art of the jam
missed writing about last week 'cos i'm working more hours at the market now, and in the middle of an article on the music is revolution foundation, but suffice to say that there was an acoustic set by tongue, followed by a full-on sunward "rehearsal" that impressed a lot of folks before the jamcats (jam-meister lee allen, original jamcat rob marruffo, dave karnes, ron geida, a late-arriving john shook, yr humble chronicler o' events) got up to do their thang.
this week, the jamcats' ranks were reduced due to the absence (in austin, playing with lucas martin) of geida 'n' shook. a planned acoustic merkin set didn't eventuate, and karnes was replaced at the last minute by josh clark, but it wound up being one of the more fun nights in recent memory, from a muso's standpoint at least. course, we had to wait for the mavericks game to end (in double overtime), interrupting at points with "standing on the verge" and a bona fide improv based on a groove josh threw down. after the mavs' flameout, we played failure's "daylight" and "maggot brain" in their honor. 'twas a good bar night, with lotsa folks hanging out in the big room with master o' libations graham, but hopefully kris made a few bucks on the "wreck west" side with us.
also hangin' out: my sweetie (on spring break from school, she'll be there next week for that one guy, too); my middle dtr, her b-f, and a friend of hers from work; karnes (a late arrival) and his le freak pal daniel harville (ex-sugarbomb/coma rally); jon teague and eric harris of yeti fame; sunward gtrist jerko dabelic; a bemused-looking homer henderson and robin sylar's former wife carol; stoogeaphilia's number one fan amy; billy whitewater wilson sans theremin; william bryan massey III (who got up to recite a poem about west 7th street over some of our noise) and rene west. by the end of the night, we'd managed to run all but seven or eight of 'em over to the other side. apologies too to paul the left-handed gtr player who brought his rig but didn't get to play.
from a totally selfish standpoint, i mightily dug playing trio with lee-boy and li'l josh. with fewer instruments onstage, there's more room to operate, both physically and soundscape-wise, and i can blow at will, pert near, while listening to the drums for the pocket and watching lee for direction. the chaos factor was higher than usual -- a good thing, in my opinion; we get more creative when we stop worrying about executing "correctly" -- and we took some of the "standards" ("cissy strut," "war pigs," "manic depression") to places they usually don't go. cynthia foster got up to sing a couple ("little wing" and "dazed and confused") and acquitted herself well, as is her wont, in spite of not having the lyrics and us prolly being louder than we shoulda been during her vocal turns. hopefully she'll keep coming back. an idea with some potential, maybe: having her get up and do something with the yeti guys. just a thought.
even before the final last call, the wreck room family is scattering. learned tonight that mike gunby is headed for key west in a coupla weeks (played both "daylight" and "freaky styley" a second time for him tonight), and graham richardson is departing at the end of the month for a new gig at finn maccool's pub on 8th avenue. i've driven by there a godzillion times and meant to check it out. now i've got a reason to do so. both will be missed.
this week, the jamcats' ranks were reduced due to the absence (in austin, playing with lucas martin) of geida 'n' shook. a planned acoustic merkin set didn't eventuate, and karnes was replaced at the last minute by josh clark, but it wound up being one of the more fun nights in recent memory, from a muso's standpoint at least. course, we had to wait for the mavericks game to end (in double overtime), interrupting at points with "standing on the verge" and a bona fide improv based on a groove josh threw down. after the mavs' flameout, we played failure's "daylight" and "maggot brain" in their honor. 'twas a good bar night, with lotsa folks hanging out in the big room with master o' libations graham, but hopefully kris made a few bucks on the "wreck west" side with us.
also hangin' out: my sweetie (on spring break from school, she'll be there next week for that one guy, too); my middle dtr, her b-f, and a friend of hers from work; karnes (a late arrival) and his le freak pal daniel harville (ex-sugarbomb/coma rally); jon teague and eric harris of yeti fame; sunward gtrist jerko dabelic; a bemused-looking homer henderson and robin sylar's former wife carol; stoogeaphilia's number one fan amy; billy whitewater wilson sans theremin; william bryan massey III (who got up to recite a poem about west 7th street over some of our noise) and rene west. by the end of the night, we'd managed to run all but seven or eight of 'em over to the other side. apologies too to paul the left-handed gtr player who brought his rig but didn't get to play.
from a totally selfish standpoint, i mightily dug playing trio with lee-boy and li'l josh. with fewer instruments onstage, there's more room to operate, both physically and soundscape-wise, and i can blow at will, pert near, while listening to the drums for the pocket and watching lee for direction. the chaos factor was higher than usual -- a good thing, in my opinion; we get more creative when we stop worrying about executing "correctly" -- and we took some of the "standards" ("cissy strut," "war pigs," "manic depression") to places they usually don't go. cynthia foster got up to sing a couple ("little wing" and "dazed and confused") and acquitted herself well, as is her wont, in spite of not having the lyrics and us prolly being louder than we shoulda been during her vocal turns. hopefully she'll keep coming back. an idea with some potential, maybe: having her get up and do something with the yeti guys. just a thought.
even before the final last call, the wreck room family is scattering. learned tonight that mike gunby is headed for key west in a coupla weeks (played both "daylight" and "freaky styley" a second time for him tonight), and graham richardson is departing at the end of the month for a new gig at finn maccool's pub on 8th avenue. i've driven by there a godzillion times and meant to check it out. now i've got a reason to do so. both will be missed.
posted by stashdauber at 12:55 AM
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