We did two gigs in 4 days this month; we played at the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club Saturday night and then our regular once a month O'Connell's gig on Wednesday night. We were all tired but we blasted through our set with little fanfare - it was teh day after Valentine' Day and no one was out anyway.
The variety and weirdness of the local music scene just makes me laugh, scratch my head, and/or roll my eyes sort of depending on what I'm watching at the time.
We've been on the same stage with some guys who are monster players and some people who barely can play. The previous O'Connell's gig we played we were on second after a guy who we have gotten to know a little bit because we've done O'Connells with him a few times now. He is a great acoustic guitar player who can't really sing and has no stage presence, but Mark and I just sit there, jaws agape at what he can pull off musically. After us was a three piece with a guy playing a silver sparkle Gretsch Duo Jet (I think) with a pompadour and cowboy boots and a bass player playing a Hofner copy. They were rock and roll/blues based. I told Mark those guys should have had a unified look with cowboy boots, jeans and those western shirts with the embroidery on the front and pearlescent snaps down the front playing ZZ Top guitar based blues riffing stuff.
At the Boat and Ski Club that same acoustic guitar guy was also billed but he was late so we went on first and then he followed. After him was a band that was fronted by a headset-wearing acoustic guitar player and a electric violin player. These guys were very progrockish but didn't have that sense of style that I always associate with that genre - the leader wore khakis and beat up white sneakers. Definitely 50 year old nerds in real life.
We have also played O'Connell's gigs with an 8 piece white guy reggae band (one guy was dedicated to playing ukelele) whose lead guitar player looked like he was straight out of Creedence Clearwater Revival in contrast with the Phillipino bass player (who shredded on his fretless 6 string bass) and the front man and drummer who both were full on natty dread, mon and a 7 piece band whose front woman fancied herself to be the new Grace Slick/Janis Joplin (apparently, since they played a bunch of cover tunes of those two plus a few of their own that sounded a lot like those). Wednesday at O'Connell's the opener was another of those cookie cutter "chick strumming an acoustic guitar" types. Very attractive, very vivacious and fun with great stage presence but couldn't play to save her life.
Play!? Crap, Mark and I would have been happy if she could just tune her guitar correctly.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Wow! Three Months!
Lots has happened. I've:
1. Started and finished the kitchen but need to paint the walls (which I am working on)
2. Sent off ugly and received back beautiful my Rickenbacker 4003 which is now my daily player with The Christopher Cash Band.
3. Have had several successful gigs with said band.
4. Bought another property
5. Had a good Xmas because my brother bought me a Vox AD50VT amp so I had something to play my Rickenbacker 330 through.
My art.com gallery is going great; I sell somewhere between 3 and 5 images a week nowadays.
1. Started and finished the kitchen but need to paint the walls (which I am working on)
2. Sent off ugly and received back beautiful my Rickenbacker 4003 which is now my daily player with The Christopher Cash Band.
3. Have had several successful gigs with said band.
4. Bought another property
5. Had a good Xmas because my brother bought me a Vox AD50VT amp so I had something to play my Rickenbacker 330 through.
My art.com gallery is going great; I sell somewhere between 3 and 5 images a week nowadays.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Gigging
Two weekends ago we played at Twiggs. We apparently gave the booking agent a near-heart attack when we showed up ready to fully rock instead of being an acuostic group, but we DID get to play, even though earlier in the day the booking agent had forgotten he'd booked us back in August for that night.
We played fine and the small crowd consisting of our friends was appreciative and we were happy.
We played last night at Dreamstreet in Ocean Beach. The only people there were Cash's wife and the journalism intern who is writing a story about various bands in San Diego and has followed us aroud a little bit and two of her friends. I played like crap and wa unhgappy afterwards.
Playing original music sucks.
On a lighter note I'm getting ready to remodel and upgrade my kitchen.
We played fine and the small crowd consisting of our friends was appreciative and we were happy.
We played last night at Dreamstreet in Ocean Beach. The only people there were Cash's wife and the journalism intern who is writing a story about various bands in San Diego and has followed us aroud a little bit and two of her friends. I played like crap and wa unhgappy afterwards.
Playing original music sucks.
On a lighter note I'm getting ready to remodel and upgrade my kitchen.
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Band Stuff
I spent most of the Saturday of Labor Day weekend in a recording studio putting down basic tracks for three new songs Cash has written. The following Sunday (September 11) we played a gig with remnants of the Motorola band with Kevin on drums that ended up being a pretty nice gig.
The next day I left for Italy.
Upon my return last Sunday I had a few days off and then went into the studio again to re-do some bass lines (since the drums had been Beat Doctored) for four hours on Wednesday night.
Rehearsal today for our gig this Wednesday, Oct 5.
The next day I left for Italy.
Upon my return last Sunday I had a few days off and then went into the studio again to re-do some bass lines (since the drums had been Beat Doctored) for four hours on Wednesday night.
Rehearsal today for our gig this Wednesday, Oct 5.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Hot Monkey Love Cafe
Christopher Cash played at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe Friday night. We played really well but there was little to no crowd there, unfortunately.
Afterwards we went to Denny's to talk about the band. We made some guidelines about gigging and rehearsing and everyoen was satisfied, I think.
In other news it turs out my art.com gallery has been reasonably popular; I have sold over two dozen images out of it; "Colosseum at Dusk" is th most popular followed closely by one of the B&W surfer shots.
Afterwards we went to Denny's to talk about the band. We made some guidelines about gigging and rehearsing and everyoen was satisfied, I think.
