Day 56 - May 6th 2009
Today was a particularly special day.
Number one it would be the first Wed in quite sometime I was in Philly and didn’t have a show at O.N.E. to have to go to. I was at that place for almost two years. As I explained earlier we didn’t do so well while I was away, truth be told we were don’t that well as I was leaving for tour. A two year run is pretty impressive at one club for an independent booker. I had some great shows there but the room had run it’s course. It was getting more and more difficult to book bands in this non-traditional venue.
The event (slightly modified) is moving to Lickety Split and I’ve been hard at work lining everything up. I know tough this business can be. One must balance talent with drawing ability. We’ll get a bit of a break from having to completely fill a venue up at Lickety. It’s one of the rare places in Philly with a walk in crowd.
Had to do some work for The Friday Night event at Zot. We’ve added a jam session portion to the event (from 11-2) and the band that was supposed to host it pulled out. So I have to think of something. I’ve been doing my best to spread the word around, I wish I would have had the idea sooner. If we get to do it there again I think it’s going to be a kick ass event. There hasn’t been an event that all the top dogs in Philly go to since Black Lily. I would love to make that happen.
Today’s even more special cause it’s my nieces birthday. 11 years have flown by really fast and soon I will be chuckling as she becomes a teenager getting on her parents nerves and providing me boys to hit with my baseball bat. My sister believes that she and I are exactly alike. I don’t see it, but I imagine there are worst people she could be like. We went out to Fridays and we had some dinner. The wait staff came over and sang and gave her ice cream. Jordan (my other niece) shared her ice cream with me and then we went back to my sisters.
I watched American Idol and was happy to see No Doubt playing they looked good. Honestly if I had to listen to another Gwen Stephani solo record I was gonna put a gun in my mouth. After that went off my sisters and I did a vocal rehearsal for the show. It was a little hairy at first, but I think we may be onto something.
Everyone was fast asleep after that. Kids were in bed by 8 grownups not to long after. I couldn’t imagine living this life as the norm. Which is why one will always wear condoms whilst doing the deed.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 56
Day 55 – May 6th 2009
I woke up earlier than usual, I usually don’t sleep light but I heard Dad barreling down the stairs and I woke up immediately. Reminded me of the days when I had a normal job. It was around seven and I was excited like a kid on Christmas because I knew that today would be the first rehearsal with my band for our upcoming shows. We haven’t played together since the beginning of March so I’m very interested in seeing what’s gonna go down.
I had some breakfast and tried my best to go back to bed I woke up around 11:30 and hit a shower. My dad came in from a funeral and we spoke for a second. I shared my anxiety about my guitar playing with him. I wondered if I would be able to get it done. These guys I play with are extremely talented and they push me and pull the best out of me. I;m working on getting back to my old self. My door bell rings and it’s Jake and Rob, they’d come together and were ready to get down.
We conversed about the set list. Since this is going to be my first show home since the Camaro tour, I wanna work some tunes from the previous albums into the set so we banged through some tunes and figured out which old songs we were going to do. Me being home is finally starting to feel real.
Rob counts us in and we’re off and in a lot of respects it’s like no time has passed. I have a lot of work to do in terms of my playing but making the pieces fit together again was a very easy process. No wonder I missed my guys…it just works. We jammed out and go through the entire set with little to no real hiccups. We are taking some of the songs apart and adding thigns to them to see if we can spice it up a tad. I wanna start showcasing Rob more, he’s an amazing drummer and in a three piece there’s so much room for stuff like that.
As we were done and they were on their way out we discussed some scheduling things and they left, I immediately went to work. I know I don’t have a normal day job but sometimes it certainly doesn’t feel that way. Between booking the shows for the venues and handling Boy Wonder stuff my days are full. A new date for the California Show came in, as well as some interest from some other clubs around the country. Money’s the problem, I want to take over the world, but I have to be smart about it.
