole crew of east bay musical misfits on the road bringing it to the good people of Portland (you're welcome!) Saturday's show was a house concert or at least that was the original plan. The party givers decided to move it to a venue that was rented out for the show, Bamboo Grove Salon. Really neat place. Dara pretty much organized the whole thing. Also joining in on the fun was our pal, Scarth Locke --I'm also his drummer. Dara sings with Scarth and vice versa. My dear friend and beloved bay area bassist Pete Canton came up to do double duty playing with Scarth and Dara. (Pete played bass on Felsen's Accidental Drowning album). It was nice to be with friends and bring this crew of people i work with together with Felsen. Scarth and then Dara each put in real nice sets. The small crowd gathered in the room listened attentively. Felsen eased into our set. Rock and Roll's Not Dead, All you Gotta Do is Smile. The energy and enthusiasm were starting to ramp up. people were starting to dance during Tokyo Electric, which was sounding really great and groovy at both shows this weekend, thankyouverymuch. The show was real easy from there on out. I gave a special shout out to my niece, a recent portland arrival, who at about 3 AM on only her 3rd day in town, managed to successfully evacuate her entire apartment building which was soon to be engulfed in smoke and flames. May she never have to pay for another beer as long as she lives in Portland! We focused mainly on the new songs: Gunfighting, Lorazepam and absolutely crushed it with Better Thoughts. We had a posse of goofy solid gold dancers by the side of the stage. The extended outro "Better Thoughts will keep you happy and alive" became a mantra that the whole room got into. that's powerful juju to ward off evil spirits and keep out the bitter cold. We finished the night off with Gimme Shelter For the Devil. Which for me, might have been the musical high point of the whole road trip. It was really deep and spiritual and cathartic to sing that song. I'm still not exactly sure what it's about. fear of death...fear of life..growing old...trying to just keep your shit together...loving your enemies. I guess all of those things. Who isn't going through something complex and crazy right now? needless to say it felt really good to sing that one. I had Scarth up on stage too singing the outro. The whole room sang along. thank you portland. what a fun really beautiful freezing cold weekend to warm up the collective heart of this troupe of pansies.
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