April 16th, '08 at Bug Jar

I played last night at the Bug Jar in Rochester, NY.  

My friends Hooda Thunk!? played, they are kind of a folky jam band.  2 acoustic guitars, fender bass, keyboard, and snare-n-hi-hat drums.  They were loose and textural, a great listen. Some of those guys are the reason I got into playing guitar in the first place when I was 15. 

My other buds No Shears Ted (a play on no tears shed) played too. They were funky and laid-back.  I used to play with the bass player, Mike. No Shears Ted was a lot tighter than Electric Organic was when Mike was in it.  I totally dug their sound, it reminded me of Beastie Boys' In Sound from Far Out or whatever that album was called. Any how, dig it man...

I played solo, no band until next month due to some problems.  I used my Seagull acoustic/electric, my cheap-o harmonicas and holder, a loop station, violin, sampler, and drum machine.  I had some sequences for songs, other ones I just improvised the instrumental parts.  I had my violin tuned to an A chord so I could just bow/ wail on it with out fingering and play harmonica at the same time, with a guitar progression looped harmony.  It was fun, while I was doing that I was thinking "this has gone beyond folk music into the realm of performance art", which is a good thing.  My friends Sarah and Marta were video taping it for me so I can edit the show into a nice lil' video... The sound wasn't the best, I was quiet enough that you can hear a steady din of the crowd on the tape(there were about 40 people there).

When I started using the sampler and drum machine, the crowd dialed in.  It was louder and way more funky with the big bass sounds.  The tunes was "Joyful Mile" and I seem to play it different every time even though I always have the same sequence as bedrock.... I like it, it gives me a chance to improvise without the band, which seems to rely on improvisation as a major part of its vocabulary (which makes every show an adventure...).

Overall, a good show, I felt all of the music was well received by the crowd.  

Set list:

Blood Dust

Winter Rain

Gone Again

Here For You

Poem From The Road

Joyful Mile

Glistening Trees

Decidedly Beautiful

Void