Summer shows and KFOG news

My fellow Americans:

Hello.  We've missed you these past few months of summer vacay.  We're back now with news and gigs to pimp and photos to share and oh so much more.

Where to begin?  How bout the lovely house concerts we did the last weekend of July, our first shows since May.  We played two very unique and beautiful events in the east bay.  The first night was at the Niles Home Concert Venue in Fremont, CA.  Our hosts were Paul & Jana Welschmeyer and Matt Hayden.  They've created a one-of-a-kind top notch music venue in Paul and Jana's backyard.  Very pro: stage, lights, PA. Doesn't get any better than this.  The local paper even gave us a little write-up. We had a very groovy acoustic-y opener, Misner & Smith who set the tone on the mellow with some very beautiful stuff. Sitting in that night with them was local Fremont'er, Bruce Kaphan on pedal steel and guitar (google him). Not quite knowing what to expect from this audience of total Felsen newbies drinking wine by candle light, we eased in with some of the kinder, more gentle felsen repertoire. How can we better serve you? Do we rock or do we soft rock? We put on the full Felsen charm attack and they eventually caved. (booze+felsen=fun.) I beat them down about their cell phone usage and their social inhibitions, I dragged them by the hand to the foot of the stage for dancing and by 9.15pm they belonged to Felsen. From the very first downbeat though, they were an absolutely great listening audience. Many of them had been to Paul and Jana's casa for concerts in the past, true blue die-hard music fans. Hooray for that. And Hooray for Paul, Jana and Matt for creating a venue out of thin air simply because they felt their beautiful town needed a proper place to go to hear and support local musicians. They are indeed true believers. We dug deep and gave it all we had. We ended the night in typical Felsen form, out in the audience, busking for the love of it. Breaking up With Loneliness. Thanks again Niles Home Concert Series.

Night 2 was at 27 Powers in Alameda.  Our host was Laurie Wagner.  Laurie has a really lovely home  tucked away in a hidden corner of Alameda.  It's like Shangri La inside of Brigadoon. She's a writer and a writing teacher and her home and yard has hosted many concerts, poetry readings, writing classes and now, God save her, Felsen.  Our own Gal Pal Numero Uno, backing vocalist and Go Go Dancer extraordinaire, Dara Ackerman opened the evening up with a few of her finely crafted tunes.  

Alameda is my home town.  Lots of friends and family were there.  AND my main man, my son Levi was in attendance and he rarely gets to see Felsen--we're normally playing in a bar waaaay past bedtime.  He was pumped up and got to reunite with some old friends from way back...from day care.  Laurie created a really beautiful space for us to perform.  The deck of her writing cottage (everyone needs one) acted as our stage.  She put up some colorful twinkling lights, chairs and couches for peeps to sit on, lit a fire in the fire pit and served wine, booze and snacks (all for a very reasonable price I might add).  Laurie is a bonafide artist and it was nice to be among another of our ilk, another refugee from the land of misfit toys.  She gets it.  She lives it.  She made us feel very at home.  

This crowd was easy.  Again, we started kinda chillax and then slowly ramped up the energy and vibe.  Soon enough it was time for the full-on audio assault squad Alameda Backyard Style.  Better Thoughts will keep you happy and alive!

The bunny visited us, nearly caught himself on fire in the process, but once again took the show from 4th to 5th gear.  Thank you bunny--you know who you are. 

We ended the night again busking sans electronic amplification.  Take Me Back.  And we played Water Fit For Babies, which was especially fun to sing as I had my son standing near me.  I wrote it when he was just a wee little thing and he has a starring role in that tune.

Fun times in rock and roll.  

We’ve been honored by SF’s KFOG radio to be part of their local scene compilation volume 11.  You can download a copy of the compilation via the KFOG website.  All proceeds go to Music in Schools Today.  MUST is a non-profit that supports and develops music education programs.  KFOG has invited us to perform a Free Happy Hour show in Sausalito on Thurs Aug 21.  DJ Renee Richardson will MC the event.   We have a few other great local shows coming up.  We’ll be at our fav east bay hang, The Starry Plough and we’ll be returning to a new fav in Benicia, the Rellik Tavern.  AND we’ll be back in the historic Niles  district of Fremont for an outdoorsy show in the town square come early September.  More details on upcoming shows here.

