Updates from the Road #'s 6-8 September 2013 US Tour

Update #6.  We kinda hit the wall yesterday from exhaustion in Sioux City, IA.  This was our second time performing at the Chesterfield.  We played there on our summer 2012 tour.  Really great venue.  Pro sound, lights the whole shabang.  The gig was sparsely attended.  We gave it all we had and reminded ourselves it's one fan at a time.  We had one hardcore fan who drove a couple of hours from Omaha to see us for the first time.  How cool is that?  22 year old college kid:  proof positive that felsen's music isn't entirely for the moms and dads of America.  Don't get me wrong, I love the mom and dads, seriously I do and i'm extremely grateful, but y'all are hard to get out to a gig on a weeknight.  It would make these Tues night gigs a little easier say if we had a few more friendlies in the room.  One thing that I love about Felsen is that for the most part the low attendance gigs don't flap our feathers.  I think we leave the stage generally feeling like we delivered.  We held up our end of the bargain.  And that's real satisfying.  For the handful of music nerds there last night, they got a great show.  Oddly we sold a gang of merch for such small numbers.  (I'm a former used car salesman.) I keep pestering our audiences and reminding them that are all potential noble patrons of the arts helping us keep this thing alive a little longer.  Saving rock and roll is serious business--some fool's got to try and do it and I'm your sacrificial lamb.  In the immortal words of Geroge W. Bush "You're either with us or against us!"  America, form a line at the merch table, Arthur is hungry for Huevos Rancheros and we've got a long way to drive.  

Update #7.  Last night's show in Columbia, MO was an epic showdown at the OK Computer corral.  Felsen prevailed.  We played at the Bridge, a really, beautiful and unique venue in the downtown area. The Bridge is a music school offering private lessons and they also have a totally pro small music venue/performance space.  Wes and Kara, the proprietors, are rock and roll true believers, obviously.  They're educating the kids in their community, helping keep rock and roll alive a little longer.  Our backstage area was right next to a practice room where a 10 year old rocker was fine tuning the drum parts to Roxanne and Come Together.  A place like this keeps a bunch of local musicians employed , allowing them in turn to hone their art and make a decent wage.  Dylan, Art and I are all music instructors; we felt a personal kinship to Wes and Kara. We'd probably be employees if we lived in Columbia.  We thanked them from the stage for serving their community, educating the kids, and offering employment to local musicians.  Keep it weird. Keep it local.  Stick it to the man. 

There was a great band that went on right before us, Mathien.  Also on a 17 day tour, hailing from Chicago.   It was nice to cross paths with another of our ilk.  They were kinda pop R&B-ish, Maroon 5/Bruno Mars meets Cameo.   Really dialed in, great players and put on a real polished, tight show. Gotta admit, we were a little intimidated back stage, not sure how to follow them.   Felsen has been through a lot in the past week alone, not to mention the previous 4 years.  We're always up for a challenge. Right now we're playing at our peak and putting out a ton of energy with each show.  The gigs are becoming like athletic events.  Really physical.  The tunes are becoming really powerful and deep.  There was a decent small crowd there last night who obliged us and came right to the foot of the stage and stayed there til the end.  They sang along with the chorus of Gunfighting, which was really powerful and cathartic. 

We stayed well past last call, hanging out with the staff and the other band.  The owners bought us many rounds of drinks.  Shenanigans ensued. Kara told me, we're her new favorite band.  HIgh praise.  Swoon. We took a whole crew of people out to the van at load out time and finished off our signature low grade corn liquor in the alley behind the club.  We're not good people. Felsen's gonna save you some moonshine. Time to restock. 

