Gig Archives: 2000
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Wednesday, February 2nd, 2000 The gig marked the end of an era, as this was the last JOB show for
the forseeable future. Mark moved to Boston a couple weeks after this show.
Some really good, moving moments towards the end of our set.
The evening started with some mind-bending, hilarious music (and
performance art) by Mono Pause. Genius.
This all went down at the Tip Top Inn in SF (3001 Mission Street @ 26th).
Afterward Jai Young helped film a short video where one guy accidentally
runs over a vintage synthesizer while loading out of the gig.
Friday, February 4th, 2000 We headed on up to Sacramento to play
at the Press Club (2030 "P" St.) with three other rawkin' rawk
bands (Maybe Never, the Succulents, and Asterisk).
Went on third. Seemed to go alright but it was questionable whether it
was worth the shlep out there.
Friday, February 11th, 2000 Ah, yes, a Vaccination Records showcase at the Starry Plough in Berkeley.
We did our usual stuff in front of the usual crowd, along with
label-mates Rube Waddell and Grand National and the Big Red Shoelace.
Saturday, March 4th, 2000 This was a slightly historic gig, as it was the first time I subbed
(on keyboards) for this James Bond-y/Burt Bacharach cover band, which
at the time featured a lot of the same members as Herb, along with many
others. It was a bit stressful for me learning the material, then
playing it in front of a packed house at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz (who
were all there to see the headlining act Superbooty. For some
reason Erik came along to check it out, and he carpooled with me, Wes,
and Steve and all our gear. On the long trek home Steve put on an Ivo
Papasov cassette - first time I ever heard that shit and I was blown
the fuck away. So a memorable night all around.
Friday, March 10th, 2000 We've been asked to play at the Stork Club in Oakland by the band
Sfu.ma.to.
We knew very little about this band, and even less about the third band
that night called One Step Shift. It was a fairly random night
at this classic dive.
Wednesday, March 15th, 2000 We graced the tall stage at the Tip Top Inn in SF with the likes of
Faun Fables and Megamoose. As for the latter,
I think this was the first time I met
this wave of musical cats from Indiana, who will be on stage or in the
audience of many of my gigs in the future. They were pretty rad.
Thursday, March 16th, 2000 We returned to SF right away to play at the Hotel Utah with Mark Growden
and his Electric Pinata. There was much mopey music (by us) and merriment (by Mark)
but all generally marvelous.
Tuesday, March 28th, 2000 On Tour: Northwest Spring 2000 March 28, 2000
This was my inauguration into this band, which featured pals o' mine
(Frank Grau on drums, Eli Good on guitar, and Jai Young Kim on keyboards).
They asked me along to fill in on bass (as Kenseth couldn't make it) for this northwest tour.
This gig, actually all but the last one, had Graham Connah's Jettison Slinky on the
bill as well. They're on tour as well, albeit in a different van.
Anyway... this first gig was in Portland, OR at EJ's. A good gig musically, but a rough night.
It was a Tuesday after all in a lame part of town. However my old NY friend Dave was in town
at that point and caught the gig. Good bless him.
Wednesday, March 29th, 2000 On Tour: Northwest Spring 2000 March 29, 2000
The next night we played a better show at the Rainbow in Seattle, WA. Also had a third band
on the bill - some local improv trio with that Critters Buggin guy on bass. Maybe
that helped the draw (which wasn't great, but whaddaya expect given we're an improv band,
and a big jazz band touring together?!).
Thursday, March 30th, 2000 On Tour: Northwest Spring 2000 March 30, 2000
Then played Sam Bond's Garage in Eugene. This was an even slightly better night as it
seemed like the most appropriate venue for our stuff, and we gelled on the improvs even
more. Plus we had extra time to mellow out and drink ginger lemonade before the gig.
Friday, March 31st, 2000 On Tour: Northwest Spring 2000 March 31, 2000
Today was the "cornerstone" gig of the tour, both of us bands playing at the Blue Room
in Chico, CA as part of a weekend-long "Nowhere by Nowhere" music festival in this
party college town. So lots of bands were playing everywhere. Very good turnout. It
helped that a pack of music nerds thought Trevor from Mr. Bungle was playing in
Graham's band (he played on some of the album). Also on the bill that night was 20
Minute Loop, who'd go on to be a Bay Area mainstay indie rock band that I'd bump
into from time to time for years.
Saturday, April 1st, 2000 On Tour: Northwest Spring 2000 April 1, 2000
Graham and co. headed home but we squeezed one more gig at the Mateel Community Center
in Redway, CA. Totally middle-of-nowhere hippie town, which is cool, as they were
totally receptive, but the attendance was disappointing. Some friends of Frank's
opened the evening with their own improv thang. After us was a single woman show, "Oh
My Goddess" which went on *forever* - and our gear was stuck on stage. So we had to
wait literally hours to load out and finally work our way home. Oy.
