Janis' Tour Blog

New Year's Eve '09, The Redstone Room, Davenport, IA

2010-01-09T21:33:00.019-06:00

It's plain to see, but I've been slacking in the blog. Perhaps my New Year's resolution should be to keep up with this more. It's tough when I'm faced with the task of putting together the band's "Video Blogs" each week; I know I know, it's no match for the textual storytelling of yours truly. I'll do better in 2010. (Satisfied, Zach T.??)

Anyway, New Year's Eve 2009! The band worked long and hard in preparation for this one, unveiling a few firsts for us: 1. A 3-set NYE show, 2. An acoustic set, and 3. Adding a horn section. Lots and lots of rehearsals, trying ideas, scrapping ideas, finalizing songlists, practice practice practice. No shows for six weeks and cooped up in the rehearsal room...we were ready to get back on stage!

The adventure began the day before New Year's eve. We set out to Davenport a day early to begin the extensive load-in, set up and soundcheck process. This was a genius idea by Jordan, as we got the 3 hour drive and half the work done the day before show. Nice.

It took awhile to get out of town, as we had to pick up both our horn players and fill the squishy tires of our van that had been hibernating for 6 weeks. Add in a little bit of snow, and our 5:30 load time turned into about 7pm. I loathe being late, but given that we were a whole day early to begin with, I kept my bitching to a minimum.

We got the gear loaded and partially set up, and had a very productive rehearsal with the horn section. Then back to the hotel for some pizza and beer, and an early bedtime for the 11am continuation of the set-up fun!

Musicians being coherent at 11am is never an easy task, but we were all pumped for the show and in good spirits. Today's work consisted of the electric and acoustic soundchecks, setting up the entire light rig, and not to mention, blowing up 150 balloons. This is where we thought our horn players with their super studly lungs would come in handy. They did blow up a commendable number of balloons, but alas, our crown jewel, the $8, three foot diameter New Year's balloon, met an untimely death at the hands of our trumpet player, Jerry. D'OH!

The work took us well into the afternoon, but we had time for a run back to the hotel for a short rest, showers, etc. At this point, I got a text message that the show was sold out in advance, and I became too excited for a nap. Boo-yeah!!

Back to the venue for a take-out dinner from the restaurant downstairs, and then showtime was upon us! The acoustic set was first, and our acoustic soundcheck was the very last thing we had done in the setup process. What an unpleasant surprise, then, when we took the stage with the crowd gathered around in anticipation, and my acoustic bass did not have any sound. A few minutes of troubleshooting that felt like an eternity, a bad cable was replaced, and on with the show!

The acoustic set was a ton of fun. We played a few reworked versions of FGC staples, including Ready Fire Aim, One Eye Dreaming, and The Charmer, giving them what I like to call the "Layla" treatment. We also unveiled a bunch of new covers, and everything went over really well. The set was a great way to ease in to a long night of music.

The second set was electric and took us until 11:30pm. Given that we hadn't played as a band in 6 weeks, I was very surprised as to how gelled everything felt and how comfortable all the tempos were. The crowd was raging from beat one, and it felt great to be back! The horn players joined us for the last few tunes of the set. I especially liked their contribution to our original tune, "A Misdemeanor's Worth."

The third set began right at midnight. I think this was our most accurate New Year's countdown yet, synced to the second with a satellite-monitored cell phone clock. Our balloon helpers launched all the balloons into the crowd as we fell into Auld Lang Syne, and then we busted into "Byron's Got the Time."

Everything went smoothly for about the first 30 seconds of 2010, but then I decided to kick a balloon off stage mid-song and my shoe went flying into the crowd. And it wasn't just any shoe. It was a nice shoe that I grudgingly bought just for the show so I wouldn't be wearing sneakers with my nice outfit, and I had in the back of my mind that I would probably return the pair to the store. So it became quite the crisis that my shoe was no longer on my foot, and instead was down in the photo pit, just inches away from being sucked into the mass of people. I then proceeded to blow the tune we were playing, while simultaneously blowing all attempts at communication with our photographer Chuck, who apparently thought me pointing at my bare foot meant that I wanted more balloons to kick.

I finally retrieved my shoe, and the rest of the set went swimmingly, with lots more horn fun, including the Phish cover, "Julius," which I was convinced the crowd would go apeshit over, and indeed they did. By the end of the show, my hands felt like jelly having not played that intense of a show in so long, and I was hurting pretty bad by the time we got to our double encore of "Late in the Evening" and "Another Before I Go."

After the show, we left all our gear set up (a New Year's tradition), and hit a friend's party, followed by more latenight fun at our hotel.

The next day went in slow motion, with a lazy check-out of the hotel, a 2pm "breakfast" at the Village Inn, tearing down and loading out the gear, a 3 hour drive home, and unloading all our gear once again.

An incredible way to end 2009 and start 2010. Thanks to all involved in making it happen!

Video Blogs

2009-10-13T12:21:00.004-05:00

I'm a little behind on the blogging due to dabbling in a new medium: The Video Blog!

Check out the videos below for quick overviews of the last couple weekends of shows. Hopefully I'll have time to come back for the usual verbal synopsis, but these will surely entertain you in the meantime....

FGC Video Blog: Volume 1
September 17-19, 2009 :: Iowa City IA, Lawrence KS, Columbia MO

FGC Video Blog: Volume 2
September 25-26 :: Davenport and Ames, IA

9/25/09 Redstone Room, Davenport, IA

2009-09-26T15:46:00.010-05:00

It seems that each time we play at the Redstone Room, it's more fun than the previous time, and last night once again exceeded all my expectations.

Our opener for the evening had canceled, which made for a little more of a relaxed set up for our light show and soundcheck. After all the work was done, we grabbed a quick dinner at the sandwich shop downstairs, and then awaited showtime as the fans started to stream in. Hanging out at the bar, I ground-scored a dollar...wooohooo!

The first set flew by, with the fans raging super hard in the front row. The venue had set up a "riot fence" at the front of the stage, and this probably enticed the crowd into being more rowdy than they may have been had the fence not even been there, climbing on the fence, shaking it, lifting it, and all sorts of other craziness. We even had a kid jump up on stage and dive out into the mass of people, successfully crowd surfing for a full 15 seconds or so. Totally epic!!

We didn't think it could get any crazier, but the second set got even more rowdy, with the crowd grooving hard and going absolutely apeshit. All I wanted to do was watch them go nuts, but the distraction made it hard to concentrate on my bass playing. I even got a "Janis is hot / Janis rocks!" chant between a couple tunes, though Adam swears they were saying "Janis sucks!" Hmmm, I'll need to review the recording. However, there was undeniable Janis support in the form of many WWJD shirt sightings:

After the show, the tear down took forever, and we didn't get to the hotel until well after 4am. Luckily, the continental breakfast was already out, so we raided it like hungry savages.

Now we're off to Ames, Iowa for a show at DG's. I don't know what it is about Iowa, but the people here freakin' ROCK. Will the Ames crew top the enthusiasm of Davenport?? Stay tuned for an update!

9/19/09 Mojo's, Columbia, MO

2009-09-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we had a nice leisurely check-out of our hotel and headed to lunch at a local pizza place that I had a coupon for. This lunch turned out to be a very exciting one, as thanks to a combination of my coupon, the house specials, and an order screw-up, the total to feed 5 people was only $12.11. Nice. We left for Columbia happy and full.

The Mojo's show started out as a bit of a clusterfuck, with the opening band deciding to take over the stage with their setup before we even got there. Good thing we didn't pull that stunt with Victor Wooten the couple nights prior...sheesh. After braving the opening band, we hit the stage for a small but appreciative crowd. The vibe was totally different than our short high pressure opening sets the two nights before, and we all seemed to play a little more adventurously and with less inhibitions. We did a particularly fun version of MSMW's "Little Walter Rides Again," a tune that we used to play quite frequently but hadn't ripped out in some time, so it was fun to revisit it. Another event of note during the show was that Mattias raged so hard that his drum stick caught on his glasses and flung them across the stage, bending up the frames quite a bit. Yes folks, we are too rock-star to smash our instruments and amps, and instead go for the eyewear.

After the show, we hung out with some fans, seizing the opportunity for two WWJD tshirt photo opps. Then back to the hotel for a short night's sleep before heading back home to Chicago the next day.

All in all, a fun weekend!

9/18/09 Granada Theater, Lawrence, KS (with Victor Wooten!)

2009-09-19T17:31:00.006-05:00

Night number two with Victor Wooten started out with polite complaining to the Days Inn staff about our disgusting hotel rooms (and their subsequent promise to refund the points we used to pay for them...yes!) and then a long sleepy drive down to Lawrence Kansas.

A nice change from the previous night at the cramped and sweaty Picador, the Granada Theater is a spacious room with a great sound system and it was good to be back. We arrived to find Vic jamming out on stage with three of his kids: 8-yr-old Adam on the drumkit, and his 6 and 11 year old daughters on vocals....musicianship definitely runs in the family!

We got set up and soundchecked, and the crowd filed in as soon as the doors opened, vying for their spot at the front of the stage to get close enough to study Victor's technique...though I pretended it was for me. :) We were instructed to hit right at 9pm sharp, and it was a little nerve-wracking waiting backstage and counting down those final minutes before heading out to face that bass-critiquing crowd. The show went off without a hitch, though, and I felt good about the impression we made on this crowd of mostly new faces for us.

Victor hit the stage thereafter, throwing in a few of the same tricks from the night before, but the sound and sightline were so much better at this venue that it made even the repeats enjoyable. He gave yet another shout out to us, introducing FGC as one of his favorite bands and adding, "What would Janis do? That is the question." I was also completely entertained by Vic and JD Blair's freakin' hilarious on-stage banter -- JD in particular is such a goofball. Plus, as I hoped, Victor brought out his kids to play the tune they were going over in soundcheck. The kids didn't seem at all fazed by the crowd of several hundred people, and the 8-year-old drummer especially was a real treat to watch.

Post-show, we hung out with Victor a bit, and once again, I'm so pleasantly surprised by what a genuine and down-to-earth person he is. We then made the 45 minute drive to our hotel in Kansas City, where we settled into our cushy free rooms at the Sheraton with the best "Do Not Disturb" signs I have ever seen:

9/17/09 Picador, Iowa City, IA (with Victor Wooten!)

2009-09-18T16:24:00.004-05:00

This show was a special one for me, given that we were to be opening for one of the greatest bass players of all time, and thankfully I wasn't the nervous wreck that I was for our first Wooten opening last year at Chicago's House of Blues.

We arrived to the venue just as Victor was finishing up soundchecking. He greeted me with a booming "Janis!!!" and introduced me to his wife and four kids who were all on the road with him. I had assumed this tour would be a small operation, given that it's just a duo of Victor and drummer, but no, they had a full tour bus and the family factor, not mention a monster bass rig and an even bigger monster of a drum kit.

Out set went off well. We were kind of crammed onto the small stage, but I think the close quarters made for more tight playing. The room was packed when we started, and it was easy to tell that the majority of them were musicians, since there was much more staring and much less dancing than we're used to. (I instantly got flashbacks of playing shows with Steve Kimock!) But the crowd's motionlessness turned out to be no indication of their enthusiasm, as we got cheers in all the right places and lots of great feedback after our set.