Lastly, rest in peace dear Robin Williams.  You are very near to our hearts.  

Love, 

Felsen.  

Summer Vacation

Hello Dear Lovelies:

Ohhh we had a rowdy good time last week in Benicia at the Rellik Tavern.  Dear Rellik staff and patrons.  I sincerely apologize for standing on the bar top.  Twice.  Rock and Roll is my enabler, it makes me do reckless and stupid things in service of the audience’s need for a sacrificial lamb/village idiot. Also, apologies for excessive volume.  The bar man came up with his OSHA issued dB meter and informed us that we were registering around 110 dB (about as loud as standing next to a lawnmower in use.  oouch.  sorry bout that.)  As I’ve mentioned, we’re gonna be taking some time off.  I guess the spirit to throw down mightily one last sweet time was strongly with us that night.  The good people liked it though and that only acted as a further enabler for reckless musical behavior.  

(photos by Erinn Terry)

OK so now that it’s summer vacation, I’ve been thinking about you.  If we were in high school, I’d make you a mix tape.  So…here goes.  How bout a few tunes to listen to while the band is on holiday? It'll be like being in our van barreling down the highway, each band mate getting a turn at being DJ.  My turn. Arthur, look at those horsies out there!

I first heard this tune via CAKE's cover version.  This song makes me real sad.  Not sure why. Maybe it's all those many miles I/we have driven all over the country far from home.  I like the sad songs the best.  I'm that kid who arrived at the party with the Joy Division record and took the needle off the Cyndi Lauper album.  You'll probably laugh, but here it is.

The story goes that Don Gibson wrote this tune the same day that he wrote “I Can’t stop Loving You.”  Not a bad day's work!  Neil Young reinvented the tune and added a whole other layer of sad. You can't fake that.

The groove on this one is so laid back and woozy. It feels like you're on pain medication. It kinda makes you feel bad in a good way AND it sounds great in the car. Extra Loud.

This guy is my hero. Jon Brion. I Heart Huckabees soundtrack. You're welcome.

Radiohead has been sounding really good in my Honda lately.    So creepy. 

Warren gets the last word. Raking leaves with Liza.

OK Lovelies.  See you 'round the clubs.

Ooops.  My ride's here!

AG

Magical JuJu for a Roomful of Monkeys!

I’ve been enjoying the simplicity of doing some duo gigs over the past month. I love the band, but it is a heavy weight to carry.  Getting people’s schedules to line up etc…has been a lot to manage over the past five years here in the Peoples Republic of Felsendom.  And rock and roll years are like dog years; five glorious years can feel like 35!  It exacts a heavy toll on your central nervous system.  The duo has been a welcome diversion: one car, one tank of gas and just one other person.  But here’s the BUT:  I do very much miss the big rock and roll extravaganza that is Felsen.  I'll get another crack at that this upcoming weekend.