Tuesday, April 11th, 2000 Once again sat in with them on bass as they played
at the Paradise Lounge in SF, sharing the main stage with Stickman.
This was another historic gig. Darling Freakhead was playing guitar
in Stickman so I got to finally really meet him for the first time,
as was Mike Pukish, who years earlier sent me a snarky e-mail in response
to mine looking for fellow musicians with whom to start a band. Now that Mike and I
met face to face we immediately became pretty good friends. Just goes to show how
much e-mail sucks.
Friday, April 14th, 2000 We celebrated tax-day at the good ol' Starry Plough in Berkeley, packing
the place along with local pals Ramona the Pest and Bassline Dada.
Thursday, April 27th, 2000 I'm played bass once again with this improvisational
quartet and I played once again at the Starry Plough in Berkeley.
Other bands on the bill that night were fitting in an odd way:
Vacuum Tree Head and Pendulum.
Oh yeah: Darling Freakhead sat in with us on keyboards, which was
bizarre in a good way.
Thursday, May 11th, 2000 This was back in the day when bands like this, along with Vacuum Tree Head,
would perform at the Bottom of the Hill in SF. Species Being put on
one of our most rockin' shows yet, and it's becoming clear that I'm
a regular part of the band, whatever that means.
The Moe!Kestra set was loud and large and lovely with Moe! spazzing out
as conductor as usual.
Wednesday, June 7th, 2000 This was Jai Young Kim's first show as "curator" this month, booking all Wednesday slots
at the Tip Top. He booked me, but couldn't find anybody else to play the bill.
Nobody in their right mind should want to play the Tip Top on a Wednesday
night. So be it. I knew everybody in the audience by name: Jenya Chernoff,
Jai Young Kim, Ben Lebofsky, Kevin McCarthy, Lehho Rebassoo, and Ben "Jacobs."
I haven't seen the latter Ben in many years (we used to play together in the
Stevie Blacke band during my Marin County phase) so that was nice.
This was kinda my Midline Errors debut. I played a lot of cover tunes along
side my originals, including stuff by the Smiths, Hatfield & the
North, Swervedriver and a song written by an old friend from
Binghamton, Larry Tuxbury.
Saturday, June 10th, 2000 So now I'm subbing on bass in this band - just like in Herb where I subbed
on both keyboards and bass. I rule. Anyway, this was an afternoon gig, playing
the North Beach Festival. Literally thousands of people were there milling
about, which was cool, and we rocked our set before a blues band came on
and rocked even more after us. Right on.
Saturday, June 24th, 2000 Another gig subbing on bass, and another wacky setting: we were opening for
today's A's game at Oakland Coliseum, right there in a big tent in the
parking lot. People were pulling up, loading out, and catching us play our
60's set en route to seeing some baseball.
Saturday, June 24th, 2000 And then we hauled ass from that gig straight up to Petaluma to play a
public show headlining at the Mystic Theatre. Big place, they fed us well,
we laid down two long sets and earned our bucks for the day.
Friday, July 14th, 2000 We played another public sert at the Great American Music Hall in SF.
I forget the exact occasion, or who we even played with, but this was
my first time on stage at the GAMH (if you don't count the time
Idiot Flesh dragged me up there during one of their shows years
ago).
Saturday, August 12th, 2000 A double whammy set for me. This was actually supposed to be a Mumble & Peg
set, but decided to go with our evil-improv alter-ego Pummel & Beg
considering the other bands on the bill (Species Being and Darling
Freakhead, the latter of which was one of the rare full-rock-band
shows with Morgan Guberman, Nils Frykdahl, and Mike Pukish baking him up).
Mick told me years later the P&B set really fucked with his head. I mean,
jeez, I spent half the set sitting on stage scraping a violin into a
series of effects pedals.
Tuesday, August 29th, 2000 The first of three lunchtime gigs playing in Justin Herman Plaza in SF
right there in the open air. I was subbing on bass. This was part of some
corporate thing - like some digital camera company or something was
having a conference. Anyway, I had to take [i]really long[/i] lunchbreaks
from my day job in the Space Lab in Berkeley to go play these gigs.
Wednesday, August 30th, 2000 The second of these lunchtime gigs. It was actually a little drizzly,
which made me worry about my bass rig.
Thursday, August 31st, 2000 The third and final lunchtime gig. Phew. I was really getting tired of
driving to SF and desperately trying to unload/park right there downtown
in the middle of the day.
Friday, September 1st, 2000 Played another show at the Starry Plough for the helluvit.
It was almost like a reunion show, being as how we haven't played in
forever. Opening the evening was the fresh, new, two-bass-and-drums brain-rock
band, Schloss. We also had guests sitting in helping out
on all the overdubbed parts we did in the studio. I only have two arms,
after all. These quick instrumental visitations on stage included none other than
Myles Boisen, Dan Rathbun, Mark Growden, and Tom Yoder!
