pfffft! @ the chat room, 4.27.2008
1) that's right, only four "f's": eric harris didn't play. oh well.
2) had another "poetschke on improvisation" installment to digest, along with varying degrees of bad news: found out that mike bandy from the me-thinks busted his head up jumping off the drum riser at the aardvark the night before. at least he's ok. also heard that a 22-yr-old friend of a coworker o.d.'d on massive amounts of cocaine and xanax. a sad way to go for someone who'd barely had the chance to live. and dre's dog maggie's been ill -- found out later she's suffering from heartworm and blood clots that are preventing her front legs from working. hoping for a good outcome there, at least. on the way to the chat room, resolved to do like karl said and empty my mind in preparation for playing.
3) pulled up in the parking lot and was surprised to hear a band already playing. wtf? turns out that seattlites the lonely h, who'd played there friday night, dug the room so much they didn't wanna leave. who could blame them? so we got a lot of extra beer-and-bullshit time before we hit.
4) found out ben rogers is the new stage manager for the polyphonic spree! luckily for us, ben gets to keep his job booking bands at the chat, because the spree doesn't tour _all_ the time. ben told me he digs acid mothers temple so much that he once rode a motorcycle cross-country from seattle in three days (after finishing a stint on an alaskan fishing boat!) to see amt play at hailey's, pulling into the parking lot as they started their second song. in other words, he's _our kind of guy_.
5) soundman eric ortiz had told me he was gonna be out of town camping, but he fell by to make sure that dave the bartender (who was running sound after being shown the board _a couple of hours_ before the show) was ok. dave did fine; trial by fucking fire, dude -- same way we roll. btw, eric's going to be on the bill when the stoogeband plays the chat on my b-day (6.28) with flipside trio and scene girls.
6) clay stinnett is the groovemaker and drives the dynamic shifts. he also winds things down and shuts them off before they have a chance to meander too much. if jon teague likes to play a little behind the beat, clay is always a little bit ahead of it -- always listening for _the next thing_.
7) matt hembree establishes the harmonic contour of the pieces, resisting the urge to over-embellish (like, um, adding a fourth chord). he'd rather have oral surgery than play a bass solo, but that's not what this gig is about; what he's doing here is more along the lines of _spontaneous composition_.
8) tony chapman is the wild card, adding surprising colors and textures. my only beef is that i can't hear him all the time.
9) i'm trying to refrain from playing habit patterns, but thinking about _that_ too much can be self-defeating. i have to admit that i feel some guilt over playing the "old man card" and sneaking in a steve cropper riff that evabody usedta know but prolly no one else on the stand did. i'm allowing myself to veer into areas of atonality, including attempts at "sonny sharrock chaos-slide."
10) a few failed experiments this time (playing along with the radio signals coming through the monitors; matt sez the tejano polka and "acid country" song really just didn't work) but that's a given when using this method. the next time we do this, we're all gonna wear snap-button shirts. it'll be the "pfffft! rodeo."
2) had another "poetschke on improvisation" installment to digest, along with varying degrees of bad news: found out that mike bandy from the me-thinks busted his head up jumping off the drum riser at the aardvark the night before. at least he's ok. also heard that a 22-yr-old friend of a coworker o.d.'d on massive amounts of cocaine and xanax. a sad way to go for someone who'd barely had the chance to live. and dre's dog maggie's been ill -- found out later she's suffering from heartworm and blood clots that are preventing her front legs from working. hoping for a good outcome there, at least. on the way to the chat room, resolved to do like karl said and empty my mind in preparation for playing.
3) pulled up in the parking lot and was surprised to hear a band already playing. wtf? turns out that seattlites the lonely h, who'd played there friday night, dug the room so much they didn't wanna leave. who could blame them? so we got a lot of extra beer-and-bullshit time before we hit.
4) found out ben rogers is the new stage manager for the polyphonic spree! luckily for us, ben gets to keep his job booking bands at the chat, because the spree doesn't tour _all_ the time. ben told me he digs acid mothers temple so much that he once rode a motorcycle cross-country from seattle in three days (after finishing a stint on an alaskan fishing boat!) to see amt play at hailey's, pulling into the parking lot as they started their second song. in other words, he's _our kind of guy_.
5) soundman eric ortiz had told me he was gonna be out of town camping, but he fell by to make sure that dave the bartender (who was running sound after being shown the board _a couple of hours_ before the show) was ok. dave did fine; trial by fucking fire, dude -- same way we roll. btw, eric's going to be on the bill when the stoogeband plays the chat on my b-day (6.28) with flipside trio and scene girls.
6) clay stinnett is the groovemaker and drives the dynamic shifts. he also winds things down and shuts them off before they have a chance to meander too much. if jon teague likes to play a little behind the beat, clay is always a little bit ahead of it -- always listening for _the next thing_.
7) matt hembree establishes the harmonic contour of the pieces, resisting the urge to over-embellish (like, um, adding a fourth chord). he'd rather have oral surgery than play a bass solo, but that's not what this gig is about; what he's doing here is more along the lines of _spontaneous composition_.
8) tony chapman is the wild card, adding surprising colors and textures. my only beef is that i can't hear him all the time.
9) i'm trying to refrain from playing habit patterns, but thinking about _that_ too much can be self-defeating. i have to admit that i feel some guilt over playing the "old man card" and sneaking in a steve cropper riff that evabody usedta know but prolly no one else on the stand did. i'm allowing myself to veer into areas of atonality, including attempts at "sonny sharrock chaos-slide."
10) a few failed experiments this time (playing along with the radio signals coming through the monitors; matt sez the tejano polka and "acid country" song really just didn't work) but that's a given when using this method. the next time we do this, we're all gonna wear snap-button shirts. it'll be the "pfffft! rodeo."
posted by stashdauber at 4:45 AM
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