Update #8.  "I hate you, daddy hates you, and the horsies hate you."  The joys of balancing home life and touring.  Oh look we got a bounced check.  My student loan is late and i forgot to pay my studio rent.  And the horsies hate Cristian's wife.  My kid got hit in the face with the soccer ball 2X yesterday. "Mommy i want sushi."  That's my boy. Nothing makes a 6 year old bay area kid feel better about getting hit in the face than some really good Unagi.   He's a smart little guy.  He came up with a term to describe what daddy does on stage:  Irritain.  (one part irritate, one part entertain.)  Yup, that's me in a nutshell.  He knows me best and I miss him so much right now.  

We played last night in St. Paul, MN.  Fun gig.  This was the 2nd time we've played at Wild Tymes.  We were joined by a few local Twin City bands:  The Jeffries, Shakin Babies and Trainwreck. Nice gig.  Good crowd.  Sold a goodly bit of merch. The show was presented by DEMO which is an organization started by Steve Mclellan, a local MNPLS booker/promoter type.  Clearly a true believer.  According to his calculations, he has presented over 9000 bands in the Twin Cities over the past 30 years.  Wow.  What an institution!  He loves Felsen.  Knowing this, we felt a special obligation to throw down.  I gave a special shout out to some of the greats from MNPLS: The Replacements, Husker Du, Trip Shakespeare, Mint Condition, Prince, The Time, The Jayhawks...I guess these are all bands that we (a bunch of ancient rock and roll dinosaurs) grew up with.  Not sure if the kids in the audience knew any of these bands. There were some blank stares.  One Indie/Punk rock girl, flipped me off while i was giving my shout out. Indie?  Do you not know the Replacements?  Shame on you!  They're from your home town and they CHANGED MY LIFE!  According to Steve (the promoter), times are tough in the MNPLS music scene.  He's having a harder and harder time getting people out to the gigs, which makes me sad.  I guess I have this fantasy of what it must have been like to live in a city where there were soooo many amazing bands.   In my head, it's like rock and roll mecca.  Or it was.  Things change.  Still makes me sad though.  One of my old bandmates, a native Minnesotan, was there last night.  Haven't hung out with him since Copenhagen in 2005.  He introduced me to Trip Shakespeare a long, long time ago.  We became like the cult of Trip Shakespeare way back.  I saw them a bunch of times in Chicago back in the day.  Looking out at my old pal last night, thinking about Trip Shakespeare, i realized that about 75% of my playbook came from those guys--at least the onstage, crowd interaction irritainment.  Do your homework kids. Gotta get in to get out.   Onwards to Chicago, Muddy Waters adopted hometown.  

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updates from the road #'s 1-5. September 2013 US Tour.

update 1. friday afternoon picked up and packed rental van for the first time--always stressful.  Why is your back pack so huge? What do you got in there?  Extra shoes? dude you're the Imelda Marcos of indie rock.  we decided to just stuff it all in the van, crammed like 4 giant sardines driving frantically across California I 80 to  Gardenrville, NV (reno/tahoe area).  arrived at venue 30 mins late, informed that there was no opening band, people were sitting there waiting for us.  loaded in, sound checked in front of the audience.  kitchen was closed, played 2 set gig on very empty stomaches.  A Lovely fan brought us 2 dozen homemade cupcakes (god bless our fans--you know who you are).  top notch sound man took mercy on us and bought us a pizza for the set break.  small, but very appreciative audience.  every single person bought merch.   one dude paid in nickels and dimes.  band bank account officially no longer overdrawn--thank you!  we ended the gig busking in the audience--with the whole crowd gathered around us in front of the stage.  Dylan on banjo, AG armed with the thankfully not jettisoned acoustic guitar, Art and Cris shaking various tambourines etc..packed the van after the gig with amazing focused team effort, utilizing every nook and cranny.  proud of ourselves that we worked it out like adults.  ate more cupcakes, drank moonshine.  drove 90 minutes to motel.  2.15 am woke up very sleepy disoriented motel clerk.  stuffed 4 guys and 6 guitars into one room for 5 hours sleep.  breakfast and then drove until stopping for class C fireworks and iced lattes and now currently driving through Nevada moonscape eating beef jerky, listening to air supply, bad brains, bob mould, neutral milk hotel, the Kinks and the hobbit soundtrack. mentally preparing for our assault on salt lake city.  

