April 19th 2012
Los Angeles
I've been here about 3 days or something. Staying with my cousin and her room mates. Still not used to the time change. Going stir crazy, you need access to a car out here to do anything really which I would have if I were licensed to drive. The past few days have been relaxing to say the least to deprogram my brain from worrying about stuff on the home front was a lot easier than I thought it would be. But as the days/weeks leading up to this mini-west coast run flew by I realized that I was burnt out for two main reasons
1)Not enough time devoted to my own music. I went the non conventional/day job route so I could focus on making music and see how far I can take this and frankly I've been spending more time working with other bands/artists then doing my own stuff.
2)A lack of creative focus/direction. The only thing more frustrating than not being able to write, is being able to write and not thinking the stuff you're doing is any good or it not painting a clear picture as to where you wanna go.
I decided that I would leave all the home stuff at home (frankly there's but a few things in Philly that I miss this week) I had set everything up to that the clubs I work at would have stuff and my house was in order and even if something went wrong in Philly, there's nothing I can do about it 3000 Miles Away.
It's amazing what a change of scenery can do. To be in a place like this full of driven people. I've even been able to crash a few of the ASCAP Expo events. But I can't spend more than a couple of days sitting around and doing nothing. Tonight was San Diego and I was very excited.
Tours, even super short ones, are my favorite part of this whole music thing. To be out for a week or month or two and not have to worry about anything other than playing the gig is liberating. I've been doing a lot of solo touring in 2012 so far trying to round out that aspect of my game so that I can always hit road if I want or need to. It's gonna make me better as a performer. I can't afford to bring the band out here yet, so I'm basically out here trying to establish a West Coast Foothold so that I can bring California the full show shortly.
Danielle (My Cousin) and I left for San Diego around 5...and it took us an hour to get out of LA because of the traffic. But it was good to use that time to catch up with her and get focused. I had to sort of come out of vacation mode and be clear about the task at hand. The objective here is to come and play well. My friend Ashley J had booked me tonight, I had people coming, and Lestat's is an important club for people at my level, so no missteps, no bad notes, no fooling around. I have 30 minutes to convince everyone that gettign on the Boy Wonder train's worthwhile. And Then I saw it. As we pulled into San Diego and drove by Lestat's I saw something that I rarely see.
Set List
Get Me To California
Slow Dance
Sexy Machine
I Don't Dance
Never Gonna Give You Up
Psycho
Swim (w/Ashley J)
'Twas a strong outing. The only things I felt were wrong were things only I (in all my anal retentive glory) would notice. There was a lot of love in the room, people that came felt it was worth their time and Ashley's people seemed to like it. All Good Things. After coming off and watching Ashley's Set I jumped up and did a couple of songs with her...Mainly Toxic and Super Bass.
After the show was over we jumped in the car and headed towards LA. I have some stuff to do in preparation for Saturday's show but other than that not much on the agenda. I have a feeling that LA's going to be good but they've got a lot to do to top San Diego Tonight. Truly one of the best nights of my life.
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