Photo by Thor Brødreskift

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

we want the airwaves

Last night's show at the Southern Theater couldn't have been more fun.  Here's a preshow writeup and radio spot from MPR News.
Listen hear.

Also, joropo maraca playing as it relates to fist pumping.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

I just realized I've been in a lot of bands

I tell you what, I've had a lot of fun playing solo music lately via working on my one man band.  I'm working on booking shows, bugging people to write music for me, starting to write my own music--I even have a blog where I can be as self-bepuffed as I want to be about the whole thing. 

But,

I never really saw myself performing music onstage by...myself.  As long as I've held drum sticks it was for the purpose of playing music with other people, and I've always been in bands ever since (let me think how many*).   Since I've only been at the solo thing for a little over a year now, I still feel super awkward when I finish a song and people clap and it's just me up there.  I look around for band mates I could high five or toast with my drink-ticket-scammed beer.  But it's just me so I do the sort of half-bow that doesn't really make sense for the recital hall or the club.  Not to mention that I went from being in the back behind a bunch of drums to being right up there in the Collective Grill with nowhere to hide.  At least my music school solo recital requirements gave me some practice with that but man, it's not the same.

However, as much as I miss the camaraderie I've found that being the only member in a band streamlines a lot of the process.  No coordinating everyone's work schedules for band practice--it's just me!  No arguments over which direction the band should take--it's still just me, and what I say goes.  And since being in a band is like having 3 girlfriends (or boyfriends) no dramz or personality clashes except for my internal struggles, but we don't have to talk about that. 

But when I watch bands really nail it--like Propagandhi, TOOL, the recent Bang on a Can Allstars' concert, or So Percussion with Meehan Perkins Duo a few weeks back--and remember how mind-meldingly tight sofakingdom could be in our heyday I have to concede that's where it's at.  "For now, though, I'm having fun focusing on the Me Show," he said, sitting in an airport by himself waiting 5 hours for a delayed flight on the way to a gig. 



*OK, here's what a brief dredging of my brain found: 
sofakingdom 
Written Off
Elisa Ferarri 
The Tea Merchants 
Cobretti 
Sargeant Parkinson's Platoon 
G8 
Erik Espe
The Vinyl Collection
Ah, Venice! 
The Pan-Metropolita Trio 
Rattletree Marimba 
The Aries Project 
Needs No Chill 
Racketball 
Undertow 
5 Mile Chase
Hips Don't Lie
probably more that I'm spacing right now...