Victor hit the stage a little later, giving a sweet shout-out to me personally as well as the band after a few songs into his set. Needless to say, I was walking on a cloud for the rest of the night. His show was phenomenal, with the usual Victor virtuosity, along with some cool looping and harmonizers and backed up by an insanely funky and tastefully simple drummer named JD Blair, aka "The Groove Regulator." Go check these guys out! www.victorwooten.com

Off to Lawrence Kansas for night number two with the Woot-ster!

9/12/09 Wuhnurth Festival, Muncie, IN

2009-09-18T15:51:00.005-05:00

Wuhnurth (pronounced "One Earth") Festival. Interesting spelling. Fun festival!

We made most of the trek to Muncie the night before our set so we wouldn't have to get up early and drive from Chicago, instead crashing in a cushy Candlewood Suites in Indianapolis using our points.
This hotel made us feel like royalty, with a gift bag upon check-in, no questions late checkout, free goodies from the "Candlewood Cupboard" pantry shop, and awesome rooms with full kitchens.

We started the day with a hot breakfast cooked in our rooms, and then headed out to Wuhnurth Fest. The band schedule was running a bit late, so we enjoyed some time in the great weather, hanging with a few other bands and friends and fans.

The set went off well, and it was nice to see some of our die-hards from Chicago raging the front row. We opened with the new "G Song," which is really starting to gel, and also played probably our last "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" of the summer, in honor of the small lake behind the stage.

Post-show, the hospitality people were excited to feed their first band of the evening, and we loaded up on awesome pasta, salad, and garlic bread.

Adam, Jordan and I headed out later that night, leaving Mattias behind as the ambassador to the fans. On the way home, Adam spotted a drunk driver on the highway during his shift, so I called 911 to report it. We passed the crazy driver and went through an interchange, but about 20 minutes later, Miss Crazy Drunkie in the PT Cruiser whizzed by us once again, weaving in and out of the lanes, and slowing and speeding up randomly. I called 911 again, and while I was on the phone, Crazy Drunkie smashed into a truck about 5 car lengths in front of us. We narrowly escaped a sticky situation and were very grateful for it....we were "wuhn" lucky band!

9/5/09 moe.down, Turin, NY

2009-09-08T18:30:00.004-05:00

The trek out to moe.down in upstate New York started out with kind of a stress. Two nights before the show as we were loading up our gear, we find that our van's "Check Engine" light was on once again (see posting from the 8/12/09 show for the previous hellish encounter with this pesky light). Not wanting to drive 1,500 miles round trip with a potential serious problem, we took the van into the shop the next morning. A day's work turned into a day-and-half's work, and Friday's departure time got pushed back a good four hours.

The van was in good shape though, and we hauled ass out to New York, arriving at our hotel well after 3am. We would have to depart the next day by 9:30am to make the rest of the drive and arrive at the festival in time for our noon set, so we were less than happy campers about the lack of sleep, but glad to have made the drive without incident.

Saturday's weather was gorgeous, and festival grounds were set in the mountains, with a chill vibe all around. The "second stage" that we were playing on was actually not too shabby, and was of decent size with killer sound. We were all a little groggy though: While setting up, I thought my amp was broken, but it turned out just not to be plugged in; Mattias and Jordan both had mid-show brain farts with Mattias counting off the wrong song, and Jordan blowing the chords in another; and Adam openly admitted to momentarily falling asleep during the set.

But despite the lack of sleep, we played 2 great sets to a surprisingly big crowd for that early in the afternoon, and received tons of great feedback as we hung out at the festival the rest of the day. Even though we were far from home, it was nice to hear folks calling out song requests during the set and meeting fans afterwards who had seen us at Summer Camp or on our past tours through the Northeast.

The festival also had awesome hospitality, with great a great vegetarian spread, and extras like fresh squeezed orange juice and a secret freezer full of fudgesicles. I was once again the driver at the end of the night, so the rest of the band was obligated to get super drunk, especially Adam, who was in rare form.

Thanks to moe. for an awesome festival, and we hope to be back in future years!

8/29/09 Tanner's, Kimberly, WI

2009-09-08T17:45:00.003-05:00

The Tanner's show was a benefit event put on by Organik Entertainment and quite an elaborate production -- great sound and lights, a raffle, vendors, etc. We were well taken care of from the minute we arrived till the end of the night when we crashed in our super comfy comped rooms at the Hilton next door.

It ended up being a very long day and night with the early soundcheck and multiple bands prior to us, but the show was fun. Lots of new and old Wisconsin friends came out, and we stretched out with a long set, in the middle of which Mattias decided to kick my ass with our "Bass and Drum" jam by setting up a wicked fast groove. Thanks, buddy!! I hung in there, though, and will find some way to retaliate.

8/28/09 Urbana Sweetcorn Fest, Urbana, IL

2009-09-08T17:24:00.003-05:00

This was our second stint at the Urbana Sweetcorn Fest, our first being 2 years ago. The fest is well-run with great production, but is more of a family event rather than the usual hippie festivals that we play. A different vibe, but fun nonetheless.

The drive down to Urbana went smoothly, but as we were getting set up, the sky became dark and threatening clouds started to roll in. Would this be our third rained out festival set of the summer (6/27 Peoria and 8/9 Denver being the first two)?? Thankfully, the sky magically cleared up within the next 30 minutes or so, and it turned out to be a beautiful evening.

The crowd gathered as we played, with a smattering of our usual fanbase alongside "normal" folk. I knew something was wrong with this crowd when the merch table stats revealed many "Air Jordan" shirt sales and no WWJD sales. ;)

After our set, I got to meet some great fans and enjoy some hella-buttery sweetcorn, and Adam was very pleased with himself for tracking down passes to the VIP section where we stuffed ourselves with free food and beer.

8/20-21/2009 Fat Fest, Wabasha, MN

2009-09-08T16:36:00.007-05:00

Fat Fest began with an early departure for the long 6 hour drive up to Wabasha MN. We got nailed with the rain at last year's Fat Fest performance, and the outlook was not boding well for this year either. We crossed our fingers, and while keeping an eye on the sky, got set up and soundchecked, arming ourselves with nearby tarps and towels in the event of a downpour.

We managed to make it through the set with just an intermittent drizzle that thankfully did not blow much into the stage, and the crowd was raging and didn't seem to mind at all. A couple highlights were a sweet "Tutear" > "Trying To Live Up" segway that we magically nailed, and a set closer that started off as "West Egg Party," but melded into "Falling Off the Fence" after Jordan changed his mind midway through the intro. Again, no train wrecks with that segway...Go us! Band photo by Adam (aka "New Adam") Zareczny

Kyle Hollingsworth Band was supposed to follow our set and use some of our gear, but shortly after we finished, the impending downpour ensued and the stage became trashed. Kyle ended up being moved to the other stage, toting along Jordan's vintage Rhodes, while thanking us profusely for subjecting the gear to inclement weather. It was well worth it, though -- Kyle's band rocks, especially the bass player. These guys are on tour this fall...check 'em out!

We partied it up for the rest of the night and then headed back to our hotel, where we received the good fortune of both a 2pm check-out the next day, and coupons for a free hot breakfast at the Perkins attached to the hotel. Ahh, life is good!

The next day we headed back to Fat Fest where Jordan and I would be joining the Everyone Orchestra set. A couple notable members of this incarnation included Michael Kang (from String Cheese Incident) and Vinnie Amico (from moe). It was a fun set, with Jordan rocking the keys for the entire show, and me jumping in on bass halfway through. Vinnie welcomed me to the ensemble with a lightning quick drum-and-bass groove that I could barely hold on for. Gee, thanks, Vinnie!!

After the show, my bandmates got super drunk, and it's always such a joy to babysit them...Thanks fellas.

Back to the hotel, then back to Chicago the next day. On the way home, Adam bugged me with his usual catch phrase, "Ice, I'm hungry. What're you gonna feed me?" Usually I ignore him, but this time offered him a SoyJoy nutrition bar (that I was never going to eat because they are so disgusting), under the condition that he had to eat the whole thing. This picture sums up Adam's SoyJoy experience pretty well, ironically quite absent of joy:

Colorado > Arkansas: "Another Day Living the Dream"

2009-08-15T17:02:00.005-05:00

We began the long trek from Colorado to Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon. We had about 850 miles to cover, but our set at the Mulberry Mountain Festival wasn't until Thursday evening, so we had plenty of time to cover the drive. Little did we know...

Less than halfway into the trip, in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, we blew a tire on our trailer. And it wasn't just a flat tire, it was a seriously shredded-to-the-bone mutilated tire. Unreal! This wouldn't have been too big of a setback, except for the following complications: (1) Our spare was a little bit shady and not suitable for the 1000+ miles we had to travel to get to Arkansas and then home to Chicago; (2) Due to our remote location, it was over 2 hours until AAA came to our rescue (though we did pass the time watching the meteor shower, which was pretty cool!); and (3) When putting our spare on, the AAA guy informed us that the wheel bearings on our trailer were dangerously loose and would need to be fixed ASAP or the trailer would spontaneously combust, or something terrible like that.

Getting out the spare tire, packed deep in the trailer. Music gear all over the shoulder of I-70 with traffic whizzing by.

We got up and running again, and continued east at the AAA recommended 50mph until we found some civilization...if you can call it that...remember, we're in Kansas, people. So where do we find a new tire and someone to fix our trailer at midnight on a Wednesday? An internet/GPS/cell phone combo attack finds an on-call tire shop about 50 miles from our breakdown site in Salina KS, and a groggy employee met us at the shop and sold us a new tire and spare (for actually way less than we were getting back home, even with the latenight surcharge...score!). We decided to get a hotel in Salina, get up early to get the trailer fixed, and still hopefully roll on to the festival with plenty of time to spare.

Oh, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it?! After solving the tire problem, we got back into the van to head to a hotel and saw that our "Service Engine Soon" light was on and noticed that the van was shaking pretty heavily when idling. Gimme a f*cking break! We now have both van and trailer repairs to deal with in the morning, and making it to the festival is looking pretty grim.

Adam and I were assigned the morning repair duty, getting up at the ungodly hour of 8:30am to start making phone calls to see who could do these emergency repairs and get us on the road. We found a local repair shop that could do both the van and trailer, and after checking things out, quoted us a time frame of about 2-2.5 hours to get the work done. Our festival set was at 10pm, and we had a little shy of 7 hours to drive; this should work. But, 2 hours turned into 4+ hours, complete with much pacing in the repair shop waiting room, and we didn't get back on the road until 3:15pm.

Jordan manned the wheel for the entire drive to Arkansas with expert speed and control but it seemed that all the forces were against us: an attempted gas/bathroom pit stop where all the facilities were closed, a gazillion toll stops slowing us up, a closed road and detour in Tulsa, and consistent 75mph speed limits leaving no room for our clunky rig to get ahead of the GPS arrival time. We rolled into the festival grounds right at 10pm, the supposed start to our 2 hour set, and had a slew of friends and crew waiting at our stage to get us loaded in at lightning speed, along with a bunch of fans awaiting our set and providing a nice warm welcome.