The Zot show hit a snag, one of the bands pulled out, problem was they were supposed to host the jam session. I have to think of something soon. I also had to call Dani Mari to cancel our Wed meeting, my niece Taylor’s birthday is Wed and I wanna be there for that we reschedule for Thursday. I had to call the guys at O.N.E. and tell them that I would have to pass on doing a live music event on a Monday Night. No one wanted to run it, nobody that I work with was interested in playing, so it made sense to let it go. It was my first steady booking job, we booked a lot of great bands and had a lot of fun, but it’s time for the company to evolve.
I watched American Idol for the first time since the auditions, it was rock week, Slash was the mentor, and the kids singing were just bizarre. I was watching enough to be attached to anybody. I get a call from my buddies about seeing Wolverine.
We went and I have to say that aside from some cool action stuff I didn’t really care for the movie all that much. Some of the fanboy stuff they did was cool.
I got home and felt like writing. I had a bunch of cool ideas but no songs, no lyrics. I’m not gonna rush it, when I know what I want to say I should have no trouble saying it.
It’s 3AM so I’m probably gonna go to bed now
I woke up earlier than usual, I usually don’t sleep light but I heard Dad barreling down the stairs and I woke up immediately. Reminded me of the days when I had a normal job. It was around seven and I was excited like a kid on Christmas because I knew that today would be the first rehearsal with my band for our upcoming shows. We haven’t played together since the beginning of March so I’m very interested in seeing what’s gonna go down.
I had some breakfast and tried my best to go back to bed I woke up around 11:30 and hit a shower. My dad came in from a funeral and we spoke for a second. I shared my anxiety about my guitar playing with him. I wondered if I would be able to get it done. These guys I play with are extremely talented and they push me and pull the best out of me. I;m working on getting back to my old self. My door bell rings and it’s Jake and Rob, they’d come together and were ready to get down.
We conversed about the set list. Since this is going to be my first show home since the Camaro tour, I wanna work some tunes from the previous albums into the set so we banged through some tunes and figured out which old songs we were going to do. Me being home is finally starting to feel real.
Rob counts us in and we’re off and in a lot of respects it’s like no time has passed. I have a lot of work to do in terms of my playing but making the pieces fit together again was a very easy process. No wonder I missed my guys…it just works. We jammed out and go through the entire set with little to no real hiccups. We are taking some of the songs apart and adding thigns to them to see if we can spice it up a tad. I wanna start showcasing Rob more, he’s an amazing drummer and in a three piece there’s so much room for stuff like that.
As we were done and they were on their way out we discussed some scheduling things and they left, I immediately went to work. I know I don’t have a normal day job but sometimes it certainly doesn’t feel that way. Between booking the shows for the venues and handling Boy Wonder stuff my days are full. A new date for the California Show came in, as well as some interest from some other clubs around the country. Money’s the problem, I want to take over the world, but I have to be smart about it.
The Zot show hit a snag, one of the bands pulled out, problem was they were supposed to host the jam session. I have to think of something soon. I also had to call Dani Mari to cancel our Wed meeting, my niece Taylor’s birthday is Wed and I wanna be there for that we reschedule for Thursday. I had to call the guys at O.N.E. and tell them that I would have to pass on doing a live music event on a Monday Night. No one wanted to run it, nobody that I work with was interested in playing, so it made sense to let it go. It was my first steady booking job, we booked a lot of great bands and had a lot of fun, but it’s time for the company to evolve.
I watched American Idol for the first time since the auditions, it was rock week, Slash was the mentor, and the kids singing were just bizarre. I was watching enough to be attached to anybody. I get a call from my buddies about seeing Wolverine.
We went and I have to say that aside from some cool action stuff I didn’t really care for the movie all that much. Some of the fanboy stuff they did was cool.
I got home and felt like writing. I had a bunch of cool ideas but no songs, no lyrics. I’m not gonna rush it, when I know what I want to say I should have no trouble saying it.