Update 2.  really fun gig last night in SLC at Burt's Tiki Lounge.  (Touring bands take note: killer rock and roll venue.)  We were 3rd of 4 bands.  all the other bands were really great and totally original: Andy Lynner, Swinging Lights and The Watches--all local SLC bands.  What a pleasure.  The crowd obliged us and came forward when asked, sang along and then bought a bunch of merch.  So far merch sales have been really good, thank god.  Everybody seems to really dig the bastardized Pan Am logo Tshirt. We stayed with old friends of the band.  Much liquor was consumed in the kitchen of our very lovely hostess unto the wee hours of the morning.  AG slept in an old airstream trailer in the driveway, rain shower drumming on the trailer's roof. woke up early sunday.  Cristian travels with his own French press, coffee grinder and beans.  so good.  drove about 9 hours to Denver.  Really amazing drive across Utah, Wyoming and Colorado passing through tremendous thunder and lightning.  Looking forward to the show tonight at Quixote's True Blue for lots of old friends and some newly minted Felsen fans. 

Update 3.  Greeting's from the van, driving across the vast open fields of Kansas. We just saw our buddy Wheat Jesus again on a truck stop billboard.   We've seen him now 2 years in a row. What would wheat jesus do?   Thinking now about the fun gig last night at Quixote's True Blue--the official home of Denver's Grateful Dead Hippie Jam Band Scene. Not being much of a jam band, we didn't know what to expect from this one.  It was a really cool venue though with great sound, nice staff.  There were two stages.  Felsen on the smaller of the two, Shakedown Street, a Grateful Dead cover band, on the other, larger stage.  The powers that be gave us about 2 hours for our set.  We've got so much material now that it's a bummer to only get the usual 40-45 minutes typically allotted.   We eased into the first set, not too raucous at first, saving the louder more dramatic stuff for later in the evening.  Some old friends were in the audience, always nice to have a few friendlies there for support.  More people started to wander in during the set.  volume and intensity creeping upwards.  Art's wife flew out from SF and brought in a posse of friends.  people were now on their feet, fists were pumping.  AG climbing from the stage on top of the bar bringing rock and roll to the people.  In the second set we played with a lot of intensity and volume. people seemed to want it.  locals were hanging out and getting into the felsen spirit.  Rock and Roll's not Dead, All You Gotta do is Smile, I Don't Know how to Talk Anymore, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, Tokyo Electric Power, BFF OMG.  People were really into it and amped up!  We finished with the slam dunk of  Don't Turn Your Back on Me Today.  People were screaming for an encore for about 3 minutes.  The powers that be shut us down right on schedule, just in time to get another hippie jam band to take the stage to play covers of Joe Cocker, James Taylor and Phish. We sold a bunch of the new shirts and  CDs--thank you noble patrons of the arts for helping keep the good ship rock afloat to sail another day.  Much sleep was had by the band (thank you Lorazepam), a great breakfast at our fav Denver breakfast spot, Snooze. Making a plan for a return to the mountains next spring for an extended tour in Colorado.  Now driving frantically to get to Wichita.  We'll probably arrive around 9.30 to make our 10.30 set time at Kirby's Beer Store--great tiny venue we played last summer.  You like Mickey's Big Mouth Beer?   Wheat Jesus is watching over us.  So is Vishnu.  