The downbeat was only 45 minutes late, and we played our asses off to a raging crowd for a full 75 minutes. You'd have thought we'd be tired and lifeless after such a debilitating 24 hours, but we ended up being so energized to have finally made it and to have such an appreciative crowd. It was really one of the most rewarding sets in a long time!

Post-show, we finally had a chance to slow down, hanging out with friends and catching some of Lotus' set. We left the festival around 2:30am and began the hour plus drive to our hotel that night. As if mocking us, our low fuel light came on just as we departed, and of course, we're in the middle of nowhere with no gas stations for at least 30 miles on our route of mountainous roads, and who knows if they'd even be open at this time of night. We could have gone half that distance in the wrong direction to get gas, but decided to just take the risk. Running out of gas would be a pretty comical way to end the day, so even the bad end of the outcome would make for a good story.

I drove us expertly through the mountain roads, barely stepping on the gas pedal and using momentum to propel us down the mountain. Driving 32 miles didn't even push the needle below the red line, and we made it to an open gas station with plenty to spare. High fives and woo woo's ensued, and another day of living the dream had come to an end.

Many thanks to AAA, Commercial Tire, Oard's Auto Repair, Mike A, Micah, Ronny, Tiff, Kevin, Mike R., the festival stage crew and fans, and the many others who helped give a happy ending to our day from hell.

Colorado Recap: 8/7 - 8/11/09

2009-08-12T15:57:00.009-05:00

Our Colorado run started off with a latenight show at Denver’s Dancin’ in the Streets Festival on Friday August 7. We arrived to the festival in the late afternoon, just in time to catch some of Steve Kimock’s set. I scoped out the new bass player and had a nice little reunion with the band and crew. FGC hit the stage around midnight, with Kimock and Kreutzmann throwing down next door in Cervantes. Our set was a random ebb and flow of people as folks filtered back and forth between the two shows in the adjacent venues, so it was kind of a weird scene. But we had a good time, and got to hang with Mike from Lotus after the show, and made a new friend, Drew, who helped us load out and even gave me a tie-dye shirt which I am sporting as I type this.

Saturday’s show was at Mishawaka Amphitheatre in the mountains outside of Ft Collins. We set our GPS to the address on the website and proceeded on the lovely drive through the mountains right along a river. Something obviously wasn’t right when our GPS declared our arrival in literally the middle of nowhere with nothing around, and no cell signal for miles to call for directions or get online. We reset the GPS to the city center of Bellvue, the town where the venue was located and turned around to head 20+ miles back where we came from (a good 45 minute drive on those windy mountain roads). About 5 miles into the backtracking, we pass the only sign of civilization for miles, the Mishawaka Inn, and I suggest we pull over and ask for directions. No more directions needed; turned out that this was the venue...how funny!

This was a very cool venue indeed, with an outdoor stage literally right next to a river and surrounded by mountains. The only drawback was the infestation of bees, and I spent the better part of the daylight hours frantically running from them. After getting set up and soundchecked, we enjoyed some dinner on the patio, the Cubs game in the bar, and the classic rock sounds of the opener, Dead Floyd. We then hit the stage for an extended set, and the crowd was enthusiastic and raging.

Sunday’s show was back at the Dancin’ in the Streets Festival, this time on one of the outdoor stages for a short set during headliner Leftover Salmon’s setbreak. Right when it was about time to start loading our gear out onto the stage, the sky took on a threatening look, and the rain suddenly started coming down in buckets. The storm lasted for only about a half hour, but the rain delay meant no setbreak for Leftover Salmon (thus no space for a “tweener” set for us), and not to mention, the stage we were supposed to play on became completely deluged in water. We were pretty bummed about the canceled set, but still managed to enjoy the evening hanging out with The Heavy Pets and Mike and Chuck from Lotus.

On Tuesday, we headed up to Breckenridge to play a show with Dirty Dozen Brass Band at 320 South. We were particularly excited for this show because the guitarist from DDBB (Jake) was a classmate of ours in music school, so it was cool to reconnect with him. In addition to being the opening band, we were also commissioned to loan some of our gear to DDBB, who were traveling without backline. Adam’s amp functioned fine for our set, but during the changeover between bands, it conked out for some unknown reason, leaving Jake without an amp. A totally lame and random turn of events, but Jake eventually recruited another amp and we got to hear him shred with this legendary band. Mad props to him!

Now we’re headed back across the country, stopping at Mulberry Mountain Festival on the way home. Stay tuned for more reports from the road!

Denver Travel Memories: Attack of the Chocolate Pomegranates

2009-08-06T22:53:00.004-05:00

We're currently en route to Denver. Since nothing interesting has happened so far (aside from seeing a super tan and fit 50+ year old woman hula-hooping and talking on her cell phone next to her car at a gas station in the middle of Nebraska), I thought I would tell the story of my last journey to Denver.

FGC did a 5-night run in Colorado last March. I had the luxury of flying out there after doing two shows in Virginia with Steve Kimock, while the rest of the band made the long drive out from Chicago in our van and trailer. While in Virginia, I was given a huge bag of my precious coveted chocolate pomegranates by Dr. Lora, good friend of the Kimock bunch and unofficial chocolate pomegranate dealer. Rather than lug the entire bag on the flight in my back pack, I made a travel-size portion using the ice bucket baggie from my hotel room, and put the remainder of the choc-poms in my checked bag.

During the flight, I broke out the baggie and happily munched on the addictive chocolates while watching some movies on my laptop. When the flight landed, I got up from my row and looked back to make sure I didn't leave anything, noticing a brown smudge on the seat. I thought to myself, "Oh great, I sat on a dirty seat for the entire flight?" Oh well, didn't think much of it.

I made a stop in the bathroom once I got into the airport and was completely mortified to find a huge brown smudge on the back of my jeans. Did I poop my pants and not even realize it? No, a quick (and awkward) sniff revealed foul play by chocolate. How did this happen? I then pulled out the remainder of the choc poms from my backpack to find that the flimsy ice bucket baggie from the hotel had a hole in it, and all the while that I was eating these things on the plane, they were, unbeknownst to me, dropping into my lap, between my legs, and melting all over my ass.

Has this embarrassing incident made me paranoid about eating chocolate pomegranates since, or turned me off of them altogether? Hell no; I am addicted to them as ever. But it has taught me to always look behind me!

8/1/09 3G's Festival, Black River Falls, WI

2009-08-03T14:09:00.008-05:00

Saturday began with a long drive up to the 3G's Festival (Grateful Garcia Gathering) in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. We were excited to be the Saturday headliner for this small festival, on Jerry Garcia's birthday no less.

The 3G's Festival was your standard hippie music festival, complete with many bands, camping, peaceful dirty hippies, and a good time for all. The only part of it straying from the norm was the festival grounds, which when not hosting the occasional music festival, is otherwise known as the "Adults Only Sexual Freedom Campground." When we pulled into the festival grounds and saw the "Adults Only" disclaimer at the gate, we weren't quite sure what this entailed until we saw some nudists and later found a barn full of treasures which Adam had way too much fun exploring:

Adam enjoying some light reading...

Our playground tour guide asked if we wanted to try turning the electricity on in the cage. We politely declined.

Kids, don't try this at home....

Musically, the show was a blast. The stage sound was great, and we whipped out a few Jerry tunes in honor of his birthday, getting a little adventurous with an impromptu Shakedown Street > Get Outta My Life > Shakedown Street (which Jordan only mildly butchered, maybe because he got distracted by the heavy-set naked guy in the audience).

Post show, we enjoyed a nice hang with some fans and friends while loading the trailer in slow motion. Thanks again to Johnny and Tim and the 3G's crew for a great festival!

The blog is back! 7/31/09 Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA

2009-08-01T15:27:00.006-05:00

FGC has had a uncharacteristically light summer up until this point, but we're back in full swing, and I'm hoping my blog will be too. We'll see.

Yesterday's show in Des Moines started out with some ups and downs. The first "down" was having to get up early for the 6+ hour drive and be on the road by 11:30am. Musicians brains do not compute before noon. I tried to ease the pain by buying everyone breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, the day's first "up." Aren't I sweet?

We get on the road and encounter another of the day's "ups". I check my email to find that I had beaten the Red Lion Hotel chain's Best Rate Guarantee and scored 2 nights of 2 rooms for FREE for the band's travels to Colorado in a couple weeks. Stickin' it to the man! I wasn't happy for too long, as when we stopped for gas about an hour later, we realized that our video camera and audio recorder had been swiped out of the back of our van while we were loading up at our house that morning. LAME.

We tried to shake off the bad news, instead focusing on the mountain of work ahead of us for the evening. Luckily Des Moines fan, Dax (from now on spelled "Daxxx" cause it's much cooler), was on hand to help load in and set up our gear and light show. Using our lights always adds an extra hour or two of setup, and getting 'em rigged up at the Mews was no easy feat, involving ladders and death-defying acrobatics. I pleaded "girl" and did not participate beyond running cables.

The place filled up and we started off the show with a brand new tune we've been working on ("G Song", for now), that we weren't even sure was quite ready to be debuted, but our Des Moines crowd is such a comfortable and welcoming bunch that it's always easy to be risky there. We pulled it off pretty well, and the second set unveiled 2 more new songs, an original temporarily called "F Song" or "Groove Cheese", as well as a Medeski Martin and Wood cover called "Wiggly's Way." It's a shame we didn't have our audio or video recorders on hand to capture this show; it was certainly a fun night!

We ended the show a few minutes before curfew and enjoyed some time hanging with the fans before they got kicked out, and then the joy of tearing everything down. We got to our hotel close to 4am and crashed hard.

On to the 3G's Festival today to rock Jerry Garcia's birthday show!

Farewell to Steve Kimock Crazy Engine

2009-06-12T22:43:00.002-05:00

Well, the news has hit the streets. Below are the “official” statements from Kimock camp and myself in regards to my departure from the Steve Kimock Crazy Engine. I’ll probably return with some “unofficial” thoughts and comments, and as always, my open door policy to friends, fans, Facebook acquaintances and strangers stands, so feel free to contact me with your thoughts.

I know everyone's biggest question for the moment is..."Will the blog continue?" And I believe that answer is YES. There are still plenty of interesting adventures ahead on the road with FGC, and you will (hopefully...probably) get to read about them here. Now on to business...

From Steve Kimock Productions:

Steve Kimock Crazy Engine is saying farewell to bassist Janis Wallin. Conflicting schedules and diverging creative interests have led to a mutual agreement to part ways, and while all parties are confident this is the right choice, we will miss Janis and are sad to see her go. Steve's inclination to fill the bass chair promptly combined with impractical travel logistics have led us all to conclude that it would be best for Janis's departure to be effective immediately; however, we look forward to working together in the future as time and schedules permit. We'd like to thank Janis for a wonderful couple of months, and we sincerely wish her all the best!

