First half of September has been kinda crazy with Music stuff. Last Wednesday we played Cheer Up Charlies with Names Divine from Chicago. It was gonna be our first Spiked Punch show in a run of 4, so we were doing a good number of band practices leading up to it. It was one of those deals where we knew going in that in addition to playing all the shows there wouldn't be time to squeeze in a practice in the middle of the shows, so we had to get as prepared as possible up front. Then Monday we went to San Antonio and played The Flop House with Advaeta from Brooklyn and Marc "Mockingbird" Smith who is a super active dude and a dude I felt a reggae connection with. It was a super great show. There is something refreshing about playing out of Austin, San Antonio is actually a pretty reasonable place to drive to and go for that feeling. We got to leave all our gear at the venue (Marc's house) and pass out there, so everyone could get wasted in peace. The ppl we were playing for were strangers, and everyone got in a real good mood. We didn't play note perfect, but Marc recorded the set, theres some gemmy tips in there about how to play what we are playing better. After these 4 shows, I am practicing bass a lot more. Until this point just playing the changes and singing have been my focus (aka not fucking up), but after seeing Youthbitch play I feel like I need to start doing more on the bass to make it sound beautiful. That is a band I wish I could see live 15 times and internalize a little more of what they are doing. Hanging out back at my house, Rob the guitarist with the, its like a Hofner Goldtop I think, I don't think it was a Gibson, but anyways he was doing some cool shit off the main pentatonic scale. It was almost like talking about chess openings, like it was about going partway up it and being on beat x, and how heres his arsenal of possible riffs for that time and also how they lead into later riffs. add up about 50 of those things and you have someone who can really play the shit out of a pentatonic scale. Right, so Names Divine at Cheer Up Charlies was on Wednesday....Thurs and Fri there were some band practices, also for the band Party Plants which debuted Tuesday and includes yours truly and Joey from SP. Saturday there was a show at my house. 7 bands played, Jewish Summer Camp (a new project from Joe of Night Court), Jeff Cooper + Coby doing country with chorus pedal on it, Cosmic Dust which was like John Coltrane + Rasheed Ali doing Innerstellar Space, but with an electric cello and some VU guitar, Spiked Punch, Freak Heat Waves, Viet Cong, and then my buddies from work did a double drum thing again. They are doing a good job working on their project and are now incorporating a frankenbass made with bike parts so that it can be controlled by a modified hihat stand. Freak Heat Waves and Viet Cong are both from Canada, 2 of the dudes from Viet Cong were in the band Women. They were all nice. I like having rockers over to the house for free beers and people listening to good music, especially when they are the ones playing.
Then Monday we played San Antonio. The show got moved last minute from VHS 1138 to The Flop House, which was a house across the street from this art gallery we have played a couple times at. Mockingbird Smith (<--his house) flew to the rescue, and opened first with some minimal stuff that had some chant in it. Then we played and then Advaeta played. it was really nice to party somewhere where we could leave our shit and not worry about it and just get drunk. Hopefully we will do more S.A. trips for that reason. It was just real fun.
So then we played Beerland again, it was the Party Plants debut show. I had missed the last practice and we played a song I had never practiced before, but that was fine. it was fun to just play bass and have basically no responsibilities. Just slappin the bass, man. Theres enough going on in that band that I can just play simple shit too and there are certain parts where it makes sense for me to jazz it up a bit. im already in 2 bands where I have responsibilities, so its nice to be in a 3rd band where the only thing I have to do is show up to practice.
So that was the last one, 4 shows, lots of partying, passing out, etc. I think Spiked Punch might go in a more internal mode for a second, do some recording or something, so its nice there are Party Plants shows for a while.
Oh yeah, and then 2 nights ago I went to see Youthbitch at Hotel Vegas. It was a well attended show but I was one of a handful of folks who watched Youthbitch's set, most ppl were hanging outside (the ppl did watch the other touring bands set). They were probably the most influential single band on Spiked Punch's post-reggae era sound so it was pretty exciting to hang out with them in the flesh. Youthbitch! there they were! It was their first time to Texas on tour with the band, the main guitarist is from Illinois tho. I had to go to work at 11 the next day, but we hung out a little after the show. They were super cool. anyways, that was the first half of September in my life, time flies. it was nice to take a few days off work / get some shifts covered to be able to do this.
looking forward to Party Plants show #2 coming up at Joey's House tomorrow.
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