Saturday, June 28, 2008

fri nite comfest

brainow was awesome, we sat in the grass and just chilled on the vibe.

mas bagua blew our minds! andrew was crazy awesome and the whole band was wild. crazy pete and another guitarist (rob?) went mad up there. i thinmk pete was tripping !! then there was a time when andrews table leg gave way and all of his mixers, synthesizers, samplers, mics, bell and whisteles, etc went sliding, sliding, sliding off the way that spaghetti slides off a plate and there everytrhing was just spilling onto the stage, but just as it happened the band was quick and the drummer took off and took pete and rob and the bassist along. rob and pete almost immediately launched into some crazy backwards virtuoso psychedelia solos and everyone was jumping twice as high. it was like they floored it and they never missed a beat! andrew got the table back up all his gear back on it and smoothed back into the groove. amazing!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

hookah

we went friday nite to hookah and after standing and waiting in line for like 6 hours and missing the entire night's worth of music we left and drove back home for the night. there was certainly something else, though. we both strongly felt as if we shouldn't be there, and it definitely seemed a lot more shady than any other fest. we had been to. everyone seemed pretty damned intent on either getting fucked up, or selling stuff to people to make money. The next day we still had a lingering feeling of distrust for the whole thing (particularly me), but after squabbling over it all day and purchasing our brand new fender amp for our show the next friday. we decided we had enough money left over and the tickets were cheaper now, so we went. saturday night was pretty wild, but we were both pretty exhausted and i had some anxiety so we watched some of the music and headed back to the tent where we viewed the rest.

sunday was wonderful. we bummed around the camp sites and shops in the morning, and i accidentally haggled my way into getting 3 glass pieces for $15 when they were supposed to be like 10 or 15 a piece. thats including a bubbler that would sell for like 50+ at the import house. i felt a little bad because i was just trying to avoid spending too much so we had some money for food, so i talked them down to 2 for $18, was digging in my wallet for ones, to make $18 but at that point didn't want to use a $20 since i had already talked them down. all i else i could find was a ten and some straggling folded up ones stuck in between random papers and receipts in there so they felt for us as if that was all i had and gave me the 2 pieces we picked plus another for $15. after we walked away i even had amber fooled (accidentally) into thinking that we had spent everything on those. 'so we don't have anything for food tonite?' she asked sticking her bottom lip out and jokingly pouting. 'i still have over $40!" i whispered. that was the only time i'd ever really successfully haggled and felt guilty afterwards.

we saw the ragbirds who amber just loved, as well as ekoostik hookah who were freakin great. hookah has a very underworld glowy party type of atmosphere. there were also candles and campfires glowing everywhere (open fires allowed!) it was quite beautiful / magical at night.

Monday, June 02, 2008

first electric show!

finally! it'd been a long time coming, but we did it! opened for two bands from new york and l.a.; gangi and electric tickle machine, as well as local mas bagua. the guys just left from d.c. the night before and this was their first stop on tour.

our set went well, and we were relatively calm / not too nervous / not freaking out. with the loss of our recent crate amp (blew tubes?) we had to hook both guitars into the fender amp, which was ok for some of the cleaner material, but when we both had a little drive or i was using an edgier effect, it seemed to blend the signals kinda funny. it was fun, though and sorta like jumpin in a pool or ripping off a bandaid, or something, now it feels like a giant weight has been lifted. its like we can actually focus on doing this stuff instead of having all of this blockage. we are considering trying to bring more bands in and open for them / put them up for the night. There seemed to be a good response from everyone and greg kept the bar open like an hour or two later than ive ever seen him do.

the guys took a while to get setup after us, probably because vics house sound isnt very good, and crazy pete wasn't helping too much. i think they had so much stuff plugged in that vic's mixer overheated and they had to put a fan on it to cool it down before they could play! meanwhile the house kept getting more and more packed... all turned out pretty well though. we collected donations (instead of cover) for the touring acts for gas $$ and they sold some cds. we were all up till like 5 in the morning chilling and whatnot in the backyard. they all crashed in various rooms- greg made us all free breakfast in the morning. ;)

well anyways i guess nows the time to start doing and being, and stop being so afraid of people / our own dreams / everything

feeling wonderful