art of the jam 27
spoonfed tribe was playing in the big room last night, so we figured we'd start early over in "wreck west," play until they started, then get up again during their break (if they took one). in the event, their drum roadie (!) wound up setting up their percussion stuff in the little room for after their "real" set and we knocked off about 45 minutes too early, but it was still a good night.
got there and found some young cats from denton (i think the singer's name was vic and his gtr-playin' bud's name was travis; i didn't catch the drummer's name) setting up to play with two acoustics and a djembe. jam-meister lee allen had said it was gonna be a percussion-heavy night, so i brought along bongos and a tambourine (which wound up going unused, pert near) along with the indonesian strat and "amplet." vic played some nice 'riginals as well as a whole heap of jack johnson 'n' sublime songs.
amy royer, whom i'd never heard before although i'd seen her around a bunch, got up and sang one of her own, which was great. she's got a voice with real power and range and doesn't overemote like some chixxx will tend to, just hits all the notes real fine and sounds like she means it. then she stayed up for a coupla jane's addiction toons ("jane says" and "summertime rolls") that got the rowdy wreck room regulars sangin' along. (it was a strange crowd starting out, part college fratboy types, part older ex-fratboys, part regular wreck folk, almost as if the moon, the torch, and the wreck had collided.) jam-meister lee plugged in and played a coupla toons with amy and the cats. i tried to, but the powerstrip wouldn't cooperate. feh. maybe next time.
"everybody's digging this real mellow vibe," said the jam-meister before we got up. "let's try and keep it going. gotta regulate our volumes."
"sure," i said. "donwanna get up and bum everybody out."
took us awhile to get it together. the new monitor was buzzing a bit at first (wizard o' sound andre edmonson had to do a lot of tweaking of wreck west's sound system while the denton cats were up, too), and of course my "amplet" always makes a shitload of noise -- i traded jim crye my reissue fuzzface for the yellow dod overdrive i use now on the theory the newer box would be less noisy than the old 'un; hahahahaha. the last time we'd played in the little room we almost cleared it by playing TOO LOUD but this time comparable volume settings didn't produce the same effect. uh, must have something to do with there being _more ppl_ present. deadens the sound, y'know.
tuning probs fukkked up "bobo" before amy joined in on "come together" and william bryan massey III, celebrating his 48th trip around the sun (wow, the cat's the same age as i am), did some spoken word over bastardized led zep improv madness while i discovered that the feedback on the little stage isn't as happening as on the larger one. my sweetie was in the house all night talkin' with all three of the me-thinks (who keep popping up in my dreams -- once, i dreamed i was playing stooges songs w/them in my maidenform bra; another time, it was all of live at leeds, nekkid...wonder what freud would have to say about that?). kulcha far i boys were on the set, too. we wrapped up with "manic depression" and then spoonfed didn't start for a good long time. oh well. i'm glad the ppl i talked to afterward seemed to dig it, or at least they said nice things.
next week we'll still be in "wreck west" 'cos the mermaid purse is playing in the big room the night before turkey day. the week after that, jam-meister lee has a gig in austin with the original "impulse of will" cats, so my mission is to try and keep it together, especially on the bass and vocal fronts. got a coupla kulcha cats and amy royer tentatively committed to comin' out that night and hoping to line up a few more before the last day o' november. film, as they say, at 11.
got there and found some young cats from denton (i think the singer's name was vic and his gtr-playin' bud's name was travis; i didn't catch the drummer's name) setting up to play with two acoustics and a djembe. jam-meister lee allen had said it was gonna be a percussion-heavy night, so i brought along bongos and a tambourine (which wound up going unused, pert near) along with the indonesian strat and "amplet." vic played some nice 'riginals as well as a whole heap of jack johnson 'n' sublime songs.
amy royer, whom i'd never heard before although i'd seen her around a bunch, got up and sang one of her own, which was great. she's got a voice with real power and range and doesn't overemote like some chixxx will tend to, just hits all the notes real fine and sounds like she means it. then she stayed up for a coupla jane's addiction toons ("jane says" and "summertime rolls") that got the rowdy wreck room regulars sangin' along. (it was a strange crowd starting out, part college fratboy types, part older ex-fratboys, part regular wreck folk, almost as if the moon, the torch, and the wreck had collided.) jam-meister lee plugged in and played a coupla toons with amy and the cats. i tried to, but the powerstrip wouldn't cooperate. feh. maybe next time.
"everybody's digging this real mellow vibe," said the jam-meister before we got up. "let's try and keep it going. gotta regulate our volumes."
"sure," i said. "donwanna get up and bum everybody out."
took us awhile to get it together. the new monitor was buzzing a bit at first (wizard o' sound andre edmonson had to do a lot of tweaking of wreck west's sound system while the denton cats were up, too), and of course my "amplet" always makes a shitload of noise -- i traded jim crye my reissue fuzzface for the yellow dod overdrive i use now on the theory the newer box would be less noisy than the old 'un; hahahahaha. the last time we'd played in the little room we almost cleared it by playing TOO LOUD but this time comparable volume settings didn't produce the same effect. uh, must have something to do with there being _more ppl_ present. deadens the sound, y'know.
tuning probs fukkked up "bobo" before amy joined in on "come together" and william bryan massey III, celebrating his 48th trip around the sun (wow, the cat's the same age as i am), did some spoken word over bastardized led zep improv madness while i discovered that the feedback on the little stage isn't as happening as on the larger one. my sweetie was in the house all night talkin' with all three of the me-thinks (who keep popping up in my dreams -- once, i dreamed i was playing stooges songs w/them in my maidenform bra; another time, it was all of live at leeds, nekkid...wonder what freud would have to say about that?). kulcha far i boys were on the set, too. we wrapped up with "manic depression" and then spoonfed didn't start for a good long time. oh well. i'm glad the ppl i talked to afterward seemed to dig it, or at least they said nice things.
next week we'll still be in "wreck west" 'cos the mermaid purse is playing in the big room the night before turkey day. the week after that, jam-meister lee has a gig in austin with the original "impulse of will" cats, so my mission is to try and keep it together, especially on the bass and vocal fronts. got a coupla kulcha cats and amy royer tentatively committed to comin' out that night and hoping to line up a few more before the last day o' november. film, as they say, at 11.
posted by stashdauber at 3:24 PM
2 Comments:
i LOVE the jam!
it's weird getting so excited reading about people you don't know in a place you haven't physically been playing music your mind can only approximate the sound of, but i dig it just fine. kinda the same way i dig mikey's surfing spiels - a subject i know NOTHING of but dig reading about as much as the people who actually do it.
anyway, just writing to say the wife and i are heading to the great state of texas this summer (my 1st time there.) we wanted to try and do europe, but there's no $$$ for that. she's got fam in san antonio she wants to visit and she gets the summer off from her teaching gig so now is as good a time as any i guess. were doin' it by car so i'd love to schedule it so maybe we could swing by the wreck room (what a GREAT name) and catch some of the jam. i also wanna swing it so we can hit graceland (i place i've wanted to see since 8th grade) and the delta blues museum in clarksdale, mississippi too - but i don't know if all that is geographically possible/worthwhile for the purposes of this trip. oh well, at least i'm getting a damn vacay this year. cheers!
andrew -- send me yr snail addy and i'll send you some cd-r burnage from wizard o' sound andre's tapes. we'd love to have you visit us here in the fort. you and nicole would be welcome to crash at our place, and we'd be delighted to take you out for a fredburger 'n' beer. the jam happens on wednesday night, so i guess you'd wanna be in town then. btw you can e-mail me at ken.shimamoto@gmail.com.
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