Gig Archives: 2010
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Sunday, March 14th, 2010 Kind of a warm up gig at Kimo's (in SF) for the big festival show at the end
of the month. It was put together by Seattle's awesome
Wah Wah Exit Wound, who got this bill together which included a duo
version of Mujaheddin Bernstein Affair, and us to open
the show. And then at the last minute we discovered Kimo's booked a fourth band
Over the Falls for good measure. It was good to shake off the rusty
performance ya yas but I really biffed "Black Fruit" bad. No excuses really -
I should have been better prepared to play in utter darkness (couldn't read
the music or see the frets), and was also completely spaced out from lack of
sleep, which I corrected at the last minute with an espresso shot, which in turn
needed to be corrected by a few swigs of beer. Hey - you try playing in 23/16
(with occasional random bars of 2/16, 4/16, 7/16, and 9/16) in the dark!
Well, nobody noticed exactly how devastating my errors were as the music was
sufficiently complex, and the other tunes were much more solid. All told
it was a good meet-n-greet kind of gig for all the like-minded bands involved.
Friday, March 26th, 2010 The first of three gigs in three days with three different bands (and with
me playing different instruments at each). This was a doozy at the good ol'
Starry Plough in Berkeley. A pared-down version of Ultralash went on
first (just Karry and Michael). Then MoeTar hit the stage and got down to
business. Honestly, it felt like one of our worst shows, but a lot of people
there were seeing us for the first time, and we're quite psyched about it all.
Fair enough. Closing the event was Faun Fables, who mostly played chunks from
their current work-in-progress, a collaborative rock opera written with (and to
be performed with) high school kids down in SoCal, with Cornelius sitting in
on various reeds/flutes. Fun stuff.
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 Back at the Starry Plough for a second night in a row, and this show ended up
being even more epic than last night. A lot of the same faces in the crowd,
too. God bless 'em. Anyway, Freddi Price kicked off the night with a
solo set - always a treat but pretty much waiting for Max to get there so
Rube Waddell could play a full set as well. Nice to touch base with
those guys - it's been a while, plus some of those songs I haven't heard in
like, shit, 10 years. God bless those guys, too. We hit the stage and killed
it. Danny was in top form, inspired by the large crowd. Closing the evening
was Khi Darag who were simply awesome. Great music, great sounds,
great musicians.
Sunday, March 28th, 2010 We were the "headliners" (i.e. the final act) of the annual
Switchboard Festival
in SF, held at the Dance Mission Theatre. Basically a new music
marathon featuring tons of new-music acts from 2pm to 10pm. Lots of great
sounds, great musicians, and several faces I haven't seen in a while (like
Karen Stackpole and Matt Small) and many I've seen the past couple of days
at the other gigs. Being the headliners sounds like a great deal, but of
course things were running late so we didn't get on until after 10pm. It
was a school night so people were dropping like flies. Well, all those
who stuck around really dug it. The video/music stuff went along seamlessly.
The only issue I had was the A/C fan/vent was right above my head, literally
blowing music off my stand. Who knew you had to bring clothespins to an
indoor gig? Plus I was freezing, despite all the warming up I did earlier.
Funny. Well, they shut off the fans eventually but maybe this was a sign
I should get off book already.
Friday, April 9th, 2010 Played at 21 Grand in Oakland as part of a 4 band bill set up by Seattle's
X-ray Press (which I've been trying to set up bills with for years
as they pass though town a bunch). Up first was the local band Photons
who were a pleasant surprise, then us. We kept it real and had a short set,
catered to songs that I could sing/play drums on but then it turns out Jenya
could play the set after all so it was the "full band" (me, Nat, Wally, and
Jenya). We started with a Robert Wyatt cover ("Born Again Cretin").
After our set X-ray Press killed it - they were awesome. Then Napa's
The Planets totally blew it to pieces. Kind of a crazy night there.
Fun as hell.
