Gig Archives: 2024
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 It was about time I get involved with this band, having crossed paths many times years ago.
I subbed on keyboards as they returned to the stage at the (now regular venue) Ivy Room in Albany.
I crammed in a lot of material the weeks leading up to the show (like half the band who were
equally "new" members). The 7-piece landed all this crazy jazzy/proggy stuff with aplomb in the
middle set (between Grex and Feefawfum). Despite being a super rainy school night
the attendance was pretty good, which was lovely.
Saturday, February 3rd, 2024 I think this was my first time playing a gig in Hayward! We performed a couple long sets at the
Bistro pub downtown. The local crowd really dug our note-dense classic-prog-fusion vibe.
Tonight we finally performed a couple Scofield tunes live ("Trim" and "So You Say"), having
practiced them in the past. Good fun, great response.
And it rained all night. Gonna rain on all my gigs this year, hunh?
Thursday, March 21st, 2024 After many years asea, Trey brought everything back for a couple shows at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN!
Amazing bands of every kind took over that charming town, along with a zillion attendees.
Many familiar faces, some I haven't seen in too many years.
The first of our two sets was at the Mill & Mine on the first evening of the whole event.
And we had a full band: Trey, Eyvind, me, Shanir, Shahzad, Kenny, Ches, and Matt Hollenberg.
So we were able to cover a lot of sonic ground running a lot of the old repetoire.
We ended up having time for an encore, so we whipped out Shoel with zero rehearsal. Fun!
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 The second show for the Big Ears Festival was be on the third day of the whole thing (which meant I was
able to see all kinds of amazing acts on the second day). Downbeat was on the early side, and we played
an Ishraqiyun-centric set to a full house. Same band lineup as before except minus Kenny and Matt.
For both these sets we didn't wear the usual robes, and for this set we were all sitting down - perhaps
a nod to one of the first Ishraqiyun sets (long before my time, almost exactly 20 years earlier)
at SXSW in Austin.
Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 We were back playing at the Bistro in Hayward - instead of a rainy Saturday night it was a sunny
Wednesday night. And just as fun! People came out, it was nice and relaxed. I did biff real hard
on one tune, but was like "oh well" and made up for it during the next few solos. At some point
during the gig one person at the bar shouting "Tarkus" in between songs and I played a few bars
of that, thus earning some precious prog points.
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