I was recently out doing a drum gig with my pal Wesley Morgan at a dance studio on University Ave in Berkeley.  Specifically this was a gig at an establishment where one goes to learn the lively art of pole dancing.  Yup, you can actually study that.  I think this was their graduation party and Wes was providing the music; I was their drummer du jour. Not a bad gig.  (The view from behind the drums was quite nice I might add.)  On the set break I wandered around University Ave and stumbled upon the Monkey House, which I've been hearing good things about for the past few years.  Head monkey, Ira Marlowe, recognized me from seeing one of Felsen’s many Starry Plough gigs.  He invited me in and showed me the room.  It's small and only seats 54, but oh so very cool and vibey.  Does size really matter? I immediately thought this would be a good place to play solo or with the Dara. So...I put together a show, invited the Dara to do her thing (which ended up being her long-overdue CD release party for her fab new CD, Skyland) and Ira did an opening set.  Dara worked like the dickens promoting, single-handedly selling out the place to her growing legion of rabid east bay fans and friends.  I played drums during her set.  Also on board in her band that night was multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter and all around musical loose cannon, Scarth Locke.  AND the ever-lovely Joann Demars on cello and electric bass.  Wow cello!  Far too classy for this hoosier.  Dara’s audience ate it up.  Next up: Felsen duo night singing all the hits.  Much of the show you could have heard a pin drop.  Shivers.  That’s a very flattering feeling for a songwriter, getting the rare opportunity for people to really listen to the lyrics and hear the stories.   Dara sang backgrounds, wore a boa and played glockenspiel.  Who could ask for more? Truth be told we employ equal parts Glock UND Spiel.  (You can’t have one without the other.) Ira has a hard 10pm volume lock down to keep the litigious neighbors happy. So...at 10pm we came down into the audience sans electronic amplification.  To me, this was the very best part of the evening. I loved being on stage playing drums with Dara and of course later singing my own tunes, but when we got off the stage, turned up the house lights a bit and surrounded ourselves with audience, things turned magical.  The audience was so attentive, I milked it and played extra quiet at times.  The quieter I got, the more focused they became. Quiet is the new loud.  

It felt really, really good to reconnect with the songs; some of which I haven’t sung in a while. With the big rock and roll juggernaut that is Felsen, sometimes the really quiet, pretty stuff gets axed to accommodate rockin. (Forgive me in advance if I ever play that stupid Smoke on the Water riff again!)   

I’ve been really pretty weighted down with other life stuff for the past few months and just have not had my head in the music so-to-speak.  I missed the songs.  They’re like my children. They’re like old friends I get to visit every now and again.  "Hey I remember you!  I loved you a long time ago.  Do you remember me?  Have you forgotten about me?"  I sang Breaking up with Loneliness, a song about my then-newborn son, the vastness of the cosmos, embracing life, overcoming death, letting go of fear and anxiety.  whew….that’s a lot in that 4 minute song.  The real high point though for me was singing Honolulu.  I think this might be the best song I’ve ever written.  It’s about that magical and terrifying moment when you’re getting wheeled into the operating room for a surgery and you’re feeling like you’d rather be just about anywhere else. How bout some place tropical?  (An oft-overlooked topic for a rock and roll song IMHO.)  The first verse of the song.  “When are you going to Honolulu? Pilot of the skies to a bluer island blow on a tailwind.”  Not a bad opening line if I do say so, but the second verse…. ahhh...that’s where it gets heavy and can have a very jarring effect on an unsuspecting audience (that is, when they’re paying attention--thankyouverymuch bar room drunks).  “Surgical wires, while the doctor smiles.  He reassures me.  Pray my soul to keep while they wheel me down to sleep on a gurney.  In my dreams I’d rather be with a wave crashing over me…”  Honestly, singing that on stage that night at the Monkey House in Berkeley, CA was powerful juju for me.  Maybe you attentive monkeys also felt the juju? Hope so.

Guess what? We’re putting the band back together with scissors and tape.  Yup.  All hands on deck. All 5 of us just like old times.  We’re rocking it quintet style.  We’re polishing the dust off and giving a concert in the wee-sized city of Benicia, CA this weekend.  It’s an all night affair.  We’re playing from 9 til 1.  Pretty much blowing out our entire repertoire.   We’re getting it all out of our system in one fell swoop. Come join us this Friday, MMKAY?   It’ll be a sweet, lovely, drunken send off as we’re taking a few months off for summer vacation, a hiatus of hibernation, a marathon of exorcism. The ever-impatient sheriff awaits!

Signing off,

AG

California: Felsen Love You Long Time

California is a big lovely state.  I have a lot of Cal pride.  One thing that's a joy about living in such a big state is that there's always something new to see and when you're in a touring band, you get plenty of opportunity, as we did this past weekend traveling for two shows in So Cal: Friday in Hollywood and Saturday in Long Beach. We took a different route down south this time.  Departing from Art's house in Pacifica and heading down to meet up with I-5 near Los Banos.  We were hungry and found a one man Taco Truck.  I highly recommend him.  Not quite the artist as that genius in SLC near Burt's Tiki Bar, but El Brother is real good. I think he was parked on highway 152 somewhere near Gilroy. Reason #147 for my love affair with California:  abundant high quality Mexican food.