Update #4.  Our van has just been thoroughly Fabreezed.  "What did you do with YOUR life?"    "I invented Fabreeze."  "Table for two?  OK, that'll be a 45 minute wait. Oh, what, you invented Fabreeze?  Well right this way sir."  We're all starting to really feel it now.  We've been drinking too much every night and not sleeping enough. We've slept on the floor a few times each now.  it's catching up.  Being a west coast touring band is tough as everything is so spread out.  It's a totally different game for Northeast bands where everything is so close.  So far getting east has been 8-9 hour drives per day and then you play your set and THEN you want to, or feel you need to, or deserve to drink to just blow off some steam.  I love my bandmates, seriously I do, but I'm a loner primarily and this van is starting to become a cage.  Careful what you wish for kids.  Keep practicing your instruments and showing up on Saturday mornings for your weekly drum lesson and you too will someday get to drive around crammed into a rented minivan with 3 other dudes soaking in Fabreeze. Many are called, most are smart enough to quickly hang up on that desperate late night prank caller.  I took the phone call (remember this was before caller ID).  I drank the Kool Aid. I got hooked and now i'm in the van and I just sprayed Fabreeze in my shoes and I'm contemplating spraying some in my mouth.   Anyhoo... wichita. yeah that was...well a monday night in wichita.  we played the smallest venue in the history of smallest venues to an audience of maybe 8 people.  Highlights:  well I'm stretching here but...ahh... I stood on the bar (right next to the ceiling air conditioning vent)?  We played 2 shorter sets and actually sounded really good.  (Monday night is rehearsal night anyway right?) The owner was there and watched every note, tipped heavily and bought lots of merch.  He's a true believer.  He kept telling us about all the great up and coming bands that played at Kirbys over the years:  Superchunk and Yo La Tengo to name just a few. I think he was trying to console us for the lack of audience and let us know that we're right there with those bands.  There's only one BIG difference: there's a lot fewer crumbs to fight over now in the indie rock biz than there were in the 90's when those now legendary bands were up and comers.  Oh well it was fun and crazy and we got to drink from Mickey's Big Mouth.  Onwards and upwards to Fayetteville Arkansas.  I've never been to Arkansas; for me it's a pilgrimage to Levon Helm's home state. Pilgrims crawl on their knees in Mexico to venerate the saints and the Virgin of Guadalupe.  God bless you Levon, today I'm crawling on my knees.  Rock and Roll's not dead. Thank you Fabreeze. That is all.  

Update #5.  Obviously I've got a lot of time on my hands driving around in the van.  There's been a lot of really long drives on this tour so far.  Yesterday was the first day in about 4 days when we had enough time to eat a second meal.  Yeah, you read that right.  Not three meals, a bunch of these days have been just one meal.  There's no time.  We snack.  I just haven't been eating much in general and not sleeping much either and drinking too much.  Not today.  We need to start behaving so we can make it through this marathon.  

Yesterday was a pretty fun day in Fayetteville, AR.  It's a really neat town.  We played an instore performance at Sound Warehouse. Well, actually an outstore performance as we played on the sidewalk in front of the shop.  When we first walked into the store they were playing our CD.  That felt cool.  All You Gotta Do is Smile.  Sound Warehouse is a really cool store.  You really feel the deep love these guys have for rock and roll music.  God bless them.  Us true believers stick together.  We can sense each other.  We're like the last of the dinosaurs still holding on after the big meteor hit.  It was really fun playing on the street.  The boss's 9 year old daughter was standing right up front for the whole show and she's now our newest, biggest #1 fan in all of Arkansas.  We're starting to take ownership of some of the new tunes:  Tokyo Electric Power, Gunfighting at Dawn and Lorazepam are sounding really good.  We're past the stage where you're thinking about the notes, the chords, the lyrics and just riding the wave where it takes you.  All three of those tunes I've had some real doubts about.  Not sure if they were in fact good live tunes, but they're proving themselves as really solid and compelling live.  Gunfighting can get really deep and angry.  It's about Katrina and the great flood and all those people stranded on the bridge. Shame on us for failing those people. I'm still pissed and it's an easy one to play aggressively. There's a real easy sing along part of the chorus that can get kinda cathartic for people. It's an outlet.  I'd like to think it feels good for the audience to sing that.  Maybe they're still pissed too.  We've really hit our stride musically.  i love that about being on tour.  Obviously playing as much as we have in the past week, but also the collective hangout time has a unifying effect on a band.  Ideally.  You gotta just keep it cool, get along, look out for each other but give each other space, have fun, get stupid but not too stupid and get safely from point A to point B. (That's also good advice for newly weds.)