From me:

After speaking at great length, Steve and I came to a mutual agreement that although the Crazy Engine has thus far made some fantastic music and has been a positive experience for all involved, it's not the right assembly of players for a long-term project. With Steve's and my own artistic and professional goals in mind, the Crazy Engine and I will be parting ways effective this weekend. I regret the last minute nature of this change and apologize to those that were particularly looking forward to seeing me with the band in the coming weeks. Working with this incredible group of musicians and crew has been the experience of a lifetime. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity, and look forward to working with Steve again in the future. At this point however, I'm most excited to return my focus full time to Family Groove Company!

Thank you Steve, Melvin, Johnny, Cheryl, Shirley, Brian, Charlie, Chris, Jenn and the FLOK for a wonderful adventure. And to Jordan, Adam, Mattias, Mike, and the supportive FGC fanbase who I love dearly, I can't wait to get down with you all at the next show!

Janis

6/7/09

2009-06-08T23:48:00.000-05:00

Well, this would have been a posting on the second night at Mountains of the Moon Festival, but the show was unfortunately canceled. Don't ask why, I'm just the bass player. So instead, please enjoy some more photos from beautiful Nelson, British Columbia, and feel free to click the link at the bottom to view more.

Click here to check out a bunch more photos from the trip!

6/6/09 Mountains of the Moon Festival, Nelson, BC

2009-06-07T13:26:00.005-05:00

My day started off with 11 awesome hours of sleep, and I awoke wondering if the rest of the band had made it OK. (Steve, Johnny, and Charlie were traveling on later flights than Brian, Melvin, and me). Not only did they not get to the hotel until 10am that morning after traveling all day and night, I find out that Charlie was not admitted into Canada and was stuck at a hotel just across the border. What could have possibly caused this snag?

(a) Charlie is a Russian spy
(b) Charlie is a registered sex offender
(c) Charlie tried to smuggle in contraband everything up his butt
(d) Charlie could not pronounce "out" and "house" or "eh" properly when grilled by the border patrol

I quickly rebounded from the shock of the absence of my usual tour/meal buddy, and spent the afternoon exploring Nelson alone. I had some great breakfast at a local restaurant recommended by the promoter and then took a long walk around the town and down by the lake. The city is very quaint, and the scenery is breathtaking.

Later that day, the promoter took us and Portable Payback (Jurassic 5 offshoot) out for an early dinner at a Greek/Italian restaurant. Still slightly disgruntled from the previous evening's ridiculously long wait for food, we were all pleased to find the salads/appetizers arriving after 9 minutes and the entrees after 22 minutes. Woohoo! I became a little chummier with the Jurassic 2, and learned that Soup has a weakness for Dawson's Creek, and Mark has a weakness for whipped cream (stealing all of it off of his neighbor's dessert plate).

We headed over to the festival around 6pm, driving about 30 miles (err, 48 kilometers) to Salmo. The festival site was located on a sort of plateau, surrounded on all sides by mountains. As a resident Midwesterner for the past 7 years, the scenery around here never ceases to be completely and totally entertaining to me! Not to mention, there were dogs everywhere, so I upped my dog-pet count in a serious way!

The production was running late and by the time we got on stage, the sun was almost down and it was insanely cold...."Cold as a witch's tit," to quote Mr. Steve Kimock. We hit a further delay when Melvin realized that his Hammond organ was not playing in the proper key due to a weak power generator. We spent a few minutes troubleshooting before finally deciding to just tune the guitars and bass to match the organ, which was almost an entire whole step down. I wasn't prepared for the impact this would have on the music, as every song sounded totally strange and slightly off center from where my ear wanted it to be. But it was definitely interesting!

The show went well despite cold toes and fingers and strange tunings. We had a fun "Footprints" and another exploratory "Long Form Part 4" that melded into a samba-type groove at the end. (Apologies, but given the absence of Charlie, I don't believe this show was recorded!).

After the show, we hustled back to the hotel to thaw out. Round 2 at the festival is tonight and the weather is forecast to be just as cold. I think I'm going to go out and find some hand/toe warmers!

Greetings from Canada!

2009-06-06T00:48:00.006-05:00

Here's how a "typical" band travel day goes when you have to cover 2000 miles and cross 2 time zones and an international border to get to the next shows.

Little Rock, Arkansas > Nelson, British Columbia

6:00am - Wake up after 4ish hours of sleep from gig the night before
6:45am - Lobby call for the Little Rock airport for an 8:20am flight.
7:05am - Transported to airport, checked in, security screened, already at gate for 8:20am flight (really would have loved that extra 45 minutes or so of sleep)
9:30am - (Mountain Time) Arrive in Denver for 2+ hour layover
10:30am - Breakfast at an airport cafe with Melvin and Brian
12:00pm - Fly from Denver to Spokane WA (first time in WA...cool!)
1:30pm (Pacific Time) Arrive in Spokane, meet up with other festival band (featuring 2 members of Jurassic 5!) and take 3.5 hour shuttle bus up to Canada
4:45pm - Middle-of-nowhere border patrol detains us for an entire hour
6:45pm - Finally arrive at hotel in Nelson BC
7:15pm - Sit down to dinner with the Jurassic 2 and promoter at a hip restaurant in Nelson.
8:00pm - Still waiting for food to be served...
8:15pm - Still waiting....
8:30pm - Salads served. Musicians getting grumpy.
8:50pm - Entrees finally served. Musicians scarf like animals.
9:30pm - Pet dog outside restaurant!!

19 hours later, I'm finally going to bed. GOOD NIGHT!!!

Waiting at the Canadian border. Will they let us stupid Americans in?

View of some Nelson mountains from the hotel doorstep:

6/4/09 Wakarusa Festival, Ozark, AR

2009-06-05T00:49:00.003-05:00

The Crazy Engine journey reconvened today at Wakarusa Festival in Ozark, Arkansas. I flew into Little Rock last night, checked into the Holiday Inn, and enjoyed some in-room dinner, TV, and a long night's sleep. Recharging with Waffle House in the morning, I was ready to reconnect with my bandmates and rock Arkansas!

We were scheduled to have festival-provided transportation leaving the hotel at 2pm today. But apparently, some genius decided to combine our ride with not one, but TWO, different airport pick-ups, both of whose flights were delayed, and we ended up leaving over an hour late. I thought to myself, "These better be important people we're picking up at the airport." Turns out it was just the girlfriend of a fairly small band on the bill, and another musician who wasn't playing till latenight. With a 2.5 hour ride to the festival, this wasn't leaving much room for production preparation and made the day start out very hectic. Brian was livid. I was annoyed, but glad that I wasn't in charge and didn't have to deal with the mess and consequences.

The weather in Little Rock was cold and threatening to rain, but 2 hours away at the festival site, it couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny and warm, virtually no humidity. We arrived only about an hourish before showtime, and once again, I was thankful I didn't have any setup to worry about. I attempted to grab some dinner backstage, but no vegetarian choices amongst the 5 or so trays of meat entrees, with the exception of fruit salad. Worst. Catering. Ever.

Setup and monitor check were brief, but I think we got things dialed in OK. The first tune was a little shaky, but we all eventually settled back into our groove. The "Long Form Part 4" at this show was particularly adventurous, and kind of precarious at the end, but we made it through. The crowd was fun, and it was nice to see familiar faces out there and have some Midwest FGC representation, with lots of "Janis!!" calls. (Thanks guys!!!) George Porter Jr. showed up and sat in for the last 2 songs, and I hung out side stage with Charlie and enjoyed watching the crowd.

Post-show, I was immediately whisked away with Johnny on a golf cart, with the promise of a better dinner at the destination. We arrived at a huge house at the edge of the property, a secret house serving better dinner than backstage. I sat at a long table with Warren Haynes and his band and crew at the other end, while a bunch of servers brought us several courses of food with more substantial veggie options this time around. I got to hang with Jason and Travis from EOTO for a few minutes before once again being whisked away, this time by the van leaving the festival for the hotel. Another long 2.5 hour drive, and now I have to wake up in 5 short hours for our trek across the country to British Columbia. Worst. Routing. Ever.

See you in Canada, eh!!

5/1/09 Tipitina's French Quarter, New Orleans, LA

2009-05-05T21:05:00.011-05:00

Day two in New Orleans was quite uneventful unfortunately. Having gotten to bed well past dawn the night before, I ended up sleeping most of the day and my lofty plans of experiencing the city and festival were thwarted by the snoozage.

The other Tipitina's seemed to be a slightly classier joint, and we were glad to have ample time for set-up and soundcheck. It was probably the most packed house of the tour. The crowd was bumpin', and we had a pretty rockin' version of Coles > Tangled, with a cool funk riff developing in the latter. Toward the end of the show, Bonerama trombonist, Mark Mullins, swung by and sat in on a few tunes. He had great tone, picked up on things very quickly, and added a nice dimension to the band.

After the show, the band bid each other farewell for the end of the tour, and I took a short nap before my 8am flight back to Chicago for a show with FGC. Thanks to everyone for an awesome tour!

To distract you from my fairly lame final post, here are a few more NOLA pics for your viewing pleasure:

4/30/09 Tipitina's Uptown, New Orleans, LA

2009-05-05T12:40:00.013-05:00

We hit the road from Birmingham at the crack of noon for our 5 hour trip to New Orleans. Our show that night was a late one, so we weren't in any type of rush to get there, which was nice.

During the drive, I was all excited to break out the unopened veggie tray which we had ganked from the green room at the show the night before....a little happy hour of sorts to enjoy on the bus ride. Within seconds of peeling the plastic cover off the veggie tray, the entire front lounge of the bus was overcome with the most foul rotten veggie odor I have ever smelled. Everyone wretched and ran for cover, but there was no hiding from this olfactory onslaught. Melvin, who had been in a deep slumber on the couch, suddenly awoke, screaming for mercy. Steve came rushing from the back of the bus, where the smell had quickly infiltrated, thinking we were under some kind of nuclear or biological attack. Robin pulled the bus over at a rest stop and we quickly ditched the toxic veggie tray outside and did our best to air out the bus. I think it will be awhile before I can eat raw carrots and celery without being haunted by this incident!

We pulled into New Orleans in the late afternoon, and unloaded our gear at Tipitina's. It was my first time in NOLA, and I was diggin' the quaint little neighborhood of Uptown. After the quick load, we made our way over to our hotel, a cool highrise with a giant clarinet painted on the side of it.

I grabbed a nap (in preparation of our very latenight gig) and some dinner, and then headed over to the Howlin' Wolf to catch some pre-gig music. Soulive and their family of bands was playing there, and road manager Tony Hume (decked out in a sweet kilt) got me in to enjoy a band called Dr. Claw, a Lettuce/Soulive supergroup of sorts with one of my favorite drummers, Adam Deitch. Just as the band started to really cook (with Ivan Neville joining in on keys!), I had to split and head over to Tipitina's for my show.

Tipitina's was fairly quiet when I arrived, with the crew scrambling to set up in the short allotted window. I enjoyed some hang time with Ken Swartz, an old friend from PA who I hadn't seen in 10+ years and who is kicking ass on the NOLA music scene. I also pet my 13th (and final) dog of the trip and unexpectedly ran into Bobby D, a FGC fan from Iowa whose birthday party we played a number of years ago.

