Gig Archives: 2006
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Thursday, January 26th, 2006 We got a sorta-last-minute gig playing after
Two Feet Tall at the Grant & Green Saloon in North Beach, SF.
Research & Development was originally slated to play this gig
but since the band is now on hiatus 3PC did it instead. It was
a good gig in that we flawlessly debuted our new epic that we've been
working on for many months, "This is a Dead Place." But it was kind
of a mismatched bill and nobody stuck around. The booker mentioned
that North Beach is becoming a dead place of its own, so fair enough.
Hard to get strangers to dig on loud, jagged art rock at midnight on
a school night. While we loaded out some old guy was drinking on the
sidewalk while smoking a cigarette and coughing up blood on the sidewalk.
Saturday, January 28th, 2006 Back to the Fishtank in Oakland for us! We
played there with our pals in the Mitch Marcus Quintet. These
guys kick major ass, so we were pumped up to play after their set.
We more or less nailed the new tune again, and had a better crowd.
It was a fairly low key gig otherwise - just calling out tunes in
the moment instead of drumming up a formal setlist beforehand.
Stiff drinks, folks, and fun.
Friday, February 24th, 2006 Sigh. We played our pseudo-semi-going-on-hiatus-farewall gig at the Fishtank.
Opening the night was the funky and freaky Think Tank,
which happened to contain three R&D members.
Things were running late as we were recording the whole thing (audio and video),
and then we played every song in our known catalog over the course of two long sets.
We had the full eight piece (with Sylvain sitting in on alto) all crammed up on that stage.
People got drunker, and equipment less reliable, and song arrangements more dynamic,
as we approached the wee hours. It's sad to see this band enter an indefinite period
of sleep, but we're all moving on and working together in some form or another.
Large bands are impossible to coordinate, you know?
Thursday, March 9th, 2006 We freaked out at the Eagle Tavern in SF, which is normally a
leather bar but on Thursdays they host live rock shows.
This was a weird one, but then again they're all weird. The lineup was me, Danny,
and Jamison, with Jon (for the second time) on drums, and Alex (for the first time)
on bass. We played last after three punk bands (Kansas City Stars,
The Crosstops, and The Grannies). They all rocked from what I saw -
I walked with my bandmates to Zeitgeist to kill time and missed some of the sets.
There we bumped into Danny's doppleganger - a guy who was the same height, the same
bald head, and the same fur jacket. As always things ran late and we went on around
12:30am, but we still had an okay crowd, including some dog that barked between
every song. Early in the set Danny cut his lip on the microphone during some antics
and bled all over the place, adding to the edgy performance. Plus, since me, Jon,
and Alex were on stage, we mutinied and played a 3PC song fragment that
was secretly selected earlier. Ha ha. Took 90 minutes to get home due to bridge
construction, so I didn't get to bed until 3:30am.
Saturday, March 11th, 2006 A corporate gig in SF in the St. Regis hotel ballroom.
It was a long one - three sets of varying lengths,
including some James Bond theme songs. The crowd was good
and danced all night. One woman, who I am assuming was drunk, kept coming on stage
to try to sing and coerce us to play other songs. She kept getting off stage, then
coming back on, squeezing past Susan and my keyboard as if we weren't doing
anything useful to get to Danny up front. It was strange but harmless. People are
funny. It was also one of the easiest gigs as far as loading and parking, especially
since we had no idea how to load in nor where to park once we arrived. It all
worked out beautifully, really.
Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 @ the Independent in San Francisco (CD release and variety show!) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 @ the Troubadour in Hollywood, CA (with Stolen Babies and Hour of the Shipwreck) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Monday, April 24th, 2006 @ Plush in Tucson, AZ (with Molehill Orkestrah) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Thursday, April 27th, 2006 @ Eye Drum in Atlanta, GA (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, April 28th, 2006 @ Pilot Light in Knoxville, TN (check out this tour story for more details.)
Saturday, April 29th, 2006 @ Columbia Music Festival Association in Columbia, SC (with bigSphinx) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Monday, May 1st, 2006 @ Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH (check out this tour story for more details.)