In other news it turs out my art.com gallery has been reasonably popular; I have sold over two dozen images out of it; "Colosseum at Dusk" is th most popular followed closely by one of the B&W surfer shots.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Two Gigs in One Night
Last night both of my bands played. Christopher Cash played for an hour from 8 to 9 roughly and then Spurious Emissions played from 9 to 11. Roughly. Very roughly.
A few weeks earlier two of the Spurious guys called the "production company" to get the scoop on the stage set up and to get an idea of what to expect and what we'd need to bring. It sounded very good on paper - 3500 W sound system, lots of monitors and a light show. They had a sound guy and a stage hand and so we figured that'd be great.
Both bands tend to have a lot of gear; Cash switches off between acoustic and electric guitar regularly and we have two keyboards and 4 vocal mikes. Spurious has a similar set up plus we wanted all the amps mic'ed. The sound guys were swamped with work and their gear wasn't reliable; we had to delay a long time. Spurious went on 45 minutes after our scheduled time due to technical problems at their end and our monitor system was very hit and miss.
It was also very hot; I soaked through both shirts I wore and I'll need to get them into dry cleaning first thing Monday morning.
Both bands played OK but I'd like to get that night back.
A few weeks earlier two of the Spurious guys called the "production company" to get the scoop on the stage set up and to get an idea of what to expect and what we'd need to bring. It sounded very good on paper - 3500 W sound system, lots of monitors and a light show. They had a sound guy and a stage hand and so we figured that'd be great.
Both bands tend to have a lot of gear; Cash switches off between acoustic and electric guitar regularly and we have two keyboards and 4 vocal mikes. Spurious has a similar set up plus we wanted all the amps mic'ed. The sound guys were swamped with work and their gear wasn't reliable; we had to delay a long time. Spurious went on 45 minutes after our scheduled time due to technical problems at their end and our monitor system was very hit and miss.
It was also very hot; I soaked through both shirts I wore and I'll need to get them into dry cleaning first thing Monday morning.
Both bands played OK but I'd like to get that night back.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and Me
I was 8 years old, sitting in front of my family's black and white Zenith TV in our little pre-War era SoCal bungalow 36 years ago, watching an event that would set the course for my life. I was watching Neil Armstrong bunny hop down those few rungs on that spindly-legged LEM and then screw up his line, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
Good going, Neil. Without the (a) your quote makes no sense.
Anyway, it was right then I decided I really did like science and math and doing cool stuff with my chemistry set; I wasn't sure before then. Watching that incredible feat I knew that I'd like to be a part of that, too, someday. So, I ended up going to university and getting two engineering degrees eventually. I've applied my interest in science, math and engineering to problems of aircraft flight, satellite control, radio communications and network design as well as software and circuit design.
And then, later, I applied my incredible brainpower to pointing and laughing at conservatives.
Back in the early/mid 90's I went to Orlando, FL for a business trip and ended up staying the weekend. I killed a day visiting KSC at the Cape. I took the tour of the facility; we were in one of those moon buggy-looking busses. At one point we went into a large hangar building and witnessed a semi-silly recreation of the Apollo 11 launch, complete with Mission Control consoles. As we heard the Flight Controller tick off the subsystems and get the response from the engineer in charge of those ("Flight controls?" "Go!" "Fuel?" Go!") the lights on the consoles would light up green. The video projected on the screen showed the Saturn V with a tiny little Command Module on top with three guys in it waiting to light the candle and go to the moon.
The countdown continued and then off it went, as I knew it would.
"Lift off, we have lift off of Apollo 11!"
The room lights came up and everyone shuffled out. Except me; I stood against the rail looking at everything for a while. The moon buggy bus driver finally came up to me (a good ol' boy from Florida) and said, "Whadja think o that?"
I looked at him for moment and said slowly, "That was great!" "That is why I am who I am."
"Yeah, I hear that a lot," was his thoughtful reply.
I followed him out to the buggy, got back on, and finished the tour, but I didn't really pay much attention to what was said. I was back in the living room of that little house we lived in, sitting on the floor watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
Good going, Neil. Without the (a) your quote makes no sense.
Anyway, it was right then I decided I really did like science and math and doing cool stuff with my chemistry set; I wasn't sure before then. Watching that incredible feat I knew that I'd like to be a part of that, too, someday. So, I ended up going to university and getting two engineering degrees eventually. I've applied my interest in science, math and engineering to problems of aircraft flight, satellite control, radio communications and network design as well as software and circuit design.
And then, later, I applied my incredible brainpower to pointing and laughing at conservatives.
Back in the early/mid 90's I went to Orlando, FL for a business trip and ended up staying the weekend. I killed a day visiting KSC at the Cape. I took the tour of the facility; we were in one of those moon buggy-looking busses. At one point we went into a large hangar building and witnessed a semi-silly recreation of the Apollo 11 launch, complete with Mission Control consoles. As we heard the Flight Controller tick off the subsystems and get the response from the engineer in charge of those ("Flight controls?" "Go!" "Fuel?" Go!") the lights on the consoles would light up green. The video projected on the screen showed the Saturn V with a tiny little Command Module on top with three guys in it waiting to light the candle and go to the moon.
The countdown continued and then off it went, as I knew it would.
"Lift off, we have lift off of Apollo 11!"
The room lights came up and everyone shuffled out. Except me; I stood against the rail looking at everything for a while. The moon buggy bus driver finally came up to me (a good ol' boy from Florida) and said, "Whadja think o that?"
I looked at him for moment and said slowly, "That was great!" "That is why I am who I am."
"Yeah, I hear that a lot," was his thoughtful reply.
I followed him out to the buggy, got back on, and finished the tour, but I didn't really pay much attention to what was said. I was back in the living room of that little house we lived in, sitting on the floor watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
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