Our 2am start time ended up being more like 2:45am, but we made up for it by raging one long set with no breaks. Right around 4:20am, George Porter Jr. showed up, and I was booted off stage for this bass legend to play a few tunes with the band. George plowed through "Merle's Boogie," "You're The One," and "That's What Love Will Make You Do." It was fun to watch the band from offstage, and even more fun to have a much-needed break at that late hour!

George relinquished the bass chair for the end of the night, and we played till well past 5am. Post-show, we raided the hospitality spread in the green room. Not to be foiled again with saving food for the next day, Charlie made the most of it with quite the hefty sandwich. We didn't hit the road until close to 7am, and it was kind of surreal driving back to the hotel in daylight, with the streets eerily quiet. I was beat, but an all-nighter seemed fitting for my intro to NOLA!

Sleepy Engine

2009-05-03T16:16:00.011-05:00

Stay tuned for the report from New Orleans, coming soon (hopefully!).

In the meantime, check out these photos from the road. My goal on the tour was to catch a photo of every band and crew member snoozing (in the tour bus bunk was off limits...too easy!). I didn't nail everyone, but I guess I'll revise this to be an ongoing project. Enjoy!

Melvin Seals:

John Morgan Kimock:

Charlie Miller:

Skyler Kimock (guest percussionist):

And the big daddy....Steve Kimock. Photo courtesy of Johnny and his Polaroid camera. The jury is still out as to what exact chord Steve was fretting while he dozed off...

4/29/09 Work Play, Birmingham, AL

2009-04-30T15:51:00.011-05:00

We arrived in Birmingham in the early morning, and I finally got into my hotel room around 9:30am, hoping to continue my slumber. Fate had other things in mind, though, as about once per hour, there was a knock at my door, followed by the opening of the door as much as the chain lock would allow. On the 3rd or 4th time this happened, instead of ignoring it, I dragged myself out of bed, opened the door a crack and yelled "Can I help you!?" In my foggy state of mind, I learned that it was the manager of the hotel, and he needed to get into my room to access a wireless router to fix the internet for the entire hotel. First of all, who was the genius that made the decision to put an essential piece of technology equipment inside a guest room? Second of all, how many times of attempting to open a chain-locked door to a dark room does it take for a person to deduce that the room is occupied by someone sleeping? I offered the hotel manager a piece of my mind, with a side of expletives, topped off with a door slam.

I spent the afternoon in my hotel room catching up on computer stuff, and then later met up with my friend Val for dinner before the show. The show was a co-bill with Soulive, so we arrived in time to see most of their set. In addition to the usual Soulive trio that I was used to, they also had 2 horns and Nigel Hall on vocals (who I had played with at Bear Creek Fest last fall...that dude rips!!). Another unexpected surprise was finding that Soulive's road manager was Tony Hume, the artist relations guy from Bear Creek and one of the nicest cats I've met in a long time. We had a nice little reunion!

The Crazy Engine show was probably the roughest of the tour in terms of both sound and crowd. We had zero soundcheck, so we basically got up there flying blind. I'm sure Brian did his usual great job with the house mix, but we had no monitor engineer and thus no easy means of dialing in good stage sound, so it was hard to play comfortably with the distractions of the sound. The crowd was good for the most part, but a few drunk Southern yahoos were acting up a bit and causing trouble. My favorite part of the set was seeing little Charlie get in the face of a dude twice his size who had just sloshed beer all over the stage about a foot from Steve's guitars. Go Charlie!

Post-show, we headed back to the hotel, and now we're on the way to NOLA...woohoo!!

4/28/09 Georgia Theater, Athens, GA

2009-04-29T14:49:00.006-05:00

The day started off great, with the other 2 members of FGC, Adam and Mattias, arriving in the early afternoon. We had a nice little reunion and then headed off in our stylin’ rental car to Athens.

The Georgia Theater was a pretty cool room, though a little rougher around the edges than I was expecting. It did boast the hugest ceiling fan I have ever seen, aptly branded “Big Ass Fan.” I gave FGC the tour of the bus and rounds of introductions to the band members, and then became detained with our rehearsal. We worked on “Don’t Let Go” and ran through a couple other tunes. The room had pretty decent sound, so I was looking forward to the show that night.

After rehearsal, my bandmates and I ate at a local diner recommended by Steve, with a very funny sign on the door that I couldn’t resist getting a picture of. During the outing, I pet 3 awesome dogs, bringing my new total to 12!

I made it back to the venue to catch the last half of the opener's set, Zach Deputy, who was great! The Crazy Engine hit the stage right on time according to our itinerary (I think, a first on this tour!), and we played a pretty rockin' show. I was pleased to be playing two sets full of my personal favorite tunes of the repertoire, in honor of my FGC bandmates attending the show. Melvin did not disappoint with his "Stop That Train" solo, which I've been gushing about, and Johnny was on fire for the entire show. Steve of course caused plenty of drool from Adam (FGC guitarist) with his usual pristine tone and licks.

After the show, I hung out a bit more with FGC before the bus rolled out to Birmingham. All in all, probably one of my favorite days of the tour thus far!

4/27/09 Day Off

2009-04-29T14:44:00.004-05:00

My day off began on quite the early side, but for good reason. Rather than ride the bus all day from Tampa to Atlanta, I decided last minute to take a flight, courtesy of my friend Margie who works for Delta (whom you “met” in the 4/18 posting about the BB King’s show). $30 out of my pocket and a 1 hour flight was a nice trade for the day long bus ride, and also got me to Atlanta earlier to hang out with Jordan from FGC who was coming in early for the Athens show the next day.

Jordan and I hit up a downtown restaurant for dinner, then drinks on the patio of a Mexican restaurant, and then...drum roll please...a MILKSHAKE at the Hard Rock Café. Finally!!

The day capped off with an awesome slumber at the Wyndham downtown Atlanta, my first good night’s sleep in about a week!

4/26/09 Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa, FL

2009-04-27T07:38:00.009-05:00

We rolled into Tampa around 8am, and since our hotel rooms weren't ready yet, the bus hit up a Walmart where those who were crazy enough to be awake did some shopping. I half slept in my bunk until 10am when my hotel room became available (thanks to Charlie for hooking me up with the first room!!), and then continued my slumber in a real bed until soundcheck time.

The venue was a bit like "Gilligan's Island" as Steve had warned, but it was an interesting change from the run-of-the-mill venues we had been playing on the tour. It was outdoors, but luckily it was a beautiful sunny afternoon and not too hot. Soundcheck was pretty minimal since production was running late, and while we waited for showtime, we dined on some very mediocre food in the venue's restaurant. I do not recommend the grilled cheese! Kimock fans Pam, Andy, Alan, and Cindy joined us for the grub, so at least the company was good!

The first set was a bit shaky, since I think we were all a bit dazed from a poor night's sleep, and the show's early start of 5:30pm certainly didn't help either! We all woke up a bit for the second set, and it was quite the marathon, clocking in at exactly 2 hours. We closed the set with "It's Your Thing," and I did my signature rock star jump, with the additional excitement of being able to jump off the drum riser, adding a good foot or so to my leap. I need to remember to stretch first next time!

The show ended early, and the group sans The Girls (but plus our bus driver!) hit up the Perkins next to our hotel for some dinner. My bad milkshake luck continued, as I soon learned that the Perkin's milkshake machine was broken (are you kidding me?!?!). For those not following along with the previous blog entries, this was failed attempt #3 at getting a milkshake on this tour...I am doomed! (Charlie snapped this candid shot of me lamenting over lack of milkshake). We all enjoyed our food and some silly antics with various jelly packets and creamers, and then hit the hotel for the night.

4/25/09 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2009-04-27T07:08:00.010-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

My second day in Fort Lauderdale began with a lunch at Cheesecake Factory with Zach (he had the salad, of course), and a quick errand run to Walmart, where Zach bought a gay hat and I lamented over the disappearance of the women's graphic tee shelf. WTF??

I arrived at the venue for soundcheck/rehearsal and was pleased to meet the famous Billy Goodman, who was opening the show that night. Billy has an uncanny resemblance to Steve in both looks, actions, and demeanor, and was as sweet as they come.

We got up on stage to do a quick run-through of some tunes with Billy, and I immediately noticed that my prized polaroid of Steve giving the finger, taken by Johnny the night before and which graced my amp for the previous show and provided much inspiration, was missing! Billy was so taken by it that he stole it, but later offered top dollar to legally gain its possession. The exchange was made, but he did allow a picture of the picture before assuming custody, so this is all that remains of the iconic polaroid.

Billy kicked off the show with a short duo set with Steve, and then Melvin, Johnny, and I joined in for "Barbed Wire" and "Johnny Anonymous." It was nice to play some pretty straight up pop/folk tunes and not have to worry about creating moments of improvisational brilliance for a change. Billy writes some great tunes!

The Crazy Engine took the stage shortly thereafter. I don't think the crowd was as kickin' as the previous night, but hands-down the band played a much tighter show. First set highlights included "Brother Mike" and "Slow Down", with Billy Goodman sitting in on both. The second set featured the most smokin' "Merle's Boogie" we've ever played, with Steve shredding his axe into oblivion.

After the show, the bus headed off to Tampa, and I enjoyed a latenight hang with some of the guys, acquiring "TMI" (Too Much Information) about Charlie:

1. He wears tighty-whities
2. His ipod is graced with such quality artists as The Partridge Family, Shania Twain, and Kelly Clarkson
3. He once retaliated against a very nasty hotel by spreading a jar of mayonnaise between the mattresses

After one too many mom jokes, we all hit the hay while the bus trekked on to Tampa.

4/24/09 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

2009-04-25T15:58:00.008-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 1pm after driving all night from South Carolina. I did some sleepy math that 8 hours of sleeping on the bus barely amounted to even half that of actual sleep, so I was glad to grab a nap at the hotel before soundcheck.

The venue was probably the most impressive yet of the tour. Very nice stage and soundsystem, and cool layout with sizeable dance floor and 2 balconies around the perimeter. I was worried about the sound due to the size of the venue and the shiny wooden floor of the stage, but Brian got everything dialed in nicely, and I found the sound on stage to be quite good.

After soundcheck, I had some dinner with hardcore FGC fan, Zach, who was pumped to have any member of FGC in his home state. Oddly enough, it seems that big boy Zach has "switched teams" in the dietary department, going from Midwest-style hearty steak and potatoes to strictly salads. Quite an interesting dinner witnessing Zach dive into a bowlful of greens!

The show went off well, and while the crowd seemed kind of far away due to the high stage, I think it was one of our largest crowds yet on this tour, and they were dancing and enthusiastic. We didn't stretch out too much in the jam department at this show, with the exception of "Ice Cream," which went some cool places. "Tangled Hangers" had some interesting turns, but never really took off the way it did on the 4/20 Annapolis show. Second set's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" got the crowd engaged and Melvin and The Girls worked 'em pretty good.

After the show, I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel, but as luck would have it, was not able to fall asleep as quickly as I wanted. Oh well, at least I will be nice and tired for my overnight drive to Tampa tonight.

