Gig Archives: 1999
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Thursday, February 11th, 1999 The Stork Club, after being evicted (their old building was sold to be
turned into a noodle factory), they reopened in an even seedier part of
downtown Oakland. So we had to play there, and we did. Dawn opened with
a pleasing solo set.
Saturday, February 27th, 1999 A weird night at the Bottom of the Hill for Mumble & Peg - we played with
Grand National and, of all bands, Three Day Stubble. Talk about a motley
crew. Stubble played a great, unoffensive set, especially difficult for them
after being written about in some local rag about being an offensive band.
Friday, March 19th, 1999 In order to celebrate the release of Zenflesh's CD compilation, "Amduscias,"
JOB performed, along with a million other bands at the poorly named
Tehama Alley Clit Stop in SF. Great sets by Turk Knifes Pope and Petit Mal.
In fact every other act except for us were quite appealing. We kinda stunk
up the place, I think. Made me want to quit music. Even worse at the end
of the night we had an all-star jam as if.
Thursday, March 25th, 1999 JOB made their rounds in the standard improv venues by playing a gig at
the Luggage Store Gallery. We played a good simple set. Very short, actually.
Maybe even too short. Jai Young's parents were in the audience and very polite.
Opening up was some string trio including Damon Smith and guest addition,
Henry Kaiser. I left my Nord at the gig but realized this quickly
and drove back to get it.
Saturday, March 27th, 1999 We headed south to Santa Cruz to play at the delightful space
called "What is Art?" which is run by Matthew Embry of E if for Elephant
fame. His two-man performance included the gut-splitting "Bubbles for Iraq."
Some dude read misogynist poetry. Another dude sang and played guitar in
a Neil Young sort of way. We played a quiet set. It was nice to play somewhere
out of dodge without much effort except for the 90 minute drive. The only
bummer was we missed the Vaccination Record rock lotto, which featured all
our friends in random conglomerations performing at the Starry Plough. We
actually made it back to Berkeley in time to see most everybody left
the Plough already.
Tuesday, April 20th, 1999 Lunchtime Herb gig at a law firm in downtown SF. I threw up on stage.
This was such an historic event that I wrote a painfully descriptive essay about it.
Saturday, May 1st, 1999 Back on the Herb train, actually playing at the voluptuous Bimbo's in SF,
opening up for none other than Nancy Sinatra!! What a high-profile show,
though we did get treated like dirt by some of the staff. I think they were
on high alert given the stature of the headlining act. Still,
it's nice to play to hundreds of people sometimes.
Wednesday, May 5th, 1999 Yet another Herb gig, this time playing a Cinco de Mayo party at Bruno's
in the Mission. Nobody came except for my brother who just moved into town,
Jenya, her friend Linda-Marie, and a few scant others. Still got paid, though
we had to do two long sets for the meal ticket.
Thursday, May 20th, 1999 Mumble & Peg goes back on tour - and another bullshit tour where half the
gigs got cancelled and the other half were pointless. It started at a frat-boy
sports bar in Chico called Harrington's. We played with a slew of other random
acts, including fellow Oakland songsinger Hansi and some band from back east
somewhere called Fudge Gun. We played well, and the place had people coming
and going all night, but we're certain the doorman stole a bunch of the money
and we basically got nothing.
Friday, May 21st, 1999 Made it to Seattle the next day for a show at Jules Mae's with
Suicide Jack. I
got to borrow their keyboard for the gig (they borrowed my keyboard when they
played in Oakland a couple weeks ago). But they also borrowed Jenya's drums, and
the singer/drummer beat it to shit. Washers and lugs were scattered around
the stage when he was through. Jen was pleased that two old Santa Cruz friends
randomly showed up to see us play. How about that? Since the rest of the tour
was basically canned, we headed home, stopping in Arcata the next day to stay
with Jenya's mom.
Wednesday, June 23rd, 1999 Sat in once again with this crazy large ensemble - structured group improv
as conducted by Moe himself. I think I was playing bass through my crappy
keyboard amp so nobody could hear me. It was at Newberry's in downtown Oakland
(an ex-department store where such music events were held for a brief period
of time back then). Also on the bill was Grand Nat'l and the grand,
historic public debut of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (I say "public"
because they played a gig the previous night to a single banana slug).
Wednesday, June 30th, 1999 Got to deliver our wacky brand of noisy improv to the patron of Cafe du Nord
in SF. Also on the bill were the Two Dimensions (back before they
became Faun Fables) and Moe! doing a solo set - and then he sat in
with us on guitar. Extra noisy!
Saturday, July 10th, 1999 CD release party for "This Ungodly Hour!" It was a party at the Starry Plough,
with all kinds of solo or semi-solo singer songwriter acts starting the
evening. Had a really good crowd, and some guests sat in with us: Dan
Plonsey, Carla Kihlstedt, and Ashley Adams. They helped round out the sound
on clarinet, violin, and contrabass, respectively. We were also supposed to
have David Gleason on guitar but he couldn't make it at the last minute.
The irony is we have more than half the next album written at this point,
and played a lot of those tunes.
Monday, July 26th, 1999 Played at the Cocodrie in San Francisco. Honestly I don't remember much
about this show. It probably sucked like most shows I ever played thereIf anything it was good practice before the upcoming European tour.
Tuesday, July 27th, 1999 Another large ensemble gig with Moe! and a zillion others all crammed
into the Starry Plough, leaving very little room for actual paying
audience members. I played baritone guitar on this one for no other
reason than it looks cool, and there's always a lot of music geeks
at these geeks showing off their gear/chops.
Friday, August 20th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ the Underground in Koln, Germany
Saturday, August 21st, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ FKK in Minden, Germany
Sunday, August 22nd, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ some random stage at an outdoor festival in Berlin, Germany
Thursday, August 26th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Roter Salon in Berlin, Germany
Wednesday, September 1st, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Objekt 5 in Halle, Germany
Thursday, September 2nd, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Leipzig, Germany
Friday, September 3rd, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ BDP Jugendcafe in Babenhausen, Germany
Saturday, September 4th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Liege, Belgium
Sunday, September 5th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Klampfe in Witzenhausen, Germany
Tuesday, September 7th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Graz, Austria
Thursday, September 9th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Vetternwirtschaft in Rosenheim, Germany
Friday, September 10th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Culture Factor Y in Lustenau, Austria
Saturday, September 11th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Hirscheneck in Basel, Switzerland
Sunday, September 12th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ the Swamp in Freiburg, Germany
Wednesday, September 15th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Kuz Gaswerk in Winterthur, Switzerland
Thursday, September 16th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Festung in Traunstein, Germany
Friday, September 17th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Scheune in Dresden, Germany
Saturday, September 18th, 1999 On Tour: European Tour 1999 @ Singwitz, Germany
Wednesday, October 13th, 1999 First (and last) Herb gig for a while. And I was back on playing bass,
so I had to re-relearn the material yet again, or at least remind myself
how it all went. It was some formal event at the Regency Ballroom in SF.
Big venue, nice stage.
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