It’s 3AM so I’m probably gonna go to bed now
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 55
Day 54 - May 4th 2009
Monday, the first day of my first full week home from tour. It’s hard to believe it’s only been about 7 days since I’ve been home. There’s been a lot of movement since then. Hard to believe that this time last week I was still on the west coast, living a much different life. Lindsay Rush told me that you can’t compare the road to home and she’s right. I have so many memories but it feels like the tour was two years ago.
I woke up early as I started attempting to put stuff together for Lickety Split calling acts and nailing some stuff down. The tricky part is figuring out the money for all this stuff. One must make sure the acts are apid and paid well, one also must make sure that he earns some money for his efforts.
I broke open my copy of The Police Certifiable on DVD and decided to watch it. If I’m going to be playing in a threepiece band again I might as well watch the best. The Police are my favorite band, mainly because I love the way the pieces fit together. There are very few perfect combinations in pop music but wheter it’s intentional or natural they way they play their instruments compliment each other. Sting has written great songs since leaving The Police and worked with some incredible musicians but no guitarist makes his songs sparkle like Andy Summers and it’s hard for anyone to hold a candle to Stewart Copeland on drums.
I confirm my rehearsal for tomorrow and go down to shred. My Boss Gt-10 has a custom Distortion so I’ve been looking into that so I can get the sound I want. I shredded till about 4 (I am committed to not sucking once we start gigging again)and I got a call from Steve from The Absolute Zeros. He wanted to come to open mic tonight, so I asked him if he would jam with me on Bass.
I got there around 5 and the line was short, likely due to the rain. I got to share some tour stories with Steve and Jack Gleason and I got to catch up slightly with some of the staff as they watched Bang Camaro on You Tube and told me how funny they thought me being in the band was. I’m dealing with people that mainly know me for my music. I did a 180 musically joining Bang Camaro. This is the first time that I’ve been involved in two functioning projects so it’s pretty cool.
By the time I did sign ups at 6:30 the line was a lot longer but still about half the usual length. It was pretty nasty outside, Even still there were more people signed up tonight then last week. Hopefully we’re on the rebound and things will get back to normal.
The open mic started a bit late. I was waiting for Bob who was driving in from West Virginia but we were able to get through everyone. I kicked thigns off with a four song set and am noticing the difference in my singing after 2 months with Bang Camaro, I’m a lot better than I was before I left. The crowd was really live and I saw some great acts. I love hosting hat open mic, If you are a fan of different kinds of music like me it’s perfect. You can see a folk duo, a jazz band, a rap group, and an electronic artist all in one night back to back. It’s pretty sweet. We ended at 11 and had 3 winners so it was a good night .
I got home practiced some more guitar watched Monday Night Raw and went to bed.
First rehearsal with the boys tomorrow, very excited
Monday, the first day of my first full week home from tour. It’s hard to believe it’s only been about 7 days since I’ve been home. There’s been a lot of movement since then. Hard to believe that this time last week I was still on the west coast, living a much different life. Lindsay Rush told me that you can’t compare the road to home and she’s right. I have so many memories but it feels like the tour was two years ago.
I woke up early as I started attempting to put stuff together for Lickety Split calling acts and nailing some stuff down. The tricky part is figuring out the money for all this stuff. One must make sure the acts are apid and paid well, one also must make sure that he earns some money for his efforts.
I broke open my copy of The Police Certifiable on DVD and decided to watch it. If I’m going to be playing in a threepiece band again I might as well watch the best. The Police are my favorite band, mainly because I love the way the pieces fit together. There are very few perfect combinations in pop music but wheter it’s intentional or natural they way they play their instruments compliment each other. Sting has written great songs since leaving The Police and worked with some incredible musicians but no guitarist makes his songs sparkle like Andy Summers and it’s hard for anyone to hold a candle to Stewart Copeland on drums.
I confirm my rehearsal for tomorrow and go down to shred. My Boss Gt-10 has a custom Distortion so I’ve been looking into that so I can get the sound I want. I shredded till about 4 (I am committed to not sucking once we start gigging again)and I got a call from Steve from The Absolute Zeros. He wanted to come to open mic tonight, so I asked him if he would jam with me on Bass.