4/23/09 Pour House, Charleston, SC

2009-04-24T18:24:00.009-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

After catching some sleep at the hotel, I grabbed some breakfast at a nearby restaurant and then headed over to the venue. The Pour House was basically a large bar, but had a decent stage and soundsystem, as well as a very cool outdoor patio area with a second stage. The outdoor area was especially great because it afforded me the opportunity to double my dog-pet count, as there were plenty of dogs milling around while their owners enjoyed some drinks in the nice weather. I had played at this venue's prior location with FGC and was pleased to be recognized by the staff.

We had the usual soundcheck rehearsal, going over Johnny's tune and a couple other things, and then dined on some Cuban food from next door. The Cuban version of a grilled cheese wasn't entirely exciting, but the fried plantains on the side were quite good.

The show began to a rather empty house, but within the first minute, everyone from the outdoor patio came streaming into the room. The sound was pretty good on stage, so we had some cool interactive jams, particularly "It's Up To You," which somehow launched into a heavy metalish groove for a few minutes.

We also finally caught on video the coolest drum thing ever, which Johnny has been doing for the past couple shows. Before we start the tune "Crazy Engine," Johnny proceeds to drench his snare drum with water, producing a mega-splash effect when we launch into the tune. These "hydro-technics" are easily the coolest thing I have ever seen a drummer do. Check out the video, courtesy of Charlie (who will smack me if I don't credit him.)

After the show, I hung out with some drunk fans while the crew packed the trailer. We set off on the 9+ hour drive to Florida, but about 10 minutes into the drive, our bus driver decided he was hungry and wanted to stop at Waffle House. Apparently, he didn't have time to eat during his 18 hours of downtime since leaving the bus that morning. Completely understandable. ;) I opted against Waffle House since they didn't have my elusive milkshake and watched the usual 3am Family Guys on the bus.

We finally set off close to 4am, and rolled into Ft. Lauderdale around 1pm. I slept most of the way, but was the usual unrestful type, so I was happy to get to our hotel for a quick nap before heading back to the venue for soundcheck.

4/22/09 Visulite Theater, Charlotte, NC

2009-04-23T14:43:00.007-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We rolled out of Greensboro around noon, and I napped in my bunk through most of the short drive and load-in into the Visulite Theater. The venue was smaller than I was expecting, but this was fine with me, as the bigger the room gets, the tougher it is to dial in good sound on stage.

During our soundcheck/rehearsal, we worked on one of Johnny's tunes, "To The West Goodbye," that's on his band's new album. (Check 'em out: New Madrid Faults) This tune has a different sound than the rest of the material we've been doing, so I think it will add a nice element to the shows.

The show was pretty rockin'. The first set had a nice "Ice Cream" as well as the debut of Johnny's new tune, which went over quite well. The second set opened with an interesting combo of "Thing One > Long Form Part 4 > Thing One," which we basically executed according to plan. Later in the set, we had a very adventurous "Footprints" that went to some cool places.

I learned two things about Steve backstage at this show. One: The man does a pretty flawless Donald Duck impression. Two: He owns one of the silliest looking hoodies I've ever seen!

After the show, we set off to drive to Charleston SC. After a couple episodes of Family Guy, we stopped at a truck stop to fuel up and wash the bus. While the driver took care of business, the few of us that were awake amused ourselves in the truck stop convenience store, laughing over some tacky t-shirts, stuffed mechanical dogs, and crazy sunflower seed flavors like whiskey-soaked and caffeine-infused. (Chris bought some of the latter.) I had a craving for a chocolate milkshake and went into the diner to order one, but apparently none of the late-night staff knew how to prepare one as illustrated in Charlie's cell-phone photo of the mess created upon their attempt.

We arrived in Charleston around 7am, and being the only one awake when the bus stopped, I headed off to one of the highly coveted day rooms to catch some zzz's and a shower.

4/21/09 Greensboro, NC - Day Off!!

2009-04-22T14:53:00.005-05:00

My day off was fairly uneventful, as it should be. We had arrived at the hotel around 7:30am that morning, so I was able to cash in on that elusive continental breakfast before hitting the sack until about 2pm. It was a confusing weather day, with sun one minute and rain the next, so I decided against venturing outside for the afternoon and instead lounged around the hotel and did a quick work-out in the fitness center. I did catch sight of a pretty sweet rainbow, though my cheap cell phone camera doesn't really do it justice!

Charlie and I hit up a local Japanese restaurant for dinner. Charlie was his usual embarrassing self, asking the hostess for the most romantic table, telling the hibachi chef it was my birthday (it wasn't), and threatening to propose to me in front of the entire restaurant. Keep in mind that this slimeball (term used affectionately, of course) is already engaged.

After dinner, I did some laundry at the hotel and amused myself with American Idol and other trashy TV shows. Sleep didn't come too easily since I had woken up so late that day, but at the very least, I was appreciating the stationary bed, as the next 2 nights will be spent on the bus. Joy joy.

The next 5 day run starts in Charlotte, where I'm currently typing this blog entry from the skanky backstage area. Looks to be a cool venue though, so hopefully I will have good reports in tomorrow's wrap up. Thanks for reading!

4/20/09 Ram's Head, Annapolis, MD

2009-04-21T16:20:00.006-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We woke up to a rather dreary and rainy day in Virginia. Charlie had sneakily scored us a late checkout of the hotel by dropping the manager's name to the hotel's night clerk when we checked in late the night before, so I was happy to get a decent night's sleep.

We made the short drive over to the Ram's Head in Annapolis. It seemed like a quaint little town, but it was too rainy to do much exploring, so I just camped out at a table in the venue with my laptop while the crew set up the stage.

This was another seated venue like the Fairfield show. While I usually prefer a crowd that is up and dancing, I'm kind of warming up to the seated venues, because you get the crowd engaged in more of a "jazz club" type of way.

We had a substantial soundcheck, which we have renamed "Rehearsal" on the itineraries, working on a few new tunes including a silly post-show bus sing along from the night before. We'll see what happens with that one!

Dinner was served at the venue, and once again I continued to eat very well on this trip with a tasty veggie burrito as my meal of choice.

The house got fairly full by the time we started, and we opened with an appropriate jazzy number called "Soul Roach." Highlight from the first set was "Tangled Hangers" which had a very open and conversational jam and pushed some boundaries of what we've normally been doing. Second set featured a new tune, Charles Mingus' "Better Get Hit in Your Soul," a jazz blues in 3/4 with a very catchy melody. Johnny played a very tasteful drum solo on this one!

The show wrapped up on the early side, and then we hit the bus for a 6 hour drive to Greensboro, NC for a day off. After a few episodes of "Family Guy," I hit the bunk and crashed the rest of the way to NC. I think I'm getting better at this sleeping-on-the-bus thing!

4/19/09 State Theatre, Falls Church, VA

2009-04-20T13:23:00.005-05:00

We had to hit the road to Falls Church at 9:30am, so I basically rolled out of bed at the hotel right into my bunk on the bus, with a quick stop at the hotel's free continental breakfast...an occasion that I am usually never awake for so I try to take advantage of it when I do happen to be awake.

The trip to Falls Church was quicker than we expected, and I spent most of it in a half-slumber in my bunk. When we arrived, I walked around the town a bit with Charlie, stopping at CVS and a Chinese place, with my 4th dog pet of the trip on the way.

While awaiting soundcheck, I grabbed a shower in the venue's green room, and was faced with the daunting decision of which venue-provided towel was the least disgusting option to dry off with....yikes.

At soundcheck, we worked really hard on the actual stage sound, trying to use as little monitors as possible so we could all be in a similar sonic space on stage. I had a good balance of the other musicians and was not experiencing any of the venue's notorious "slapback" echo from the back wall, but the sound was slightly wimpy with not a lot of bottom end. We checked out a new reggae-ish tune called "Premature" (which we later performed that night, prematurely, pardon the pun. It didn't totally suck, but could have benefitted from a bit more rehearsal time.)

After soundcheck, I had dinner at an Italian place down the block with my parents, sister, and a few of my sister's friends, who had all driven down from Harrisburg and Philly.

The first set of the show was a little tough for me, since the set was mainly comprised of tunes that the band had either never or rarely performed live. The second set was a little more locked, and we closed with a raging version of "Down By the Riverside" with Melvin taking the lead on getting the band and crowd fired up.

After the show, I got to hang out with Ted, an old friend from college, and then the band crashed at a nearby hotel.

Btw, a new addition to the blog is the inclusion of free streaming audio from the shows, which will be posted after the fact if/when it becomes available. A few recent additions include 4/18/09 NYC, 4/16/09 Burlington, 4/4/09 Eugene, 4/2/09 Bend, and 3/26/09 Crystal Bay. Jump to the blog postings from that day to click the audio link and listen while you read!

4/18/09 BB King's, New York, NY

2009-04-19T14:40:00.007-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We set off from Fairfield at the totally reasonable hour of noon and headed into NYC. We arrived into the clusterf*ck that is Times Square, and while the crew loaded in, I set off to find myself some New York pizza....of course preceded by plenty of whining that I was hungry and wanted some pizza. It was a nice day and the streets were bustling with tourists, but I weaved my way through the madness and found a family-owned pizza joint just around the corner and dropped $3 on a slice.

I had plenty of time to kill before soundcheck, but I had enough of the busy city streets with my pizza run and decided to just chill at BB's until go time.

Soundcheck was brief but entertaining, with Steve's 5-year-old son, Skyler, joining in the jams with a shaker and some killer dance moves. Watch out for this kid; he's gonna be the most famous Kimock yet!

We had dinner at BB's, and I got an insane amount of mac 'n' cheese, sauteed veggies, and a baked potato. Doctor Lora was on hand with Chocolate Pomegranates, so I was happy and fed.

The show was a marathon 2+ hour set with no break. We played a pretty cool "It's Up to You" and a cookin' "Hillbillies on PCP." We walked off stage not planning on doing an encore but the crowd wouldn't let up. The final test was throwing Steve's hat out onstage from backstage, and the crowd went wild, so we returned to the stage with "Slow Down" and then called it a night.

After the show, I got to hang out with Margie, my old college roommate, and to meet her new boyfriend, Dennis. Both were sufficiently toasted from several buckets of Coors, and we had a good time catching up.

Loading out was insane as Times Square at 11pm on a Saturday night was even crazier than in the afternoon. Although I could barely even tell that it was nighttime as the lights from the buildings cast an eerie daytime-ish glow over the entire block.

The bus finally rolled out and we trekked our way back to the Comfort Inn in Bethlehem to crash for the night.

4/17/09 Fairfield Theater Company, Fairfield, CT

2009-04-18T14:16:00.011-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We drove overnight from VT and arrived in Fairfield around 8am on Friday. I caught a few hours of sleep on the bus, but was so thankful to get to the hotel and sleep in a real (and stationary) bed for a good six hours before heading over to soundcheck.

The venue was small and had kind of a jazz club meets high school auditorium vibe. It was all seating with no dance floor, so I was wondering what kind of reaction to expect from the crowd, who is usually up and dancing for our shows.
The best part about the venue was the fact that Boyz II Men has a show there next month, so it was a real honor to play on the same stage as my favorite crooners from the 90's, who I can't believe are still touring.