A little further down the road, we came across Casa de Fruta near Hollister.  It's a giant fruit stand with perhaps the largest selection of dried fruit I've ever seen.  Reason #423 for loving California:  the produce.  This is the type of intense nerdliness that is Felsen: while other bands are talking drugs and porn, we're get excited about dried fruit.  Really excited. The people at Casa de Fruta knew they were onto something and have therefore expanded their roadside biz to include Casa de Burrito, Casa de Coffee, and Casa de Cho Cho for the kids.  Kinda kitschy, but kinda charming.  I didn't wanna leave.  Ever. But Hollywood was calling. Specifically, The M Bar for Friday night's show.  Back to the 1-5 for all the usual--cowschwitz and then over the grapevine and heading into all that lovely 101 traffic in LA. Hollywood on a Friday night.  Big time.  Big time headache.  Reason # 496 I don't like LA: Valet parking everywhere.  That turns it into a pay to play situation for me and that aint cool.  Free parking is my blood sport and my divine birth right.  We branched off for dinner upon arrival:  Me and Dara for vegan food at Doomies  and Art and Shane off in search of meat on a bun. Yummy vegan food kinda made up for my issues with the valet man. Still I had a chip on my shoulder.  Note to self:  don't walk out on stage at a gig in Hollywood and greet your audience of 13 with "Good evening Scientologists!"  It's probably not funny to them.  Friday's gig was kinda lack luster by Felsen standards. Not promoted at all by the other local band.  They were good though.  

We persevered thorough our set.  attempted shenanigans including me sitting on the lap of one of the actors from 30 Rock.  (Seriously that really happened.)  It was probably the low point of his recent life. If you're gonna make omelettes, you're gonna break some eggs.  And by broken eggs I mean, some unwilling, unsuspecting audience member who gets sat on while I'm playing the guitar.  I did manage to corral about 10 people on stage for the final number.  We haven't done that gimmick in a while.  It's always fun and makes the band and audience feel connected.  We sold the CDs, said a few nice words to the kindly people there and watched the band after us.  They were good. Gear packed, we needed a late night waffle and found the IHOP in Hollywood, then headed to our lovely hostess's home in Santa Monica for some much needed sleep.  Well...about 4.5 hours of sleep. We awoke to the joy-filled sounds of a 6 year old and a 3 year old.  I didn't mind though as I can't sleep past 7 no matter how late I go to bed.  The little girl loaned me her bedroom for the night.  Very pink.  Very quiet and I slept like a baby floating on a magical cloud.  A pink fluffy cloud.  Our hostess Kim was so nice to us and fed us a really wonderful breakfast.  LA has great bagels.  We lingered around her house, told war stories (she's a musician as well) and then headed out to the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City for a swim in the pool.  Man that was Heavenly.  Perfect weather.  I hung out with my old friend and touring compadre from way back, Duff Ferguson and his daughter, sister and bro-in-law. Later we headed over to Long Beach and Dara and I found more vegan food (the hippy salad please) and then eventually arrived at the Prospector for the night's gig.  

Saturday's gig more than made up for Friday's kinda lame experience.  This one renewed my enthusiasm for Rock and Roll.  Great crowd.  Our Long Beach street team provided a strong contingent of friendlies and the newbies were open and willing to give us a shot.  We threw down mightily in the true Felsen spirit. Great crowd interaction.  They were mainly a rowdy bunch, but we were able to debut a new real quiet tune that's kind of a stark contrast to the rest of the high volume, high energy vibe we were channelling.  The tune is called "Poor In A Wealthy City". Amongst other things, it's about my years living in Chicago and feeling so, so out of place with the great disparity of wealth on display in that city.  Out of place is my native environment..it's what I do best. But hey, who doesn't feel out-of-place sometimes?  It's starts with just me, strumming and singing. Shane, in his infinite vast wisdom, reminded me to play even quieter as I was starting the tune. The quieter I got, the more the room simmered down. You coulda heard a pin drop on a ball of cotton in the forest. Shivers.  I love those moments.  "Tonight I'm poor in a wealthy city/prosperity towers high above me/inhaling the exhaust wearing duct-taped shoes/ imagine Muddy Waters singing the blues."  That felt really good to sing those lyrics.  The rest of the set was more rocking.  Tokyo Electric, Lorazepam, Better Thoughts, Don't Turn your back on Me Today and Gunfighting at Dawn with a Smoke on the Water teaser.  A girl came up to me and said Felsen reminded her of Weird Al Yankovic. I'll accept that.  