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 @ Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, OH (with Brian Straw) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Thursday, May 4th, 2006 @ Southpaw in Brooklyn, NY (with Transmitting and Bonfire Madigan) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, May 5th, 2006 @ Galapagos in Brooklyn, NY (with Billy Nayer Show and Jollyship the Whiz Bang) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Saturday, May 6th, 2006 @ Tonic in New York, NY (with Barbez) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Sunday, May 7th, 2006 @ Higher Ground in Burlington, VT (with Pinback and Pleaseeasaur) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Monday, May 8th, 2006 A Casino Royale gig was booked in Toronto on the date, but alas I had to decline as I was going to be on tour.
But then as it turned out I had the day off and also happened to be in that neck of the woods. So I flew from
Burlington to Toronto and played this fun-ass gig, which was an international law convention at the Guvernment
event space. We then enjoyed the spoils of an open bar, and I flew out early the next morning to Montreal
where I met up with my Faun Fables bandmates and continued the tour. I'm such a rock star.
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 @ El Salon in Montreal, QC (with Scrote and White Noise Ensemble) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 @ Tranzac in Toronto, ON (with Singing Saw Shadow Show and Pyramid Culture) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Thursday, May 11th, 2006 @ Casbah in Hamilton, ON (with Laura Barrett) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, May 12th, 2006 @ Beat Kitchen in Chicago, IL (with Cheer Accident) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Saturday, May 13th, 2006 @ South Union Arts in Chicago, IL (with Bird Names) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Sunday, May 14th, 2006 @ Nelligan Hall in Louisville, KY (with Litany's Last Stand) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 @ The Church in Minneapolis, MN (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, May 19th, 2006 @ Oriental Theater in Denver, CO (with Uphollow) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Saturday, May 20th, 2006 @ Kayo Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT (with Purr Bats) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Thursday, May 25th, 2006 @ Oakland Metro in Oakland, CA (with a variety show!) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, May 26th, 2006 @ Oakland Metro in Oakland, CA (with a different variety show!) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 @ Synapsis in Eureka, CA (check out this tour story for more details.)
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 @ K Street Theater in Portland, OR (with the Danielson Family) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Thursday, June 1st, 2006 @ the Shop in Spokane, WA (check out this tour story for more details.)
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006 @ the Capital Theatre in Olympia, WA (check out this tour story for more details.)
Monday, June 5th, 2006 @ the Triple Door in Seattle, WA (with the Degenerate Art Ensemble) (check out this tour story for more details.)
Friday, July 28th, 2006 So this was our first show after the Faun Fables tour and it was fun as hell.
It was at the Starry Plough, and we actually headlined, going on last after
Death by Stork and Brian Kenney Fresno. We played
a full set which, including 2 new songs and a Syd Barrett cover, still was only 45
minutes' of material. But it rocked, and the small but quality crowd dug it. One person
actually showed up based on the band name alone. I guess we chose wisely.
After the gig, Brian crashed at our house. We stayed up till 4:30am discussing
tour war stories and amazing fusion records of yore.
Sunday, September 10th, 2006 Wow. Slow season, but it's gonna be picking up a bunch, starting with this: An easy-squeezy
outdoor gig. One 90-minute set, with complete backline provided.
Wes and I showed up like 30 minutes before downbeat and soundcheck was a snap.
The event was the "Celebrate Fremont Festival."
I parked in the neighborhoods right by the festival held by the lake - remember
this isn't San Francisco or Berkeley - it's Fremont, and there's tons of free parking,
with no threat of parking meters or getting tickets due to misunderstanding purposefully
cryptic street sweeping signs.
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 Played a private gig at Bimbo's with all the A-list players
tonight. Easy load in, parked right across the way, fed the meters until soundcheck,
and then downbeat at 6pm. Actually played 3 sets totaling 3 hours until 9:30pm, so
we were workin' hard for the money. But still, quite easy and fun, sounded good, etc.
and then went out for beers at the bar across the way before headin' on home.
It was a school night, after all.
Friday, September 29th, 2006 It's Danny birthday! We celebrated by playing a gig at the Hemlock
in SF. The lineup was Danny, me, Jamison, Dan, and Wes. We actually rehearsed the
previous night to learn a couple new tunes which were bouqets of odd time signatures
and freakish lyrics. It was a fun random lineup, with the Jolenes
and Tippy Canoe and the Paddlemen going on first and second. Actually, we kinda
seemed more fucked up than usual following those bands, but I guess that's the point.