After soundcheck, Kimock fan and local restaurant proprietor, Dave, took Johnny and me to his restaurant, Chef's Table. I got an amazing burrito (Thanks Dave!!), and got to pet a really cute Golden Retriever on the way back (Note: updated dog count = 3!!).

The show went really well. The crowd, despite being seated, was engaged and enthusiastic. Steve had a lot more smiles than the previous night, and Johnny was raging on the kit. We had some memorable versions of "Ice Cream" and "Footprints", which somehow started out in 4/4 and ended in 3/4. The Girls got the crowd up in their seats for the last tune ("It's Your Thing") and I capped it off with a rock star jump at the end.

4/16/09 Higher Ground, Burlington, VT

2009-04-17T02:15:00.005-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

While awaiting soundcheck, dinner was served in the greenroom...an awesome buffet of salad, rice pilaf, a portabella cheesy thing, some broccoli and a couple meaty choices that I didn't care about. The food was amazing!

After soundcheck, I got to hang out a bit with my cousin Kim who lives in Burlington and came out for the show. Over some casual introductory conversation with Steve in the green room, we both learned that Steve was a legitimate shepherd for over 5 years of his life. A freakin' shepherd, seriously.

The show went well, but the crowd was a bit different than the West Coast division...a bit more low key. Charlie wrote the set tonight and did a good job varying it up with some different tunes. We debuted a few new ones, including "Why Can't We Be Friends," "Long Form Part 4," and a really pretty "Stella Blue."

After the show, I chatted with some fans and got to pet two super cute dogs that were running around the parking lot. (For those who want to keep score along with me, to the left, I'll be tallying up all the dogs I get to pet on this trip!)

The bus was leaving after the show for our show tomorrow in Connecticut, so we all piled on after the fairly quick gear load-out, thanks to the crew and stagehands. The Girls were quick to break out the wine and got nice and tipsy, but almost everyone crashed pretty early, leaving me with my blog and some DirecTV with spotty reception, though I still managed to watch most of an episode of the Dog Whisperer without too many interruptions.

Off to my bunk...see you in Connecticut!

"The bus came by, and I got on. That's when it all began."

2009-04-16T16:06:00.005-05:00

"The bus came by, and I got on. That's when it all began." - Grateful Dead

I woke up today at the ungodly hour of 7am to depart from Pennsylvania for the first show of the tour in Burlington VT. I dragged myself out of bed and looked out the window of my hotel room to find the sweet tour bus in the parking lot. I was running on just a few hours of sleep, but jumped into gear to go check out my new digs.

The bus is cozy and cushy, with a lounge and kitchen in the front, bunks in the middle, and a smaller lounge in the back. My first task was choosing my bunk, which is a serious decision for such a prissy sleeper like me. I grabbed a top bunk, later to be changed to a different top bunk after tossing and turning through Melvin's snoring across from me for the first few hours of the ride. (Thanks Chris!) While a slight upgrade in comfort from the back bench seat in the FGC van, the bunk is nonetheless a bit claustrophic and is a lot more wiggly of a ride than the van. But I managed to score a few hours of much needed sleep.

We arrived at the venue 8 hours later, where I currently await soundcheck while the crew sets up all the gear. Steve just brought me some kick-ass Baklava so now my hands are too sticky to type any more. Stay tuned for reports on the show a little bit later tonight.

Welcome to my blog!

2009-04-13T23:42:00.003-05:00

Hello all! I decided to start a blog on my recent and upcoming tours with Steve Kimock Crazy Engine, so that my friends, family, and anyone else who may care can see what I'm up to on my travels. And I guess even if no one cares, at least it's mildly entertaining to ME, so there. :-P

Below is a recap of my West coast tour a couple weeks ago. I wrote it all in one blast on the plane ride home to Chicago and posted it below in daily chunks. I hope to offer real-time daily updates on the upcoming East coast tour, which starts in a few days.

Any suggestions, comments, requests, etc....feel free to send 'em my way.

See you on the road!!

4/6/09 Heading home to Chicago!

2009-04-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

We left Chico for San Francisco, dropping off the Girls to meet their hubbies north of the city. Charlie and I had plenty of time to kill before our flights, so we hit up a Verizon store since Charlie had geniusly smashed his phone in the hatchback of our car when loading up at the hotel that morning. All went well, and I’m on the flight home spread out in my own row as I type this blog. Stay tuned for attempted daily updates from the east coast tour, starting April 16!!

4/5/09 Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA

2009-04-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

This was a pretty cool venue. It was AT the brewery itself, and they had a viewing room for the huge vats where they make the beer. The music room was fairly large, with kind of a fancy shmacy atmosphere. We had zero soundcheck whatsoever since the crew was a bit late with their arrival, and it was an early start (7:30) with doors at 5pm. A bit unnerving since I was using an amp provided by the venue and had no time to check it out. Brian got things fairly dialed in during the first song and we all survived, though Melvin was suffering pretty bad with a terrible in-ear mix. He still wailed, though!

The show was sold out, but you wouldn’t have guessed it since the room could have accommodated about twice the people in there. It seemed that they just sold enough tickets to fill the actual tables and chairs in the back, but most people ended up on the dance floor anyway. It was a fun show, with a marathon 2+ hour set, with lots of stage time for The Girls.

I got to enjoy some chat time with fans after the show, including not one, but TWO, dog-pettings of Scorpio, a black lab guide dog, and Rider, a spaniel/husky-looking mix.

Our usually punctual ride back to the hotel was lagging due to Charlie dealing with the final merch settling, but we didn’t mind since the show ended rather early at 10pm. It was fun to stay late enough to actually witness the gear load-out, which I had missed at every other load-out on the tour. Mind you, I still did not HELP with the load!

4/4/09 McDonald Theater, Eugene, OR

2009-04-04T23:59:00.002-05:00

Click here to stream free audio of the show!

We scored a 1pm checkout from our Portland hotel, and I chilled in the lobby while the rest of my car stuffed face at Denny’s across the street. The drive to Eugene was short, and we went straight to the venue since our hotel was out of town on the way to the next show. The venue was another big and intimidating room, and I was back to using a different rented Ampeg head. I thought the sound on stage was better than Portland, though.

After soundcheck, I ate at a Japanese restaurant down the street, with Jay Haser, a bass buddy from MI who I hadn’t seen since 2003 I think. Oregon was certainly THE state for seeing old friends, and Jay was totally “rad” all around. That’s his catch word, and I’m determined to work it into my vocabulary. Anyway, the restaurant had this rad electronic toilet with all kinds of buttons to blast your ass with liquids or air or whatever suits your fancy. I won’t tell you what suited mine. Speaking of toilets, check out the funny sign posted in the bathroom in the backstage greenroom!

Before the show, Steve asked Johnny and me to take a few more chances with the jams. I think that may have slightly upset the comfortable groove we had settled into over the past few shows, so the improv sections were a bit more unsteady than I would have liked. But we learned from it, and I think it will help us continue to develop as a rhythm section. We did have some cool moments in “Footprints” that resulted from Steve’s suggestions. Another highlight was Steve sporting a WWJD shirt for the entire second set of the show, and that was very cool! Hoping it will boost sales!

After the show, we drove an hour to our hotel and fell down for 6 hours before an early start to Chico the next day.

4/3/09 Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR

2009-04-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

We didn’t have to get too early of a start to Portland, but the drive still seemed to take forever, with the usual many stops and a roundabout route to avoid roads closed due to snow, but it was a pretty drive. We arrived in Portland to find that our soundcheck was pushed back even more than its usual delay so I had a few moments to catch my breath at the hotel.

The venue was very impressive and a definite step up from the previous few nights, but its bigness made for a slightly boomy sound on stage, which is never good for bass. We were a bit rushed for time after soundcheck, so I ate a light dinner of a cheese sandwich and cereal in the green room, and got to hang a bit with another old friend, Steve, who I hadn’t seen for about 8 years and was in town for the show.

The show went fairly well, but the bigness of sound made it a bit frustrating to be connected and adventurous with the improvised sections.

I did one of my signature ending jumps at the end of the show, and during the usual end-of-show introductions, Steve announced: “On electric bass and leaps....Janis Wallin.” The crowd went crazy! I better work on my moves for the upcoming shows!

After the show, I was absolutely starving, so one of my local musician buddies, Asher, took Steve and me to a latenight diner. They ordered the vegan falafel sandwich (adding bacon…blasphemy!) and I opted for a souped up grilled cheese sandwich before recalling that I had already had several incarnations of bread and cheese that day (leftover pizza for breakfast, cold cheese sandwich for dinner). Oh well, it was good and I enjoyed hanging with Steve and Asher.

Thanks to Joe Malnar for the photo!

4/2/09 Domino Room, Bend, OR

2009-04-02T23:59:00.001-05:00

Click here to stream free audio from the show!

We hit the road at a god-awful 10am, and proceeded on the 7 hour drive to Bend, Oregon. It was not fun whatsoever, but a very pretty drive, and Charlie did a decent job dealing with my neuroses as we drove through a few snowy spots. My main freak-out of the day was not the snow, but the fact that I had left my hat at the venue the night before. I lamented about it all day long, but when I arrived at the venue, my hat was waiting for me on my amp, rescued by Chris the night before. Thanks Chris!!

The venue was interesting. One half of it was a huge rollerskating rink, and the other half was the venue. Neither half was heated so they had space heaters blasting everywhere.

The highlight of Bend was meeting up with my friend Kevin who I hadn’t seen or had any contact with in about 12 years. We found each other on Facebook within the past 6 months or so, and I was ecstatic to be playing in his hometown. Another sweet dog sighting as he and his wife, Darcy, brought along their adorable puppy. We grabbed some dinner at a local pizza place and quickly caught up on each other’s lives.

The show was packed and went well. I saw a fan in the crowd sporting a WWJD shirt, so that was fun. And once again, Johnny was continuing to own on the drums, and we had some fun improv jams. We opened with “Thing One,” and when we returned to the head at the end, I looked up and both Steve and Melvin were looking at me and smiling. The looks lingered so long that I quickly became paranoid that I was playing the wrong thing and looked down at my hands several times to make sure I was on the right frets, all the while looking back up and still seeing both of them smiling at me. Apparently, they were just digging the moment!

After the show, I hit a latenight diner with Kevin and Darcy and got to enjoy some more quality time. Again, I appreciated that I could split right after the show and not have to deal with any of the load-out.

4/1/09 Red Fox Tavern, Eureka, CA

2009-04-01T23:59:00.000-05:00

Another two night run at the same venue, which meant lots of relaxation at the hotel on Day 2. In the afternoon, I hit up a health food store with Chris and Charlie and grabbed some interesting snacks, but for the most part was cooped up at the hotel working on my computer. We had a fairly substantial rehearsal at the venue in the late afternoon, working out some new tunes and trying to get the monitors a little better. After soundcheck, I went to grab some Japanese takeout with The Girls, which ended up taking for-fucking-ever, so my pre-show meal was a bit rushed. ("While We Wait For Japanese Food"???)