After the afternoon show, we had time for dinner, checked into our hotel and chilled out a bit.  The tired factor is really starting to kick in.  We played last night at a big club in Fayetteville on a tues night.  Out of town band, first time in town, with no local bands as support. What's up with that you talent buyers? 3x so far on this tour--Do your jobs!!!.  The attendance was pretty grim.  We self medicated pretty heavily on the set break.  Southern hospitality!  The second set was really fun though.  We successfully straddled that fine line between really loose and really tight.  That's rock and roll in a nutshell kids. Mick and Keith, Paul Westerberg and the ghost of Jay Bennet would be proud.  They'd tell us we need a better booking agent though.  We put the handful of people in the audience on the stage with us for about the last 30 minutes of the show.  It felt really great having that extra energy right there with us.  We rocked really hard. It was special.  Playing Ghost of the American Experience in the deep south (tune about Oscar Grant) was pretty interesting.   Onwards to Sioux City.  We'll be driving through Arkansas, Missiouri, Kansas and Iowa.

punk rock food music lifestyle culture is taking over (take that Starbucks!) by Dylan Brock

When I first started to tour it was 1997. This was the beginning of the loss of Main Street and the opening up of corporate super stores or as I like to call it “The WalMarting of America.” I remember going into small towns and seeing local shops closing down with signs that said “Going out of business.” Often you would also see on the outskirts of town a packed WalMart and next to it would ALWAYS be a Barnes and Noble. As a broke touring indie van band we would sit in those Barnes and Nobles killing time, reading magazines or books waiting for load in.  By 1999/2000 I was pretty burned out on touring, sleeping in our van, begging to do in-stores and sleeping on peoples floors and couches.

I didn’t go out on tour again until 2006. By then everyone had cell phones, GPS, and the band I was out with had some radio success so we actually had hotel rooms, did radio, and signed autographs. It was a lot of fun. I toured with them off and on for about 5 or so years.  

            This leads me up to the Felsen tour that I’m currently on.  The highways haven’t changed much but so far I’m seeing a really interesting trend happening in the towns that we played. Local businesses are opening up again.  People are selling medical marijuana left and right.  Tattoo parlors have a wait list for up to 6 months  and locally owned drip coffee shops are EVERYWHERE (take that Starbucks).  There are still plenty of ApplebeeDennyChilisTGIF’s around but I’m also seeing great restaurants that sell free-range meat, organic fruit and veggies and taking chances with their cuisine like Barbeque Beef Egg Benedict. Over breakfast you can see the new nuclear family: tattooed, pierced couples with a new infant sharing Egg Pot Pie for breakfast.  Bands are even selling vinyl at shows again and record stores are actually opening up! It’s like a punk rock food music lifestyle culture is taking over. Maybe this is the beginning of the revolution that we’ve been waiting for…

 

Love,

 

Dylan Brock

 

http://dylanbrockmusic.com/

shut my mouth!

i feel like i've been adrift.  feeling really old, irrelevant, out-dated.  loosing my mojo--maybe i never had much in the first place.  am i past my expiration date like christmas cake and it's the 26th.  i've put myself out in front of a band.  i'm the one the audience interfaces with initially.  i gotta get the party started--that's my job.  i have doubts.  it's easier for beautiful people.  it's a cruel reality of nature.  magnetism.   in my normal offstage day to day life i'm mainly invisible (which i kinda like).  i irritain people.  I bug them, pester them into having fun.  that's my shtick i guess. At least that's the character i've created. However, today i'm feeling ready to create a new character: Ziggy Starbucks and the Slippers from Macys.