It looks like were praying to Shiva, but were just doing some soul claps on "All You Gotta Do is Smile".

 I look mad in this one.  Maybe I was.  It's not you...it's me.  Lorazepam.  I think.

After us were our musical hosts and brothers from the road, State To State.  I love these guys.  Trust me, it feels really, really good when you're the out-of-town band to have a local band on your side, rooting for you, helping you out, loaning you gear, setting you up a gig, PROMOTING IT, and to hang out with too.  On top of that, these guys are the real deal musically speaking.  Los Angeleans, please, please patronize their shows.  You will not be disappointed. They have a very cool Raidoheadesque vibe to their music and their singer, Shay is one of the very best singers I've heard.  It makes me envious. It makes me want to practice more.  Beautiful songs too.

We were all pretty tired post gig and had to make it a somewhat early night.  So no late night post show shenanigans this time. I did however manage to trade a few CDs and a t shirt for a cool new used jacket. We drove to our host Todd's home in Echo Park.  We climbed this immensely tall stair case to the front door.  We were all laden down with gear and belongings.  Each of us were completely winded, tired, and spontaneously started laughing at some point.  That Staircase was no joke. We got up early, headed back down the stairs,

passed this car,

found a diner,

and got on the I-5 where I found yet another cool red neck hat at a truck stop along the way.

This was our first road trip since the arctic quest to Portland, OR in early December. God willing, this will be the first of much travel over the next year to promote our most recent album, I Don't Know How To Talk Anymore.  We're currently incubating another larger national tour for later this summer and fantasizing about getting on a plane for the east coast.  Does anybody have some extra air miles? The good drummer's waiting at SFO.

Meanwhile, we're gonna hibernate for a while.  Hope to see you April 22nd at our next Bay Area Show. Should be a fun one.

Where is my mind tough gal? Huh?

Felsen played this past weekend in Sacramento at the Fox and Goose Pub.  This was our 4th time there in the past 4.5 years.  It's a great little spot and they've recently sunk a bunch of money into improvements, including an upgrade to the sound system.  We've always have a great time in Sacto and each time vow to return again and soon.  The gig was put together by my pal Gabe Nelson.  Payback perhaps for us putting his fabulous new band Bellygunner on a show at the 50 Mason in SF this past Thanksgiving weekend. I've known Gabe for about 7 years now, in fact he plays bass on our Felsen Loves You EP. With Bellygunner, Gabe really gets to show his vast talents as he fronts the band, plays guitar (damn he's really good) writes the tunes and sings the lead parts.  On top of this he's very smooth and easy and relaxed and charming out in front of a band. It makes me really happy to see him up there doing his thing and sharing all these great, catchy tunes with an audience. So...we were thrilled to do this show with Bellygunner and happy to return again to the F&G.

I drove up early in the afternoon to do a live radio show at Twirl Radio in Sacramento.  Twirl is hosted by Mike Lidskin who has been a huge supporter of Felsen over the past few years.  His show is devoted to local homegrown Indie music and he's given tons of musicians airtime over his 15 years in the biz.  Twirl has been an internet only radio show, but will soon be a regular old fashioned Sacramento terrestrial radio program that you can listen to in the car or in the kitchen making dinner. Mike is very excited about this, mainly I think because he'll get to introduce more people to the music that he loves.  This here folks, is a rock and roll true believer.  Twirl honored Felsen with 2013 album of the year and Saturday I got to go on air, play a few tunes and talk it up and of course pimp our upcoming gigs.  I played a few from the new album and sang an oldie "Like Water Fit For Babies".