I got there around 5 and the line was short, likely due to the rain. I got to share some tour stories with Steve and Jack Gleason and I got to catch up slightly with some of the staff as they watched Bang Camaro on You Tube and told me how funny they thought me being in the band was. I’m dealing with people that mainly know me for my music. I did a 180 musically joining Bang Camaro. This is the first time that I’ve been involved in two functioning projects so it’s pretty cool.
By the time I did sign ups at 6:30 the line was a lot longer but still about half the usual length. It was pretty nasty outside, Even still there were more people signed up tonight then last week. Hopefully we’re on the rebound and things will get back to normal.
The open mic started a bit late. I was waiting for Bob who was driving in from West Virginia but we were able to get through everyone. I kicked thigns off with a four song set and am noticing the difference in my singing after 2 months with Bang Camaro, I’m a lot better than I was before I left. The crowd was really live and I saw some great acts. I love hosting hat open mic, If you are a fan of different kinds of music like me it’s perfect. You can see a folk duo, a jazz band, a rap group, and an electronic artist all in one night back to back. It’s pretty sweet. We ended at 11 and had 3 winners so it was a good night .
I got home practiced some more guitar watched Monday Night Raw and went to bed.
First rehearsal with the boys tomorrow, very excited
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 54
Day 53 - May 3rd 2009
Church
The original plan was for me to wait until I was completely done with Bang Camaro and had gone to California to return to Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, the place where I learned to live under a microscope.
At Mt. Carmel my family is a prominent one. My Dad is the minister to youth (a Sunday school teacher and youth worker before that) My mother, the adult sponsor of the Junior and Young People’s Choir who became one of the first female Deacons at Mount Carmel amidst a shit storm of controversy. They do a lot ot make the church and have done so much for the kids in the neighborhood. My dad’s most recent project is a Youth String Ensemble that now includes Woodwinds and Brass. He’s taken it from a small idea and blown it up to the point where they’ll be playing downstairs at World Café Live sometime soon. My point is people know who they are. I grew up with people knowing who I am and I have no bloody clue who they are.
My family’s prominence resulted in some folks always keeping an eye on me waiting for me to screw up. Whenever I did something someone was always running and telling my parents to sort of thumb their noses at them. Things that wouldn’t even be an issue with normal kids (a kid falling asleep in church, or siting and talking to his friends in the balcony) would be blown up to World War 5 if I were to happen to be seen doin it. I was forced to sing on the youth choir among other things and if I did something good everyone would know about it. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on everything I did and had no problem telling me. It prepares you for a life in the public eye.
Knowing all these things I didn’t wanna be bothered today, but considering God had a lot to do with me returning home in tact form the tour not going seemed kinda wrong.
I slipped in undetected. The 10:45 service has been a bit thin in terms of the crowds so I didn’t have to worry about it too much. It was communion Sunday. The sermon was okay but the choir (who specialize more in sacred hyms and old school negro spirituals) was putting me to sleep. I ran into my little cousin. Some were un aware I was home. I was able for the most part to slip out of the building undetected. I ran into some people I knew well. Some saw the show and were bombarding me with questions. Fortunately mom was ready to leave right away, She had to come back for the church Chorus Concert that they do around this time every year.
We were home for a bit as I tried to make phone calls to see if we can get someone ot run this one event. A lot of no’s at the moment. If I want to attempt to do it I’m gonna have to think of something else that’s outside of the box.
An hour went by and we had to go to my mom’s concert. She sings in the church chorus, A choir who specializes in the more feel good toe tappin hand clappin music that most black churches a re known for. The concert itself was pretty good. It was their 65th anniversary and they did songs for every era of the chorus. Best part though was seeing my sisters, nieces and nephew for the first time in two months. Everyone has been looking at me somewhat differently since I came back so it was nice ot see people that don’t think of me as some big famous guy (clearly I’m not…not yet anyway) .
