The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Scenes from SFpLA:

Prayformojo's Sufjan Stevens cover made me cry.

More fun times last night. The person who was supposed to show up and run our venue last night flaked out, so we relocated to Zipline drummer Sam's house and the show went on. Rock! Everybody was great and we all had a blast, as usual. Now for San Fran.

I'm uploading a few pictures of so-so quality from the LA show here:

http://people.geneticmail.com/sam/pictu ... tour_2007/

My camera batteries died just in time for the show so I was only able to snap a few pictures here and there. Sorry if I missed people.

Stubby Phillips and Dr. Water, aka Lake City, regretfully, will NOT be performing at the Seattle show. We're pullin' out. Why?
1) We have nothing shiny and new.
2) We couldn't even get through 2 songs (when we rehearsed Saturday night) without relapsing into a 10 minute jam.
3) We're lame.

Yeah, I know. " ... some people drove 1000 miles to make this gig blah blah blah ..." Like I said -- we're lame.

Hope to see you all on Friday.
Give Fluffy our time... I want a nice sonata... in 11/16.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm sure all the bands could use more time, and I don't think I could really add anything to my set at this point (well, maybe a couple songs).

Octothorpe, however, is prepared to use as much time as is available. :D

But could you guys reconsider? I think a 5-minute song and a 10-minute jam would be dandy!

Warning, this post is long.

Here’s my attempt at a play-by-play of Saturday night’s show in Culver City, I hope I haven’t forgotten anything or anyone key. It’s just my strongest memories of the night at this point and I guess I hope it will help those not present imagine what the night was like. Lunkhead’s pictures will help you imagine the room.

Alex (Seamus) announced the opening of the show, including an open invitation to the audience to provide percussion accompaniment.

Then Minty Handy kicked it off to a great start. Backed by Zipline, he played through a few of his own songs including the unreleased “tw3rp” (great song) and even a cover of a Thanks Glenny for the Frisbee song. Erin joined him for “Our Love Violates Corporate Policy.” Solid performance!

Next was Zipline, who rocked it solid. For me the highlight of their set was “Glutton.” I loved all of their rhythm and dynamic changes. They would go on to be the spine of the house band for most of the night.

Evil-E was next, I got to play auxiliary percussion for the set. He was backed mainly by Seamus and Ken, who were the other core of the evening. Playing several non- songfight songs, Evil-e brought grooves and some sweet guitar playing with his new custom guitar named Olivia.

Mico Saudad then took to the “stage.” Man that guy has a beautiful voice. Highlights for me were “Georgia’s Hand” along with full audience percussion and his closer, which also featured a slide guitar, but I can’t right now remember exactly which song it was. It was fun to get to sing along on “Gray Rainbow,” too.

Then me, backed up by Ken, Seamus and Evil-E. I had fun.

After me was Ken’s super-Duper Band and stuff. I missed the beginning because I was so thirsty after playing that I had to get something to drink. What I did see – Ken was great, as always, as was the band, which consisted of the usual Lunkhead on guitar, and Erin on backing vocals. Spinlock completed the backing band. The string of hits I heard was great! Including “Zero to Phantom,” “Shreds,” and his contribution to the benefit album for Glenn Case’s nephews.

Handpuppets next. In addition to the bitchin’ guitars (Rickenbacker, Jaguar, Ovation fretless bas) the band was very enjoyable – bringing more serious rock to the show. Although apparently a little nervous about volume and content (“Everyone here is just so nice and playing acoustic guitars and everything”) they finally went for it and did their thing, playing an “It Belongs to me” and some song about motherfuckers that were both really great. I also really enjoyed talking to them after the show.

Tiny Robots next. Gosh I love watching Lunkhead play guitar. He’s got to be one of the most careful guitar players I’ve seen on a stage, and it pays off. Erin sounded great as always and I really enjoyed the addition of her female back-up vocalist, who blended really well and helped recreate the studio sound of Erin harmonizing with herself. Ably backed by …who? Zipline, of course, and Ken, who had his neat little keyboard there.
What does one say about Pray for Mojo? Seen him twice now and this was quite different than last year at Songfight! Live in LA. This was a bit more intimate, and I think I enjoyed it a little more because of that. Due to dulcimer tuning I missed the “Ballad of Pray for Mojo,” his spoken word first piece. The set was tight and featured, as always, the fabulous fun time band, and PFMs melodica. Apparently giving in to peer pressure he closed with “The Hit,” “Husky Youth,” backed by Ken and Sam. I especially liked the Los Angeles song.