i kinda blew my voice out on night 1 of the 17 day tour.  brilliant.  night 2 in SLC was kinda ruff for me vocally.  I felt bad for my bandmates having to hear that shit.  The day after they intervened with hot tea.  They told me to hydrate, rest and keep my mouth shut.  i think this is an elaborate ruse to get the front guy to just shut up in the van. "Save your voice kid".  I've been a sideman for about 30 years.  W'e're always talking about what a pain in the ass the front guy is. i'm really aware of this division of labor.  you feel it.  it's them and me.  i'm a necessary cog in the wheel. The wheel keeps on spinning around and somehow we stay precariously on a path.  not sure if it's the right path though.  not sure what the fuck i'm doing out here traveling across the wheat fields, windfarms and religious and/or triple X superstore billboards of kansas.  

I can be a pro at keeping my mouth shut.  By way of example, my dad taught me well.  If I were a superhero, my super power would be keeping my mouth shut. In fact, I wrote a whole song about this special gift I have been given.

In an exponential way

I get more expert every day that I'm alive, that I'm alive

when all I gotta do 

is keep it chambered up inside

and shut my mouth

for a little while

and learn to smile

https://soundcloud.com/felsenmusic/all-you-gotta-do-is-smile

enjoy.

take me back mill valley.

I played a duo gig a few weeks ago with Dylan (Felsen guitarist).  This was the first time he and I have performed in this way.  We played at a shop in Mill Valley called 7 on Locust (that’s also their address) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  The shop owner, Nadine approached my friend, and #1 Felsen fan, Don Zimmer about bringing in live music to her shop. This was the second time Don has put together a show for us.  Both shows were really fun and unique.   Don is a fine musician and he’s just an all around supporter of local music; a truly one-of-a-kind type of guy.  Along with his friend, Mitchell Danielson, they've even started their own boutique record label, Floating Records, just because they wanted to help as many of their musician friends as possible get their music out into the universe. Wow. Sincerely altruistic record label guys! Thank you Don and Mitchell.  We need many more people like you.  

The small size of the performance space dictated that we perform low volume--real low volume.  We don’t get to do this type of show all that often.  I always say you gotta be able to adapt to whatever environment you’re performing.  Lousy bands have just one way of performing. (Note to young rockers:  Marshall half stack--not necessarily the best amp choice for the Hotel Utah.) I like shaking things up and I’m always up for something new and challenging.  We kinda eased into things, playing it cool, not coming on too strong.  Keeping our collective ego in check, knowing that it’s NOT ALWAYS ABOUT US!  People were milling around (like they do in Mill Valley), catching up with old friends and drinking a bit.  By the end of the first set, people were definitely into it and buying our CDs & T shirts (thank you--you know who you are).  For a small place, there was a decent crowd.  It felt good to be there.  The second set was even better and by the tail end of that set, this little shop in Mill Valley was ready to be transformed into a concert event.  We asked people to come in, huddle up, lend us your ears (like Ringo said) and they obliged us. We asked them to really listen for just a few moments.  Turn off cell phones, hold off on conversation.  I think people want this.  People want to be entertained. They want to be a part of something unique, human, artistic.  They want to participate in culture with other human beings. This predates us by thousands of years.  We did two last numbers totally unplugged with the whole room full of people huddled around us.  Dylan played banjo, I played acoustic guitar and sang. We played an oldie, really old in fact. Take Me Back.  I wrote it 13 years ago after my wife and I had hit a real rough patch in our marriage.  Try begging for forgiveness--sometimes it’ll work!  People love this tune.  Who hasn’t been there?  And then we finished off with a new tune, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, from our soon-to-be-released album.   Twice now this has happened at a Floating Records show: audience and band communion.  It’s like we all got on a plane and went somewhere--to that other place. Thanks Don and Mitchell for getting us there.

NEXT FELSEN SHOW: Saturday Aug 31, 2013. Starry Plough, Berkeley, CA Facebook invite

gig wrap up: Goldenhearts/Tiny Television at GAMH.