After the concert was over I saw a lot of the more familiar faces and as happy as I was to see them they kept asking me how my vacation was. The word vacation sticks in my craw just a little bit. I think of beign drenched in sweat every night and the week I had strep throat and the times when I felt like I wouldn’t survive. I had a blast yet but I wouldn’t call the tour with Bang Camaro a vacation. We’re a few days away from me hitting you with my perspective on the entire experience (that’s coming don’t worry)
The family then went to perkins. My Nephew’s got another ear infection and needs to see the doctor tomorrow. We had some food followed by some cookies and then we went home. I played some guitar and that was the end of that chapter.
Church
The original plan was for me to wait until I was completely done with Bang Camaro and had gone to California to return to Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, the place where I learned to live under a microscope.
At Mt. Carmel my family is a prominent one. My Dad is the minister to youth (a Sunday school teacher and youth worker before that) My mother, the adult sponsor of the Junior and Young People’s Choir who became one of the first female Deacons at Mount Carmel amidst a shit storm of controversy. They do a lot ot make the church and have done so much for the kids in the neighborhood. My dad’s most recent project is a Youth String Ensemble that now includes Woodwinds and Brass. He’s taken it from a small idea and blown it up to the point where they’ll be playing downstairs at World Café Live sometime soon. My point is people know who they are. I grew up with people knowing who I am and I have no bloody clue who they are.
My family’s prominence resulted in some folks always keeping an eye on me waiting for me to screw up. Whenever I did something someone was always running and telling my parents to sort of thumb their noses at them. Things that wouldn’t even be an issue with normal kids (a kid falling asleep in church, or siting and talking to his friends in the balcony) would be blown up to World War 5 if I were to happen to be seen doin it. I was forced to sing on the youth choir among other things and if I did something good everyone would know about it. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on everything I did and had no problem telling me. It prepares you for a life in the public eye.
Knowing all these things I didn’t wanna be bothered today, but considering God had a lot to do with me returning home in tact form the tour not going seemed kinda wrong.
I slipped in undetected. The 10:45 service has been a bit thin in terms of the crowds so I didn’t have to worry about it too much. It was communion Sunday. The sermon was okay but the choir (who specialize more in sacred hyms and old school negro spirituals) was putting me to sleep. I ran into my little cousin. Some were un aware I was home. I was able for the most part to slip out of the building undetected. I ran into some people I knew well. Some saw the show and were bombarding me with questions. Fortunately mom was ready to leave right away, She had to come back for the church Chorus Concert that they do around this time every year.
We were home for a bit as I tried to make phone calls to see if we can get someone ot run this one event. A lot of no’s at the moment. If I want to attempt to do it I’m gonna have to think of something else that’s outside of the box.
An hour went by and we had to go to my mom’s concert. She sings in the church chorus, A choir who specializes in the more feel good toe tappin hand clappin music that most black churches a re known for. The concert itself was pretty good. It was their 65th anniversary and they did songs for every era of the chorus. Best part though was seeing my sisters, nieces and nephew for the first time in two months. Everyone has been looking at me somewhat differently since I came back so it was nice ot see people that don’t think of me as some big famous guy (clearly I’m not…not yet anyway) .
After the concert was over I saw a lot of the more familiar faces and as happy as I was to see them they kept asking me how my vacation was. The word vacation sticks in my craw just a little bit. I think of beign drenched in sweat every night and the week I had strep throat and the times when I felt like I wouldn’t survive. I had a blast yet but I wouldn’t call the tour with Bang Camaro a vacation. We’re a few days away from me hitting you with my perspective on the entire experience (that’s coming don’t worry)
The family then went to perkins. My Nephew’s got another ear infection and needs to see the doctor tomorrow. We had some food followed by some cookies and then we went home. I played some guitar and that was the end of that chapter.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professionla Musician 53
Day 52 - May 2nd 2009
Today would be a day about getting he word out and beginning to set some stuff up for Lickety, finalizing everything for Zot, and beginning the major push for the World Café Live show downstairs on May 24th. All this stuff is important so I’ve gotta make sure I keep all these balls in the air. The Monday event at O.N.E. is not looking good. No one wants to run it and none of the bands I know want to take a gig on a Monday Night. I have a host in mind at this point but I’m not sure if it’s going to work.