Wednesday, September 13th, 2000 As if! We played at the Amnesia in SF (formerly the good ol' Chameleon)
This was a four band evening, where we were the second band. The
other bands were The Masa Records Showcase,
Electro Group, and Aerosol Species. Meh.
Thursday, September 14th, 2000 Another Tongue & Groove gig - this was sort of a semi-regular thing
for a while.
Thursday, September 21st, 2000 Once again I sat in with this
cover band to end all cover bands. Where? At the Tongue & Groove in
SF (2513 Van Ness @ Union). Three short sets, lots of built-in crowd
diggin' it and dancing. Partay!
Thursday, September 28th, 2000 So I played the CD release party for this band, even though I wasn't on
the CD. Fair enough - it was at the Bottom of the Hill in SF, which is a
cool place to play, and it was a fun gig, and pretty random. Also on the
bill was Mark Growden and his Electric Pinata and Deerhoof
(who will become more popular than anyone could possibly imagine at
the time). Bad news: my Honda pretty much blew up on the Bay Bridge en
route to the gig. Had to get AAA afterward to tow me all the way home,
and I had a flight to Detroit the next day, so I pretty much pulled an
allnighter as I didn't get home until 4:30am with the towtruck, and had
to be at the airport by 6am...
Monday, October 2nd, 2000 A weird gig, but it was at the Cafe Du Nord in SF and we
were opening for Mark Growden's Electric Pinata so it was a
pretty well attended show for a Monday night.
Wednesday, October 4th, 2000 I subbed on keyboards with this wonderful, new band (formerly the Club Foot Orchestra)
playing a fun and exciting assortment of film score music by
Nino Rota amongst other things. Man I had a ton of music to learn for
this show, which features many noteworthy members of the Bay Area jazz/experimental
music scene, and was at Bruno's in SF (in the Mission).
Thursday, October 5th, 2000 The last of the Tongue & Groove gigs, or at least the last one that *I* did.
See above for slightly more info if you care.
Tuesday, October 10th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Kilby Court in Salt Lake City, UT
Thursday, October 12th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Fireside Bowl in Chicago, IL
Friday, October 13th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Arco Iris in Grand Rapids, MI
Saturday, October 14th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Harveys on the Mall in Kalamazoo, MI
Sunday, October 15th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ 7th Street Access in Minneapolis, MN
Monday, October 16th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL
Tuesday, October 17th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Yat's in Lexington, KY
Thursday, October 19th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ played live on the air at WFMU (in NJ)
Thursday, October 19th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Pour House in Brooklyn, NY
Saturday, October 21st, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Edinboro University, Edinboro, PA
Sunday, October 22nd, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Millvale Industrial Theater in Pittsburgh, PA
Tuesday, October 24th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ University of Oklahoma: Top of the Park in Norman, OK
Wednesday, October 25th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Sprockets Pub in Albuquerque, NM
Thursday, October 26th, 2000 On Tour: Species Being October National Tour 2000 @ Double Zero in Tucson, AZ
Saturday, November 11th, 2000 Played at the Ivy Room in Albany (just north of Berkeley).
We went on and played an extra long set (as we were paid to do so)
after our pals Aerosol Species.
Sunday, November 12th, 2000 The first of two gigs playing in a small combo version of this
band at, get this, two different Nordstrom's department stores
around the Bay Area. This first one was in Pleasanton, and an
early one - me, Steve, Chris, and Tom played quietly as the store
opened around 9am. I got to play the store's grand piano. Nice.
I forget the whole point of this - some promotional campaign for
their favorite customers.
Tuesday, November 14th, 2000 The second of the two gigs mentioned above, this one was in
Walnut Creek, and "after hours" (i.e. starting at 7pm). Once
again I got to play the "house" grand piano without getting
into trouble.
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2000 We played once again at Cafe Du Nord in SF, on this festive
day before Thanksgiving.
With who else on the bill? The Rock-a-teens. They're an indie label band.
They had college radio cred and brought the kids out.
They made off color jokes about AIDS in the dressing room.
Big whatever. There was a little extra stress surrounding this gig as
Jenya's alternator seems to have died, so we borrowed Virginia's battery
to get us to the gig, and it miraculously lasted all the way home, too.
Jenya's brother was also hanging out with us.
Monday, November 27th, 2000 I played a tiny set as part of one of the many Mark Growden Monday night
shows during the fall of '00. I only got 15 minutes, and planned to play
eight really short tunes, but due to the crappy sound of my classical
guitar going through Mark's amp and the weird vibe from the audience,
I kept the song count down to five. Next time around I won't attempt
the singer/songwriter thing with just guitar/voice. People expect too
much or too little.
Saturday, December 16th, 2000 Yet another gig at the good ol' Starry Plough in Berkeley, six days before
Hannukah. Not much to report except who else played:
Grnd Natl Brnds and a one-off thing called Gray Davis
featuring Gino, Rick, and Ann.
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