I played on Saturday night at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.  This was probably about the 10th time I’ve had the pleasure of performing there. It’s always a thrill. Luxurious and ornate, It’s a bay area treasure.  

I was playing drums with a great SF band, the Goldenhearts.  This is a really special group that I’m honored to get to perform with.  It’s guitar, bass, drums and a string quartet! Imagine if the Beatles had kept going in the baroque psychedelic chamber pop of Sgt. Peppers and you’ll get a glimpse of the Goldenhearts.  

I was really knocked out by the headliner Tiny Television, whom I’ve heard about, but never seen.  I heard their soundcheck and knew that I wanted to stay late and enjoy their whole set--and it was so worth it.  At GAMH all the band green rooms are downstairs, very communal--always fun.  I heard the sounds of Big Star coming out of their room.  I've been in a very Big Star kinda mood lately after seeing the new incredible documentary about them.  The Tiny Tele guys bring their own portable turntable and vinyl collection on the road--that's how they roll.  How cool is that?

Tiny Television Is a bigger band:  drums, bass, 2 lead vocalists/guitarists and a guitar/pedal steel player.  They reminded me at first of the country era Wilco, especially the Being There album.  I got the feeling that this was a band that was about to blow up onto a much larger stage.  Tiny Television, like the current incarnation of Wilco, has 2 virtuoso level musicians:  the drummer Dan Luehring and guitar/pedal steel man Dave Zirbel--again like Wilco’s Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline.  Dan’s groove and dynamics were at a whole other level of deep than I’m used to seeing in local bands.  Chops too.  It was like Levon Helm on steroids.  He played with a ton of soul and feel and you just sensed that he lived inside those songs.  He owned the arrangements and found lots of room to really dig deep and pull out some incredible drum-istic stuff.  Dave Zirbel.  Where did this guy come from?  I’ve never heard anyone mention him.  Shame on all of us!  One of the best around. Totally tasteful playing. He knows how to hang back and not take up a lot of space.  He’s a songwriter’s dream sideman most of the time, but when they cut him loose he digs deep, never repeats himself, and solos beautifully. There’s a lot of country and soul, chuck berry and jerry garcia in there, but in a real original way.  The band played really well together.  Great ensemble.  At times they would meander into a jam section that was really deep.  These sections reminded me of some of the great, really deep instrumental sections of White Album era Beatles:  think tunes like Happiness is a Warm Gun, Yer Blues, Dear Prudence.  (How’s that for a reference?)  Gritty, not pretty, deep groove, kinda spooky and dark, not typical jam band territory--no bouncing beach balls and flip flop wearing frat boys abusing the word Dude!  This was the sound of the last judgement, heaven and hell, life and death, a showdown at the crossroads. I was sold.  I wanna hear the songs again and really listen to the lyrics as I was a bit overly preoccupied with the playing of the band.  There are worse dilemmas for newly converted fans to have. Listen to these guys.   I’m thrilled I got the chance.  

album done...

We finished recording and mixing our album last week.  I'm tired.  Real tired.  Hopefully it'll be mastered today or tomorrow.  I miss playing gigs and rehearsing with my band.  We've been too busy to do any of that.  I see my friends bands playing gigs and I'm jealous.  Our touring cycle will start again relatively soon though and I'm ready to shift gears from studio nerd to travelling salesman--at least that's what it feels like when were touring.  I play for 60 minutes and spend the rest of the evening selling CDs and T shirts (or at least trying) to unsuspecting bar patrons in places like Wichita, Reno, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Eugene, Seattle, Sacramento...the list is long.  We're planning our 2nd national tour for this September.  This will be the largest tour we've done.  16 shows in 17 days, probably about 7000 miles of driving.  Gotta raise a bunch of money to pay for it.  Thinking about it makes me tired and nervous.  God willing, it'll all come together.