I get a call from Gabriela Herbas, a young woman who did a documentary on the making of my album, she did another re-edit and would like me to look at it. So after playing some guitar I went to meet up with Gabby to take a look.
I thought the video was really well done and (finally) gave my stamp of approval on it as the final version of it. I suggested a bleep for all the curse words to heighten the humor. We may try to screen it May 24th but I fear we won’t have time. It was an interesting trip back down memory lane, it was almost a year ago when I started making that record, feels like a lifetime ago I feel like I’ve climbed so many mountains in the past year. Doing some things outside of Philly with Boy Wonder then a full blown tour with Bang Camaro. I thought about them quite a bit today. They had a show with Electric Six and I’m wondering how it was.
After the trip to Gabby’s I rolled over to the Tin Angel to check out Amy Regan. We have all these mutual friends and she’s come to Philly Rising a time or two so I was looking forward to checking her out.
I have a bit of difficulty watching other people perform. I always have the itch to be on stage. I’ve gotten a lot better about it over the past few years. It helps when the person is as good as Amy is. She’s amazing in fact, very adept in Jazz theory, knows very expensive chords. Her voice is pretty soulful and easy on the ears.
I came home around midnight and decided to go downstairs and play some guitar. I’m working on some new EQ’s and Sounds, trying to find the perfect tone. Which is useless considering that the tones may not sound right with the rest of the band. Something to do I guess. We have rehearsal on Tuesday and I’m pretty excited about it.
Apparently there was a big argument between some people next door while I was playing. I didn’t hear a thing.
After a while I hit the bed. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
A little Amy Regan
Today would be a day about getting he word out and beginning to set some stuff up for Lickety, finalizing everything for Zot, and beginning the major push for the World Café Live show downstairs on May 24th. All this stuff is important so I’ve gotta make sure I keep all these balls in the air. The Monday event at O.N.E. is not looking good. No one wants to run it and none of the bands I know want to take a gig on a Monday Night. I have a host in mind at this point but I’m not sure if it’s going to work.
I get a call from Gabriela Herbas, a young woman who did a documentary on the making of my album, she did another re-edit and would like me to look at it. So after playing some guitar I went to meet up with Gabby to take a look.
I thought the video was really well done and (finally) gave my stamp of approval on it as the final version of it. I suggested a bleep for all the curse words to heighten the humor. We may try to screen it May 24th but I fear we won’t have time. It was an interesting trip back down memory lane, it was almost a year ago when I started making that record, feels like a lifetime ago I feel like I’ve climbed so many mountains in the past year. Doing some things outside of Philly with Boy Wonder then a full blown tour with Bang Camaro. I thought about them quite a bit today. They had a show with Electric Six and I’m wondering how it was.
After the trip to Gabby’s I rolled over to the Tin Angel to check out Amy Regan. We have all these mutual friends and she’s come to Philly Rising a time or two so I was looking forward to checking her out.
I have a bit of difficulty watching other people perform. I always have the itch to be on stage. I’ve gotten a lot better about it over the past few years. It helps when the person is as good as Amy is. She’s amazing in fact, very adept in Jazz theory, knows very expensive chords. Her voice is pretty soulful and easy on the ears.
I came home around midnight and decided to go downstairs and play some guitar. I’m working on some new EQ’s and Sounds, trying to find the perfect tone. Which is useless considering that the tones may not sound right with the rest of the band. Something to do I guess. We have rehearsal on Tuesday and I’m pretty excited about it.
Apparently there was a big argument between some people next door while I was playing. I didn’t hear a thing.