The original plan for the radio show was for me and Dara to drive up early and do the show Felsen duo style, but she's been sick.  Possibly pneumonia with a side of Laryngitis--that's an awful combo for a singer. Poor thing really wanted to do both shows.  I was getting status updates the days leading up to the show, each one grimmer than the last.  Saturday morning I told her to stay home, get some rest and not to worry about the gigs.  I drove up by myself, leaving straight from my Saturday job--teaching drum lessons at Music Time Academy in Livermore, CA.  (BTW: There is no greater joy than teaching 10 y.o.'s to play ACDC and Beatles on the drums!)   I did the radio show and then got a text from Dara saying she was on Amtrack heading for Sacto--she's gonna do the gig by hook and crook (as they say in India). Is that dedication to the art form or is that just plain crazy?? You decide.  Her voice sounded beat up when she arrived.  But come show time, miraculously she sang great, worked the crowd and danced like a dervish. That's Tuff.

The show at the Fox and Goose was a fun one.  The night started with The Seshen who were incredible.  This was my first time hearing them and they killed it.  Big band, lots of percussion, samples, etc...great vocals and really tight rhythm section.  A+ kids.  A+.   They had an R&B dance vibe.  Very fun stuff that got the room really grooving.  Up next was Bellygunner, the lone local Sacramento band, who brought out a great crowd and kept the energy flowing with their songs and full on charm attack.  Felsen did our thing.  Going on last and being an out-of-town band was a little tough as the room thinned out a bit before we got a chance to start, but we held a goodly number of people and put on a pretty high energy show.  I climbed on tables and chairs, sat in peoples laps, interrupted conversations, got up in grills, my usual brand of irritainment.  I used Gabe's amp and have officially learned this lesson for the 47th and final time--use my own amp.  It always throws me for a loop no matter how nice the other guy's amp was (and it was a beauty). I have such a narrow little guitar path I can travel, anything unfamiliar rattles my cage and knocks me off guard.  Couldn't get my bearings. My mojo was limping a bit.  We rallied though and gave it our all. Triumph of the will.

The musical high point for me was our closing number, a cover of the Pixies classic tune, Where is My Mind.  I've always loved this tune.  I was on tour a few weeks ago, playing drums with Dara's project and we had some time to kill post gig and we all stayed up late watching Fight Club. I feel asleep. Where is my mind plays in the final scene of the movie (go back and watch it) and it woke me up. A great song does that to me.  I have a few songs that have woken me up and I have a really strong relationship or association with those tunes.  Your mind is clear and extra receptive in those times and a great song can cut right into your core and leave a permanent mark.  What a creepy, sad and scary scene in the movie that is.  Buildings are being blown up and are collapsing. The movie was pre 9-11. Wow.  Prophetic? Somehow that song really hit me and I had to learn it and play it with Felsen.  Gabe joined us on guitar.  Ooh and that creepy Kim Deal backing vocal sung by our very own backing vocalist tough gal.  Something came unhinged in me when I was singing that.  Where is my mind? Your problems--are they real or is it all in your head.  Get out of your own way.  You're either busy living or your busy dying.  That was a beautiful, powerful moment for me. Thank you rock and roll Gods for somehow sparing me yet another day and allowing that one to happen.  Trust me, I needed it.

Next Felsen show:  Wed Feb 26 at the Night Light in Oakland.  

Greetings From the Ghost of Heavy Metal Rock and Roll...

Hi.  

How are you?

press play and then come back and read me.  

Did you know this song was a letter to you from me, the ghost of heavy metal rock and roll. Kinda corny right?  Well that's how I feel about myself. Sometimes I feel like an apparition, a ghost in your head...  it's getting lonely here at rock and roll inc. as there's not many of us left. Most have fled, or died or moved to the suburbs, retired from the biz, so to speak. God knows, I couldn't blame them.  A more turbulent, screwed up line of work you'll be hard pressed to find. This isn't for the faint of heart. You gotta want it.  Most days, I still do.  