The Seamus Collective – Our first formal performance as said group. The core group performed, Seamus, Evil-E, Ken, and Me. First was Evil-E singing “For the Time Being,” then Seamus on “Pieces of Eight,” me on “Gone Phishing” and “I’m going away for Awhile (Evil-E arrangement).” And Seamus took it home with “Ignorance is Bliss.” Super fun playing with these guys. Can’t wait to do it again!!!

Very fun night – sorry I can’t be on more of the tour.

SO EXCITED YOU GUYS.

SO EXCITED YOU GUYS OH WAIT I'M NOT GOING WELL HAVE A GREAT TIME ANYWAY.

Last night's show was another big success! Mega huge thanks to the Hand Puppets for making the show happen, and huge props to them for soldiering on with their set even though their singer/guitarist came down with a fever and had to go home. You guys were awesome, and it was great to play with you and meet you, and I hope your guitar player's doing OK. Minty Handy and ZipLine were excellent again, too. Zipline's, you guys really rocked it out last night and sounded pretty tight. I think the Ken and Tiny Robots sets went well, as far as I could tell on stage.

Break a leg tomorrow night in Portland, folks.

PS If anybody has a Yelp login, you could stop by the page for Epic Arts and write them a scathing review about how they completely flaked on us:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/aaoDL-L8d2xXbQO ... sc&start=0

I wish I could have been there with you guys. I'm looking forward to the SFL video.

Good news, everyone...

It appears that we were able to get good multi-track recordings of at least parts of the show off the board. There's a fair amount of bleed from track to track (not surprising in the tightly spaced live environment), but the quality is surprisingly good. I'm listening to the Minty Handy and Zipline sets now.

I will upload the whole shebang to either thehandpuppets.com or my own site for your downloading, mixing, and listening pleasure.

Thanks everyone for coming to our little hootenanny last night. Again, it was a lot of fun and great to meet and hear everyone.

Steve Hand Puppet

Short and sweet: I had a fantastic time, enjoyed everyone's company, and can't imagine a more supportive or engaging crowd to do this sort of thing with. 100% bona-fide awesome, with extra props to Glen, Martin and Sam for providing the backing to make it possible for me to play, and Erin for being my proto-wife on vocals.

Plus, the food at Julie's Supper Club is teh yumz.

Seamus. wrote:Scenes from SFpLA:

Prayformojo's Sufjan Stevens cover made me cry.

I hope it wasn't due to sucking!

As always you and the rest of the San Diego collective were great. Every time I have heard you and Ross and Evil E, I have loved it, and Saturday was just further proof to all of your skills as musicians and entertainers.

Everyone was awesome on Saturday! It was a very very tight show, and a hell of a lot of fun! I'm jealous of those who get to play the rest of the tour!!!

One thing i love about the two live things I've done is that you get to put faces and real names on these mysterious online people with odd names and odder avatars.

For example, here's Mintyhandy, martyr and Glenny at Synergy cafe.

omgomgomgomg Portland tomorrow

Current mood: Excited

Can somebody bring a music stand to the Seattle gig please? I'm going to have to have some crib notes up there.

Octothorpe is never without music stands.

Also, just to confirm, there will be a fretted electric bass at the Seattle gig, right?

Spud has a fretted 8-string which is a lot of fun to play (it's not too different from a normal 4-string). Someone else may be bringing a traditional 4-string as well.

Whoo! p++ will be hauling a fretted bass to Seattle (though transport, &c. will get us to the venue after Ken's onstage. Never fear, Screwheads are--will be--here!). And, goddamn, welcome to Portland, y'all. Oi oi oi!

Whee!

An 8-string? That's the kind with 4 pairs of strings that are an octave apart? Funky... I guess we'll work something out tomorrow.

Oh, and have fun in Portland tonight, y'all.

More scenes from SFpLA:

Prayformojo's opening ballad made me laugh.


Here's to the rest of the tour. Fight on, Songfighters!