The show was another relaxed one, and we had some more cool jams. We pulled out a new one called "Soul Roach," a fairly standard bluesy type tune that's a lot of fun to play. We ended the 2nd set a bit early due to the next day's early start and long drive. At this point, I started to really appreciate the fact that I could basically walk off stage and get a ride to the hotel almost instantly, without having to do a single bit of teardown. Thanks to the crew!!

3/31/09 Red Fox Tavern, Eureka, CA

2009-03-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

After the fairly impressive venues on the previous nights, I was pretty surprised to walk into the Red Fox, which was basically a bar, with a posted capacity of 157 people. The stage was tiny, and I think the sound system left much to be desired for Brian, but the stage sound was fine for me, aside from a kooky drum monitor toward the end of the first night.

There was an awesome hospitality spread at the venue, with a veggie tray, gourmet cheese tray, and the biggest bucket of Sabra hummus I’ve ever seen. Jon Dooey showed up and capped it off with some crazy homemade organic vegan salad, so I was happy to have my dinner completely taken care of without having to wander around the town for it. We went back to the hotel to chill for a bit before the show, where I watched some American Idol (Go Adam!!), and came back to the venue about 15 minutes before I scheduled showtime. The place was absolutely empty. I was thinking to myself, “Not only am I gonna play a ‘bar gig’ with Steve Kimock, is it going to be a bar gig to an empty room?” We pushed back the start time at least a half an hour, and by mid first set, the place was packed, with certainly more than the allotted 157 people.

The atmosphere on stage was more relaxed than the previous shows, and I felt like Johnny was starting to get some more confidence and take charge a bit with the jams. We had an insane 20-minute “Ice Cream” with a great jam in the middle of it. Johnny, Melvin, and I locked into a funk/disco groove, and Steve apparently decided that some crazy feedback noises would go well with it. And somehow it worked. A little Bee Gees meets The Who, I guess. At one point, I look over and Steve was holding his guitar in front of the amp making crazy feedback, with a huge goofy smile on his face.

3/30/09 Day Off

2009-03-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

No show today, so we had a lazy checkout of the hotel, and I enjoyed a big breakfast at a local diner with Melvin, Chris, the Girls, and Charlie. By now, I had Charlie trained to summon me at the sight of any pettable dog, so I got to pet THE cutest little puppy outside the restaurant. We then made the 4 hour drive to Eureka, with about 3 bathroom stops. We got to enjoy a relaxing night off, and I grabbed some take out from a Mexican restaurant around the corner from our hotel.

3/29/09 Mystic Theater, Petaluma, CA

2009-03-29T23:59:00.000-05:00

I had breakfast plans with Denise before I had to leave town. I was planning to take her to a great mom and pop café that I had eaten at during the rehearsal days earlier that week, but upon arrival we discovered it was closed for an emergency. We found another place to get breakfast about a block away, an “Italian” restaurant staffed entirely by Asians. It was cheap and non-offensive. I bid Denise farewell, and she went off to enjoy some other San Francisco sights before catching the red-eye back to Philly, while I headed off to the next show in Petaluma with Charlie and the girls.

I grabbed a sweet nap and shower at our Petaluma hotel before needing to be at the venue for soundcheck. Melvin, Steve, and Johnny were already jamming when I arrived, a new tune of Melvin’s called “Movin’ and Groovin’.” I didn’t have a chance to join in on it though, because as soon as I started playing, I realized my amp was completely fried. Steve and Brian were quick to troubleshoot, and they replaced the head with one of Steve’s extra guitar heads that he had brought as a backup. Completely skeptical that a guitar amp would do the job, I was pleasantly surprised to find a very warm tone. I ended up using this head for most of the rest of the tour, and what a treat to not have to deal with any stress with this mishap. The crew took care of everything.

We worked on one of Steve’s new tunes a bit during soundcheck. A few days prior, I made the mistake of suggesting the title of “Crazy Engine” for the song, since the “A” section kind of sounded to me like a train chugging furiously down a track. Steve didn’t like it at first, which made me reconsider it as well, and despite every attempt to retract my suggestion, the title ended up sticking. Anyway, at soundcheck we attempted to assign some sort of arrangement to the sections of the song, but it was a futile effort since our showtime performance that night of course strayed from what we decided on in rehearsal. Again, entirely unpredictable. We would later hone this arrangement more decidedly at my insistence and by the end of the tour, we were playing a consistent arrangement and the song had a lot more confidence to it. It was cool to see the evolution of the song over the course of a few shows.

The show went great. The room was fairly large and had some bounceback, but the sound was OK, and I think the band was feeling more comfortable on our 4th consecutive night. I got to meet some cool people backstage, including photographer Bob Minkin whose photos are featured in this post. Thanks Bob!

3/28/09 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

2009-03-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Two nights in the same venue/city was sweet because I had the entire afternoon free before the second show on Saturday. Denise and I grabbed lunch and did some shopping in Chinatown, saw the crooked Lombard street, stopped for some photos at the Golden Gate Bridge (despite my neurotic fear of bridges), and then headed up to Muir Woods, a beautiful national park about 10 miles north of San Fran. We didn’t have much time to spend at the park after dealing with the traffic on the way and the parking once we arrived, but we saw some awesome Redwoods and other natural wonders. We even somehow managed to enter the park without paying the $5 entrance fee. Sorry, Muir Woods, it was an accident!

Saturday’s show was a sold out affair, and I think even more energized than the first night. Steve had lots of smiles on stage, which I’ve been told was a rarity up until this tour, and I had a lot of fun with the tunes as the music was becoming more familiar and comfortable to me.

Thanks to Susan Weiand for the live photo!

3/27/09 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

2009-03-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

On Friday afternoon, we made the trek back to San Fran, stopping for a photo opp by Lake Tahoe, an absolutely beautiful scene.

We checked into our hotel before heading over to soundcheck. Once again, a kind of weird non-chain hotel called the Phoenix and nicknamed the “Rock and Roll Hotel” due to its history of housing many musicians playing at several nearby venues over the years. I found that was rooming next to Ami, the Kimock publicist, and she hooked me up with a cool Tsunami Publicity tee. The gift trend was on a roll!

I then met up with my sister, Denise, who flew in from Philly for the shows. She was just in the midst of a cold, so I neurotically avoided any germ-spreading contact, and loaded up on Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinacea, and other assorted preventatives.

Leaving her to take a nap, I was shuttled over to soundcheck at the GAMH. It was a breathtaking room, even with the house lights on, and was slightly intimidating. Very cool ceilings and a kind of heavy vibe of history in the air.

Dinner was catered in the house kitchen, and I gingerly enjoyed a few bites of food on an antsy pre-show stomach. Steve finally wrote the setlist, and I scrambled to get my charts in order before we took the stage. I think I could have done without the charts, but I was still kind of attached to them and didn’t want to risk anything at such a high pressure show.

One of the many idiosyncrasies of this band is that when we take the stage, it seems like ages until we actually start playing. With FGC, we try to make a point of hitting the downbeat ASAP after we get up on stage, leaving little dead time. With SKCE, we get up there and I play the waiting game until we’re ready to start. Not much is really happening during the wait…people check their instruments, tune a string or a drum, or whatever. It drives me crazy at a “big” show because I’m always a little nervous until I actually just start playing, so those few minutes of waiting are like torture.

But once we did finally start, the show went great. The room was packed from the dance floor up to the balconies, and you could tell that this was an appreciative hometown crowd for both Steve and Melvin. I forgot about being nervous after the first song or two, and was totally energized by the crowd and music.

Musically, I thought Melvin rocked this show. He had the most amazing solo in “Stop That Train” and he even turned the “Melvin Seals” lights on his custom-built organ during “Outta Space,” per my request (i.e. beg) before we started the tune. The crowd went apeshit! It’s so cool standing right next to him and watching his hands flutter around the keys. This big dude has some serious finesse.

Thanks to Kerry Barbato and Susan Weiand for the live photos!

3/26/09 Crystal Bay, Crystal Bay, NV

2009-03-26T23:59:00.001-05:00

Click here to stream free audio from the show!

We departed San Francisco around noon for our first show of the tour in the Lake Tahoe area. The band was split up into three vehicles (Melvin and Chris in Melvin’s van and trailer; Brian, Steve, and Johnny in a rented van; and Charlie, me, and “The Girls” in a rented SUV). My group, which we eventually dubbed “Charlie’s Angels,” (i.e. Charlie plus 3 hot chicks!) had the luxury of leaving for the venue at least an hour after the rest of the group, since we had no involvement in load-in, gear set-up, etc, and just had to be there by soundcheck time. The trade-off for this extra hour of sleep each night was that my car was full of bathroom sissies, who couldn’t seem to go more than hour without a bathroom stop. Accustomed to FGC’s super-efficient 3-4+ hour driving stints, I quickly became comically frustrated with the amount of stops required on trips that should be nonstop. C’mon people!! :)

The drive to Tahoe was beautiful. Lots of mountains and cool views, thankfully with no snow on the winding roads, but the real highlight was petting a cute dog at a rest stop.

We arrived at the venue on time for soundcheck as listed in the itinerary, which I would soon learn almost always occurred at least 30-60 minutes after the scheduled time. Luckily, our hotel rooms were located literally underneath the venue, so we had a comfy place to chill while we awaited soundcheck.

The venue was located inside a casino, so it was kind of an interesting scene there, but the music room was nice and had a great dry sound, which I like. While cruising the casino and looking for some dinner, I ran into Kerry from setlist.com, and Jon “Dooey”, a Kimock fan who found me on facebook a few weeks prior. Both brought me some sweet gifts, including a setlist.com jacket and a SKB batik shirt. I crossed my fingers that the fan gift-giving trend would continue throughout the tour!

Upon being shown the green room, which was unstrategically nowhere near the stage, I found that there was no Gatorade, which was the only item I requested on the hospitality rider. I informed the road manager, and the venue staff had to rush out to 7-11 to buy some Gatorade for me. It was so rock star – I loved it!
The show itself went great. The room got absolutely packed, and the sound was spot on. I felt basically comfortable with the music, but quickly learned that there is a great amount of unpredictability with this band. Lots of improvisation and ever-morphing arrangements. A few shows later, I decided to try not to make any sense of it and just go with the flow!

Thanks to Kerry Barbato for the live photos!

3/23-25/2009 Rehearsals in San Fran

2009-03-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

The tour started off with a few days of rehearsals in San Francisco. My flight arrived in the early afternoon and I had a chance to grab a nap at the hotel, thanks to Steve moving the rehearsal start time to accommodate some “rest and nourishment.” The hotel was kind of retro-modern-kitschy-weird, and not at all like the cookie-cutter Days Inns, Ramadas, etc that I’m used to. Cool décor and comfy digs, but my only complaint was the phone-booth sized elevator…yikes.

Rehearsals went fairly well. The band got reacquainted with one another, going over some old tunes and learning some new ones. The usual laid-back semi-inefficient approach as previous rehearsals, but I’m learning there’s not much to be done about that!

The main story of note from these sessions was rehearsing one of Steve’s tunes called “While We Wait.” Prior to starting the tune, we sent Charlie out for some Chinese food. The Chinese food run ended up taking so ridiculously long that we ended up jokingly renaming the tune “While We Wait For Chinese Food.” It appeared on a few future setlists under the joke moniker.