2 shows: @ CuCs + White Swan, 6-11-14, 6-13-14, Snow Wite // Nu Depth // Michael Stasis // Party Plants // Jagerbumps // Airplane Mode

i started a recap of the last 2 shows Party Plants did and it became sort of arduous.  Im sure there were some good points in there, I just wanted to start over and do a blah blah blah recap. I love you all

First show, last Wednesday 6/11/14 @ Cheer Up Charlies.  The bill was Snow Wite (L.A.) // Party Plants // Jagerbumps // Nu Depth (9 pm, from Charlottesville VA, also played drums in Snow Wite).  Free show, the bands (all $ went to the touring bands) got 100 bucks from the bar, which was fair for the crowd.  It would have been nice to make something on the door for the local bands that put the show together and actually brought the people out, but I think Cheer Up's is a smart bar, the way they are positioning themselves among all the bars to have it always be free, so I dont really fault them.  They are definitely valuable to have around from a booking perspective, exactly for a show like this, and I think theyve done a really nice job with the new spot, it still feels comfortable and fun and like the same place.  

This show was interesting.  Nu Depth was great in the space.  We did a crowdsurf of him with 8 people in the audience or so.  He went all around the whole place and did some shit with a concrete brick.  it was engaging.  Jagerbumps and Party Plants both played sets that had some growing pains, but I felt like it was a really gritty show.  Its interesting being a part of the band where the band has ppl that come to the shows and have fun, but its also the shared energy between the ppl on stage and the ppl in the audience is completely integral.  We played much better Friday.  We practiced much better Wednesday afternoon than the show we played Wednesday night.  There were all kinds of circumstances involved.  Alot of ppl told us "good show", but really it wasnt.  Our band has magic in it, and unfortunately that magic doesnt manifest itself every single time we have a show.  It def didnt at this show, and it def did appear on Friday.  It would be nice to be in a band where it was magic every night.  If we went on tour we would have that, Im sure of it.  Its mostly about practicing and then sleeping and then playing, otherwise you are trying to play a mimic of yourself.  Snow Wite really brought it.  The most exciting thing that happened was when we went back to my house and drained a case of wine after the show.  Ppl in the audience can get all their haterade out, it still felt like a successful show to me based solely on the hangout afterwards.  Really thats not true, its too complicated a show to write about.  The cool thing is we are a living breathing organism.  Im writing like nothing about the other bands, the other post went pretty in depth.  Snow Wite has got "it", i love that dude.  He is very genuine, and a fun dude, and very talented.  i was playing Love You Like Limeade subconsciously on drums and guitar for days.  Hope to see him again over south by.

Second Show , Last Friday 6/13/14 @ White Swan.  The bill was Michael Stasis (L.A) // Party Plants // Airplane Mode, $3 show

I missed Airplane Mode, which felt especially shitty because Joey was at our show Wednesday.  It was because I was trying to harangue my roommates into coming to the show.  Its important to have the energy of new audience members.  We played balls out dynamite.  Sean Padilla was in the audience and he was rocking out.  It is going to be a loss to Austin when he moves away.  A very talented dude, and a nice dude, with a sharp perspective.  It was really shitty when that shit with his van getting tagged went down.  I was kinda surprised it didnt get repainted over, because I think a bunch of people were down to do so at the time or something, but i never really found out what happened with that.  Yeah, anyways we played great.  Everyone in our band knew we were gonna play good.  No monitors, small crowd, we had just played, and we hadnt practiced since then.  Its really at least 50% that we were just less underpractiiced.  Sorry to our fans on the Wednesday show, if you could read between the lines, its obvious probably that we would play better Friday, but a lot of those ppl were def Jagerbumps' crew.  Michael Stasis is a super dude and we played old guitars and went swimming and got bar-b-que twice.  I was fucking jetfueled off the Party Plants set, and I was like rocking out so hard to his music, way more than anyone else.  I just love music, if it sounds sweet, it is sweet, thats what youa re trying to achieve right, to be able to let yourself go like that?  So if you already have it why roll it back because the music is meerly good and not great.  Anways hes a swell dude, he was playing along to backing tracks.  We booked this show super last second and managed to get him like 55 bucks from the door.

I think its funny enough that there exists a perception that how we are booking shows is in any way capitalistic, that's why i bring up the money part.  It all went to touring bands.  Anytime we have done a show where we have made money, its basically gone immediately to recording.  The innerband vibe is always nicer if people arent being asked to pay out of pocket for that, so i dont really apologize for having a small band fund.  People should have $3 or $5 occasionally to see their friends bands, or bands that arent their friends that are just good bands if they are music fans.  Mostly im thinking of people so orthodox that they would find that too capitalistic or something.

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Party Plants // Shiny Voyage // Jagerbumps (first show) @ Scoot Inn 4-9-14

yo.