Thursday, June 24th, 2010 Our sister band WITT from San Diego is in town, so we set up a gig with
them at the Starry Plough in Berkeley. Since I'm still relatively new in the
band I actually hadn't seen them before but it was a real treat, especially
as they also played a half set as Snuffaluffagus which is a rather different
but equally delightful alter-ego of sorts. We went on, and despite a giant
scaffold on the stage (supporting a wide screen tv for World Cup viewing purposes)
I ended up having more room than usual for myself. We had me singing backups on
"Banana" for the first time, and we also debuted my new tune "Hapax Legomena"
which went quite well, I think. Closing the evening was Japonize Elephants
who I hadn't seen in ages, and their set made me happy.
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 MoeTar went on tour! Well, sort of - just to Fresno and Berkeley. We drove down
(braving the 100+ degree heat in the central valley) in the afternoon, treated
to some fine hospitality at the homestead of Felix and Brian Kenney Fresno
before headed to the club to load in and all that. We played at Audie's Olympic
Tavern, a place I hadn't been to in 15 years. Last time (and the only time) I
played Fresno before was here in 1995 (when the place was called Club Fred),
performing with Dreamland who was opening up for E is for Elephant and Idiot
Flesh. In fact, that was when I first met Tarik. And here we are many years
later. Anywho, Brian opened the night with his special birthday set (including
appearance via satellite by his brother Ryan Kenney Poughkeepsie). Then we
killed it. The crowd contained Tarik's old Fresno pals who were quite pleased to
see what he was doing lately. Closing the night down were local rock heroes
Rademacher. Enjoyed stayin' up late one night soaking in the Fresno
summer heat.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010 The next day drove back to the Bay Area to do it all over again at the Starry
Plough in Berkeley. Except that opening this evening was a drum/guitar ambient
duo Lovely Builders. We then killed it like last night for the Berkeley
crowd, including a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. These two gigs were
sort of CD release parties. Well, maybe not, but we sold a ton of the new CD now
that it was freshly pressed. Brian closed down the night with a similar birthday
set as last night. Fun stuff!
Saturday, July 24th, 2010 Shook off the MoeTar tour and got ready for a big miRthkon gig opening up for
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at the Great American Music Hall. We were all pretty
psyched. This was my first time playing here performing original
material. We weren't sure about the video, and abandoned it at the last minute.
We started right at 9pm sharp, happy to see that many people were already there
despite the early downbeat. So we had a great crowd and they ate it up! Due to
nerves we took everything really fast, but that just added even more good energy
to the set. That plus the missing video meant we had 5 minutes left over at the
end, and so we threw in Daddylonglegz as well. Yay! Little Teeth went on
next, and then of course SGM destroyed everybody's hearts and minds with
their special magic. I actually played acoustic guitar in the crowd as part of a
pre-planned coda of their newest tune. A lot of hanging out in the green rooms
downstairs - all four of the SGM babies (with babysitters) were down there.
Friday, August 13th, 2010 Another public gig for Casino Royale in Alameda. We played the last of the
monthly summer series of outdoor concerts at Crab Cove. It's a regular built
in crowd at these events, as it's simply a nice hang at the cove for the
family. This time the band was me, Wes, Jamison, Scrote, House, and Steffanos.
Scrote was actually late to soundcheck as he got rear ended just as he was
arriving by a drunk woman who hit another car en route to his. Luckily no
injuries. Also there was Jenya et al. with Vesta Flatbread serving
up a bunch of yummy sammiches near the stage. I repeat: Yum!
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 Matt Heulitt assembled a band for a private wedding which ended up being
MoeTar minus Dave plus Hud. It was a lovely gig, at the Log Cabin in
the Presidio (near the GG Bridge), and a rare lovely sunny afternoon these
days in those western parts of the Bay. We played dinner jazz, then after
cake was the dance set. It was a real party, i.e. people were dancing and
into what we were doing. So we gladly complied when they made requests,
pulling various 80's/Beatles songs out of our asses. We're such pros. Instead
of wading through SF I drove home over the GG/San Rafael Bridges, which was
probably faster, and much nicer.
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