Anyhoo...I was thinking about you the other day, remembering olden times from centuries come and gone and I wanted to reach out and see how you're getting along now and low and behold, out fell this song. It's just for the two of us, but then again maybe there's some universality to it also.  I wanted to say come back to rock and roll old friends, we're here for you.  Do you remember rock and roll--c'mon man.  We were the best of friends!  Do you remember being a teenager and feeling so much despair and then getting an embrace from your favorite Clash song, or the Replacements or U2 or Violent Femmes or the Smiths and feeling somehow renewed--ok just enough to not give up all hope and fall into the very heart of the heart of darkness.  We here at rock and roll inc haven't abandoned you, nor will we ever! so yeah, that's the universal part.  And then there's the very personal, the me+you part is as such written "I'm here to show you love, like when we were younger, you swept me under, we were the best of friends." So, that dear old friend is for you.  You can have that. You're welcome.  You can stow that one away putting it in the box in your closet and please from time to time do unearth it when you are an old, old woman and show it to your great grandchildren.  "I had a friend once, a long, long time ago..."  and finally, there's a line about our departed mothers "Do you realize with your mothers prayers tonight, you're still alive. Know i'll be here til the end of time."  a huh.  Nodding head with vigor and some sentimentality indeed.  That's your prayer at bedtime, your daily affirmation dear old friend.

singing off for now.  

your friend til the end,

Felsen.

ps.  hey i've got a gig you should come by.  it'll be fun.  like old times. 

Rickshaw Stop Thank You's etc...

Felsen played a really great show this past weekend in SF at the Rickshaw Stop.  For you out-of-towners, you bridge and tunnel people outside of the bay area, the Rickshaw is one of SF's finest venues and it was a real honor for us to be there, and that honor was only deepened by the fact that we were truly blessed to be sharing a bill with two great local bands.  We Became Owls is a folky band led by the very talented Andrew Blair.  I suspect they're gonna be huge real soon.  And any chance we get to share an evening with Brad Brooks is indeed a real pleasure. Pure class.  Like Bryan Ferry, Brian Wilson and Brian Jones all rolled up and surrounded with a great band, including a string trio.  Classy! Brad's an institution. (Full disclosure, I'm also Brad's drummer so I'm a bit biased.) 

The show was our CD release party to celebrate our newest CD, I Don't Know How to Talk Anymore.  We worked really hard to promote the show and all the bands worked together.  Note to bands who want to get in front of an audience: gotta work together with the other bands on the bill. Can't do it all alone.  Divide and conquer.  We also got a ton of help from the promoter of the event, Bill Hansell of Appleberry Jam.  Bill worked really, really hard to book the gig.  For whatever reason, this was a hard gig to book.  I wanted a weekend.  I wanted a big club in SF and I knew I wanted to have some control over who else was gonna be on the bill so that we could present a great evening of music.  Tall order. And all you talent buyers weren't lining up for dear old Felsen?  Apparently not. Bill went back and forth on dates with about 8 different venues, until finally the Rickshaw relented.  Bless them.  We didn't want to disappoint them and felt the urgency of properly promoting the show.  You also put your ass on the line when you book a gig.  If no one shows up, word gets 'round among the club bookers and you're likely to not get booked at XYZ venue again.   (Do you bookers all get together and gossip about local bands at your secret monthly Masonic Lodge meetings?) We dug deep and put on a major PR assault calling in lots of favors and hitting it hard. Full scale charm attack. Forgive us.  We're gonna leave you alone for a while.  Promise.  For the many friends and fans who came out to the gig, we thank you.  We also apologize for clogging up your email inbox and your social network feeds with our shameless self-promotion.  Taking a break for a bit now.  mmmkay.