I have to skip a lot of the drama that went on with this show, because i want to follow my own rule of "rock and roll cool" which is that the cool thing to do is to cover someone elses faux pas so that we can all have a good time.  There was some things that happened at this show that made me feel really low.  To speak in vague generalities, I will only say that when ppl play shows, if they are doing it right, what happens is they are bearing their soul.  George Harrison slyly said it best, i dont think i could find the interview, but basically he pointed out that people aren't their corporeal beings, which is what its standard to mistake them for, what people really are are souls.  Everyone gets pent up from, well you know how it is, you're a human who ever is reading this, going to work, monotony, responsibilities, running out of money, trying to sign up for health care, etc.  Getting caught under the gears of life.  Whenever I play a show, especially whenever the band I'm playing in is good, which is def the case with Party Plants right now, by the end of the show i am very exposed emotionally.  Its just naturally what happens.  And I am a very emotional person, and Ive been accused in the past of always being in a hurry, or being uptight, and you know what, theres some time in my past where I was super uptight, and to the point where I couldn't even have regular interactions with other people, so if anyone is reading this that feels the same way or ever has, solidare!  The release of emotion that happens to me at a show is kinda sacred, or at the least, essential to my being, and I dont think Im alone in that, I think thats universal for anyone who gets seriously involved in doing music or art or really any creative pursuit i guess, the whole having an outlet thing.  At the end of a night when I have played a show, its like being in a wave in the ocean like I am forced to accept not being in control, and thats also a solid metaphor for life, because, really if we end up in a WWIII scenario or something, or theres an earthquake, I mean, its worth taking a cue from Alcoholics Anonymous that there is a higher power than us.  Shit happens way outside of our control.  And that's why I'm comfortable putting myself thru a itinerary (playing a show) where the end result is I'm not going to be completely in control, because that's more true to life than thinking you can control everything.  So that's what my rant has crystallized into, I think it obliquely captures the essence of why I think its important not to harsh anyones mellow, especially right after they played a show --- because it isnt a corporeal thing you are fucking with, its a soul.

UMM....ok so the show itself.  Jagerbumps played first, they went on at 10:20, and holy shit, i did a headcount there were EIGHTY PEOPLE there.  For a 3 band local bill on a fucking Wednesday night.  Chris Smith brought out a shit ton of people.  I was too scared to be up front for their set because I thought I would in some way get pancaked, or something would happen.  Jager bumps is a 6 piece --- 3 guitars, 2 members of Basketball Shorts, playing instruments they dont play in that band,  Casey on bass and Ben on drums, and then Chris singing and just generally being a badass frontman.  I liked some of the genre fills Ben was doing, it gave the band the right flavor.  I didnt realize hes a badass drummer, he had a beat like he has a kit set up in his house he can practice on or something.  Yeah so 3 guitars, super loud, and .  My favorite part was the alternating guitar intro on the last song ("who you gonna fuck tonight? / nobody! nobody!")  Chris Smith had good menace and just a good loosing your shit look and was a great frontman.  He knows how to rock out from his Dark Meat days, probably before that, but as a guy whose seen a lot of bands, I definitely felt like I was watching a guy with pro level experience, thats a good vibe for their band.  Him and me were kinda going at it during the Party Plants set, I tried to lock him in the bathroom by dragging a big ass monitor or subwoofer or something in front of the door.  Oh yeah, the soundguy was a super chill dude, he totally thought it was funny and just put the thing back where it went and I went back on stage, and Chris didnt ever see any of it happen, b/c he was in the bathroom, and then I talked a little shit from on stage and hopefully he knew it was a joke too and I wasnt trying to hurt his feelings because he's one of my FUCKIN BESTIES.

The Shiny Voyage set in the middle was cool, they have new songs.  A lot of their set was instrumental, which I didn't remember from the last show we did with them at Willard's house.  They had some songs that utilized the very highest part of the guitar neck, and also they are doing a thing with an octaver pedal because they play 2 guitars (and a drum kit) but sometimes they make one of the guitars play a bass line.  Someone remarked that they raised their game ---  personally I remember them being really fucking good at Willard's too, that's why we wanted to do this show with them, but this show was tight as well.  They are a hard band to compare to anyone...they had a couple songs that used acoustic guitar that was cool.  I was talking with Tessa from that band about Broken Water, I'll bet thats a band they would like, also a 3 piece, but not really that similar in sound to what they are doing.  I was just saying I feel like the grunge sound is coming back in vogue or something (even tho Broken Water has been around for a while).

Our set was good.  We didnt need to play all of our songs, I think we went on around 12:20, 12:30.  Its cool just the different vibe of the 3 band bill, I think people appreciate going to such a show, just to mix it up.  I actually like that all the shows at Trailer Space are 3 band bills (mostly, I think).  If it had been a 4 band bill I would have felt like the urge to rush the other bands, but for a show that "starts at 10" if people are still showing up, and the bands set is 25 minutes, whats wrong with not starting until 10:20?  Some bars will be adamant that you start by 10:10 at the very latest.  But just in terms of how the night goes....

More on our set that I can remember, not much in particular, i remember really rocking out, viscerally, physically convulsing while playing the bass.  I thought of P-Bo, aka Patrick Boseman the bass player from Quiet Hooves.  Something about the bass, i think its cause its less technical in the sense that you only have to play 1 note, but it really lends itself to going nuts with your entire body.  I did some singing too which I normally don't do.  We didn't play Electric Bill, which was nice, actually I dont like to sing on that one anymore because i think it slows the beat down, takes the other singers out of the moment.  I think i sang harmonies on songs that it was like brand new harmonies.  Chris was upping his pedal usage pretty significantly.  I rolled off a lot of the high end from the bass on the EQ on the amp after playing a few shows with Naked Pictures over sxsw (Louis uses a J-Bass, mine is a P-bass style, thats what most ppl play on IMO), but I think i found a spot where I added back just a little of high end in a particular place, and it was doing good.  Finding that sound tweaking it.  I think we sounded EXCELLENT at the Chain Drive show, we had a show the night before that was fun, but as far as playing in top form, it was cool the way it was a warm up show for the Chain Drive show.  Also I got a girl now, and I met her at that show, thats tight.  She didnt actually see us play, she got there right after.....wished she could have been at the show tonight, prob would have made it a lot more fun of a show for me (not that it wasnt already hella fun), but the audience people are like a seed bank buried deep underground, they are really the holders of the vibe keeping everything cool.

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