With Three Piece Combo:
On Thursday, January 26 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.

With Three Piece Combo:
Back to the Fishtank in Oakland for us! On Saturday, January 28 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.

With Research & Development:
Sigh. We played our pseudo-semi-going-on-hiatus-farewall gig at the Fishtank on Friday, February 24th. 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?

With The Fuxedos:
We freaked out on March 9th 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.

With Casino Royale:
A corporate gig in SF in the St. Regis hotel ballroom on Saturday, March 11th. 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.

With Faun Fables:
Jenya and I went on a big national tour with these wonderful people, as performers in the epic theatre piece, "Transit Rider" and occasionally opening the show with our duo, Fuzzy Cousins. I'll write some big epic tour story with pictures at some point. Until then, here was the itinerary:

04/22/06	San Francisco, CA	The Independent (CD release and variety show!) (w/ Fuzzy Cousins)
04/23/06	Hollywood, CA	Troubadour (w/ Stolen Babies, Hour of the Shipwreck)
04/24/06	Tucson, AZ	Plush (w/ Molehill Orkestrah)
04/27/06	Atlanta, GA	Eye Drum (w/ Fuzzy Cousins)
04/28/06	Knoxville, TN	Pilot Light (w/ Fuzzy Cousins)
04/29/06	Columbia, SC	Columbia Music Festival Association (w/ bigSphinx)
05/01/06	Oberlin, OH	Oberlin College (w/ Fuzzy Cousins)
05/02/06	Cleveland, OH	Beachland Ballroom (w/ Brian Straw, Fuzzy Cousins)
05/04/06	Brooklyn, NY	Southpaw (w/ Transmitting, Bonfire Madigan)
05/05/06	Brooklyn, NY	Galapagos (w/ Billy Nayer Show, Jollyship the Whiz Bang)
05/06/06	New York, NY	Tonic (w/ Barbez, Fuzzy Cousins)
05/07/06	Burlington, VT	Higher Ground (w/ Pinback, Pleaseeasaur)
05/09/06	Montreal, QC	El Salon (w/ Scrote, White Noise Ensemble)
05/10/06	Toronto, ON	Tranzac (w/ Singing Saw Shadow Show, Pyramid Culture)
05/11/06	Hamilton, ON	Casbah (w/ Laura Barrett, Fuzzy Cousins)
05/12/06	Chicago, IL	Beat Kitchen (w/ Cheer Accident)
05/13/06	Chicago, IL	South Union Arts (w/ Bird Names, Fuzzy Cousins)
05/14/06	Louisville, KY	Nelligan Hall (w/ Litany's Last Stand)
05/16/06	Minneapolis, MN	The Church (w/ Fuzzy Cousins and more)
05/19/06	Denver, CO	Oriental Theater (w/ Uphollow)
05/20/06	Salt Lake City, UT	Kayo Gallery (w/ Purr Bats)
05/26/06	Oakland, CA	Oakland Metro (w/ Fuzzy Cousins and a variety show)
05/27/06	Oakland, CA	Oakland Metro (w/ Fuzzy Cousins and a variety show)
05/30/06	Eureka, CA	Synapsis
05/31/06	Portland, OR	K Street Theater (w/ the Danielson Family)
06/01/06	Spokane, WA	the Shop
06/03/06	Olympia, WA	Capital Theatre
06/05/06	Seattle, WA	Triple Door (w/ Degenerate Art Ensemble)

With Casino Royale:
A Casino Royale gig was booked in Toronto on Monday, May 8th, but alas I was to be going 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 bandmates and continued the tour. I'm such a rock star.

With Fuzzy Cousins:
So this was our first show after the Faun Fables tour and it was fun as hell. It was at the Plough on Friday, July 28th, 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.

With Casino Royale:
Wow. Slow season, but it's gonna be picking up a bunch, starting with this: An easy-squeezy outdoor gig on Sunday, September 10th. 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.

With Casino Royale:
Played a private gig on September 20th (a Wednesday) 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.

With The Fuxedos:
It's Danny birthday! On September 29th 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.

With Casino Royale:
Wedding in Novato on Saturday September 30th 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.

With Midline Errors:
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.

With Midline Errors:
Thursday night, October 26th - 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.

With Casino Royale:
On Friday, November 3rd 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.

With Midline Errors and Fuzzy Cousins:
Another Thursday night show, but at a brand new place for us. On November 9th 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.

With Research & Development and miRthkon: Saturday, November 18th 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.

With Research & Development:
Another Thursday night at the Starry Plough (November 30th to be exact). 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.

With miRthkon:
And I was back at the Plough two days later (Saturday, December 2nd) 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.

With Fuzzy Cousins:
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.

With Fuzzy Cousins:
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.

With Casino Royale:
Another day (Friday night, December 15th), 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!

With The Fuxedos:
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.