Felsen went on last.  Does that mean we headlined?  Or did we just draw the shortest straw and get duped with cleanup?  Glass half full or half empty?  I'll go with headliner.  That means added pressure as people will often split after their friend's band plays.  We had a pretty solid throng of people there though thankfully.  It felt really good to walk on that stage.  We've been using some real cool entrance music for the past few months, the theme music to the old spaghetti western Sixty Seconds To What by the great Italian Film composer Ennio Morricone.  OK, I stole that idea from The Clash Live in Japan. It sets a mood, and somehow helps me focus.  It's epic and majestic and totally over-the-top.  This was big time for little old Felsen.  Big stage, smoke machines billowing out the fog, Ennio Morricone blasting through one of the best sound systems in the city as we file out after the evening's MC, DJ Shuugah's lovely introduction AND we utilized the Rickshaw's in house video projector and screen and projected one of the most beautiful films EVER, Koyannisqatsi.  Ever seen it?  Amazing.  Kinda hard to describe.  There's no dialog.  All visual with a sound track by Philip Glass.  The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. Koyannisqatsi is a Hopi word meaning "a life out of balance."  A perfect mesh with the bigger themes of our album, which is all about alienation in an era of technology, social media, advertising, gluttonous consumption....A life out of balance indeed.  A bunch of people asked me if we edited the film to coincide with the music. Oh hell no. I'm way too lazy and technologically challenged to pull off something like that. Somehow the music would just periodically synch up with the film. Kismet.

To make the show a little extra special, we had six musicians on stage.  We had the usual 4 of us boys plus our pal Adam Rossi on keyboards.  Dylan and Adam have been playing together in local hit makers Luce for the past 10 years or so. Lots of chemistry between the two of them.  We've added a new Felsen too.  For the past few months I've been working with singer/songwriter Dara Ackerman.  I play drums in Dara's band. She's singing with Felsen now.  She's a great backing vocalist and really adds a lot visually to the band--a veritable non stop dervish of dancing.  

There were many musical highlights of the show.  All You Gotta Do is Smile felt really good and powerful.  To me that's a really, really sad song.  Listen to the lyrics sometime. I had to earn the right to sing that one.  Tokyo Electric was really, really fun and just keeps on getting better and more fun and gets the crowd worked up and dancing.  We hit really hard with the title track, I Don't Know How to Talk Anymore.  The band felt particularly synched up.  And I got to play Brad's beautiful guitar.

The set list was really well paced thankyouverymuch.  We work hard on stuff like that.  The devil is in the details.  A good set list makes a big difference.  I always want the energy and intensity to keep escalating. We've really hit our stride now with Better Thoughts.  As is the case now with that one, we pretty much get the whole room full of people (however many there are at our gigs) singing along on the extended outro "Better thoughts will keep you happy and alive".  We're you there?  That felt good didn't it?  The band sounded absolutely wonderful on this one.  Really powerful and kinda other world-y at moments.  I told the audience it was an opportunity to work through their issues. Group therapy session. Seriously, who doesn't need it?  (I need every minute I can get.)  Singing through their issues. I got issues on my issues.  We've now segued the end of that one into our long-time closing number, an oldie, Don't Turn Your Back On Me Today. It's a pretty rock solid one-two punch.  I'm old school showbiz--I like segues. One beautiful moment was at the end when Dylan and Dara joined me at my mic and we sang the outro.  Kids, that right there's rock and roll.  

I was starting to feel bad for the audience's ear drums; we ended the night with a few more mellow tunes.   Gimme Shelter for the Devil was really beautiful.  And then we jumped down into the audience and we sang an oldie, Take Me Back all acoustic-y.  Dylan played the banjo.  We sang and shook tambourines.  We busked for free.  I asked the audience to simmer down and listen up and they obliged. Coulda heard a junkie drop his needle. People just kinda magically start to sing along on that one.  That was really powerful.  And then they asked for an encore and we ended the night with another oldie, a tune the 6 of us never all played together: Like Water Fit For Babies from our Felsen Loves You EP. It's a song about being a new parent and wondering how you're gonna hold it all together.  You got worries.  You got anxiety. You're sleep deprived.  

Thanks a bunch Bill Hansell, DJ Shuggah, Brad Brooks and band, Andrew Blair and We Became Owls and the good people at the Rickshaw.  Thanks fans and friends who came out and sang and danced with us. What a night!  OK.  I will shut my mouth for a few weeks now.

NEXT FELSEN SHOW:  WED JAN 29 AT BOTTOM OF THE HILL.  

video from the show