Saturday, September 30th, 2006 Wedding in Novato on at the Stonetree Golf Club.
One of the better ones I've performed at: the club and the wedding
party treated us wonderfully, and they danced and sang along and had a
great ol' time. Plus I got to catch the first inning of the A's game at the
bar (putting up 5 runs in the top of the frame against the hated Angels)
just before downbeat at 7:30pm. Due to various requests, we learned a new tune and
pulled out some old ones which kept things fresh and interesting.
Thursday, October 5th, 2006 Another Thursday night Starry Plough gig for the books. On October 5th I
got the whole band back together again (me, Jenya and Nat) to rock out a
full set of 10 tunes old and new. It was a frickin' blast. We played the
middle slot between two local indie rock/pop bands, the Young Has Beens
and Boneless Children Foundation. Had a good little crowd of my
friends among the scene, which made my heart swell. Really have to play
more with this band. I mean really.
Thursday, October 26th, 2006 A gig up the Uptown in Oakland! Hooray! But...
This was supposed to be a Three Piece Combo show, dammit!
Unfortunately Jon got way too sick to play and at the last minute
(literally) I called on Nat and Jenya to fill in and play a
Midline Errors set instead. Boy did we pull one out of our collective
ass. Nat was at the gig anyway playing with miRthkon (who are an
amazing up-and-coming Oakland prog rock band). When Jenya
arrived at the venue she thought she was going to see a show, not play one.
Starting the whole event was the always wonderful Brian Kenney Fresno.
The guy's a force of nature.
Friday, November 3rd, 2006 We played a red-tie gala at Neiman Marcus in SF.
Loading/parking in Union Square on a Friday night was a bit of a nightmare,
and I clobbered my back hauling all the gear up to the second floor.
It was a long event - we played over three hours - but it was fun right there
in women's clothing section playing betwixt the racks of blouses.
Considering we were doing our own monitor/PA setup it sounded pretty good.
Good food and drink (from various local restaurants) were provided.
Thursday, November 9th, 2006 Another Thursday night show, but at a brand new place for us.
We played Mama Buzz in downtown Oakland - a tiny cafe with
little room and no PA. We brought all our amps and mics and shit and set
everything up ourselves, which was fine. It was also an early show - couple
that with tiny-cafe-in-downtown-Oakland and you have yourself little
attendance. But we played with a pared-down lounge-y version of
Doctor Q which was delightful. The Midline Errors set was
just me, solo - which I should do more of. Then Jenya got on the mic and
drum and we did a "mellow" version of Fuzzy Cousins.
The whole thing was over before 9pm. We had enough time to load out,
load in back at home, then go to Whole Foods to get salads for dinner
just before they closed.
Saturday, November 18th, 2006 This marked one of my most interesting musicial performance feats.
So here's the deal. Bassist extraordinaire and R&D
bandleader Nat ruptured a tendon in his hand a week before this gig. At this point I
played keyboards in this band, which frankly is the most expendible instrument among
the 8-person ensemble. So I offered to learn the bass parts just to keep the band
afloat while Nat had surgery and undergoes a lengthy healing process. And not only
that, I offered to also sub on bass in Nat's other band miRthkon. So I learned all
those parts in the same week right before the show. Sure, there were a couple flubs,
but nothing beyond the normal amount. In summation, I ingested two hours' worth of
some of the difficult and twisted prog rock Oakland has to offer in a week's time
and performed it live to an appreciative 21 Grand crowd.
How do you like me now, muthafuckas?
Funny note: 21 Grand moved location since I was last there, making for a very
Twilight Zone-esque moment when trying to load in at what is now a construction zone.
Thursday, November 30th, 2006 Another Thursday night at the Starry Plough. It's like I have a class there or something.
Anyway, once again I filled in for the injured Nat on bass and we nailed
down another chunky set up prog funk tunes. Opening was Joseph's Bones with
their low-brass reggae stylings. My damn 5-string bass is hyper sensitive and
buzzes like crazy around dimmer switches, which are all over the Plough Oy.
Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 And I was back at the Plough two days later to play
with miRthkon again. I got a better handle on these tunes at this point,
so it was far less worrisome than the first gig a couple weeks ago. No train
wrecks or other notable flubs. We were tight! Opening was the amazing organ,
guitar, drums trio Kids & Hearts. They were quite inspiring.
It was just the two bands, so we felt obliged to stretch out some of the tunes.
Discussed a *lot* of prog rock with Rob before the show began.
Saturday, December 9th, 2006 Back at the good ol' Fishtank. Alex doesn't live there anymore, but Salane does.
So she set up a show on Saturday, December 9th featuring Knees & Elbows,
Salane and Friends, and then us. It was raining like hell which
made load-in total hell, being as how we had a shitload of equipment,
as well as a bunch of Jenya's incredible homemade
baked goods to sell (espresso cupcakes with decorative chocolate glaze, almond
drops, and snickerdoodles). In order to add more rockin' material to our set
we unearthed "Head Trauma" - a song we wrote 10 years ago but only performed
live for the first time tonight. Random technical failures added to the chaos
of our instrument-change-laden set, but we had fun and put on a good show
nevertheless.
Thursday, December 14th, 2006 Giving the Stork Club another shot, we played there on Thursday, December 14th,
headlining after She Mob, Bleu Canadians, and Death by Stork.
A lotta local bands containing various friends on the scene, and all of them
borrowing my bass rig (helping move the night along). Jenya whipped up more of
those espresso cupcakes which were a hit. Once again we proved that two people
can make a lot of fuckin' noise. Another good show, except during load out I dropped
by keyboard amp a good five feet onto the floor, bruising my ring finger in the
process. Upon inspection later, everything was okay.
Friday, December 15th, 2006 Another day, another dollar.
This was actually a Jimmy Bond Orchestra gig,
as we were playing up the spy angle and performing a lot of James Bond
theme songs - a lot of which I've never played with the band before and
only got the strangely deep and complicated keyboard charts right before
soundcheck. So I crammed in some musical details last minute before
performing them live. It was a private corporate party at Mezzanine in SF.
I have no idea what company was having the party. We got to mingle and
eat the food afterward. The best part was the mashed potato bar - a
dollop of creamy potatoes served in a martini glass, and a series of
toppings (cheese, bacon bits, chopped cilantro, asparagus chunks, etc.)
to throw on top as you saw fit. Delicious!
Monday, December 25th, 2006 We played Karla LaVey's 9th annual Black X Mass on Christmas night at the
Elbo Room in SF. The ever changing lineup this time was Danny (of course),
me on guitar/keyboards, Alex on bass, Jamison on sax, and his brother George
on drums. We rehearsed with the newer members a couple hours before leaving
for the gig. Jamison's dad actually hung out during the ridiculous rehearsal
and for most of the gig. What a sport! It ended up being pretty easy and
pretty fun. There was a good crowd and they ate it up. Danny got to beat up
Santa Claus with his own sack o' toys during one tune. A lot of other random
acts were performing before/after us, including the Graves Brothers
Deluxe, featuring my old bandmates Marco and Willy from Flywheel.
They rocked, and it was nice to catch with those guys again after so long.
We loaded out around 1am and were hungry - but what the fuck is open on
Christmas night, let alone any random Monday at 1am? Taqueria Cancun, that's
what! We squealed with glee when we saw it was lit up and full of
people. I got my usual (chorizo/al pastor tacos y horchata). Alex got a
cesos taco. I'm sorry but that's gross.
Sunday, December 31st, 2006 For the first time in my life I played a real New Year's Eve gig. Yep - it's true.
And it was a total blast. It was for the Napa Sunrise Rotary - a fundraising event
held at the Meritage Resort on the southern tip of Napa County.
It was a wonderful crowd - they got on the dance floor and stayed all night.
Jenya (and most of the other band S.O.'s) came along as well. It was a fun
party the whole time while we were up there, having dinner together before the show,
room hopping in the hotel until the not-so-wee hours of the morning,
having brunch the next day in the presidential suite of the event organizer.
Hello 2007...
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