After a while I hit the bed. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
A little Amy Regan
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professionla Musician 52
Day 51 - May 1st 2009
Electric Six was amazing last night. They’re in Boston with the Camaro tonight. I’ll admit it’s weird knowing that Bang Camaro’s playing a show and I’m not gonna be there. There’s a big part of me that misses those guys. But I’m focused on the present and immediate future and that involves having some kind of money coming in.
With virtually no decent jobs in the world of AV available at present moment my attention turns to booking. The plan; find a few rooms put bands in them and help them draw a crowd. If I do it right I’ll make enough money to pay the bills maybe even be able to put some away for future stuff.
I started booking almost four years ago, essentially it was out of necessity. I had been playing gigs in Philadelphia for a few years and was tired of outside bookers taking all of the money, so I decided to do it myself. I’d round up my friends that had other bands and we’d do a show together. Ever since then I’ve been doing my own shows under the name the HYPE! In different places around Philly. With my Wed night shows at O.N.E. at Rittenhouse all but dried up since I went on tour, it was time to try to find some other spots. I had two meetings today, one at Lickety Split and another at Zot two bars in Philly, Lickety more established, Zot, a place that has had difficulty establishing itself as an original music powerhouse. I believe that I can put asses in seats in both places.
I spent some time on the phone with Jake (My Bassist) and Rob (My Drummer) and we scheduled a rehearsal for Tuesday at Noon. It feels like forever since we last played together so I’m really looking forward to it.
First things first. I hadn’t touched my electric guitars, two Fender strats mainly (I have a Les Paul that I hardly play) Dagger (A modified white lefty strat) and Maverick (A Black Strat, my first electric guitar, I switched the pickups out a while back) in quite some time and I was pretty keen on doing that so I went down to go over some stuff and just play. I’m a lot rustier than even I thought. I suck horribly. My brian hasn’t thought about lead guitars in two months, not to mention I’ve has to press really har donly playing my acoustic during downtime on the road. I got a long way to climb and three weeks to do it.
A quick shower and I get a 10PM time for my Zot meeting so I schedule 11 for Lickety Split. I need a shower before I hit the town. My folks come in around 6, they have a party to go to. It’s been a little strange going back to the daily routine. We haven’t spent a whole lot of time together since California but I’m sure we’ll get to that.
Headed out to Zot. I’ve always been a pretty focused driven guy as a musician. As a business man I’m even more so. I love music and working with bands but I’m in it to make money, especially now that this is my only job. I get there 20 mins early. I’m handed a beer and told that Gina would be out in a minute. She comes out contract in hand. We talk briefly and I sign on the dotted line. We officially have a show on may 8th. I turn my focus to Lickety Split
Lickety Split was a place my band played every Friday from the fall of 2007 till the end of the year. We had a First Friday gig as well before I left for tour. I had walked in Wed and DanI Mari mentioned that they might need help booking Wed nights. So I went there tonight to solidify that. Looks like a start may 13th and they would tell me what Fridays I have later. I ran into one of the kids I used to teach when I ran a Performing Arts camp in high school. She has two kids now and was out with a friend of hers. Weird to see them grown up.
I got a pickup and headed home. Lots of stuff to figure out. Goin with my buddies to see Amy Reagan tomorrow. Very excited.
Electric Six was amazing last night. They’re in Boston with the Camaro tonight. I’ll admit it’s weird knowing that Bang Camaro’s playing a show and I’m not gonna be there. There’s a big part of me that misses those guys. But I’m focused on the present and immediate future and that involves having some kind of money coming in.
With virtually no decent jobs in the world of AV available at present moment my attention turns to booking. The plan; find a few rooms put bands in them and help them draw a crowd. If I do it right I’ll make enough money to pay the bills maybe even be able to put some away for future stuff.
I started booking almost four years ago, essentially it was out of necessity. I had been playing gigs in Philadelphia for a few years and was tired of outside bookers taking all of the money, so I decided to do it myself. I’d round up my friends that had other bands and we’d do a show together. Ever since then I’ve been doing my own shows under the name the HYPE! In different places around Philly. With my Wed night shows at O.N.E. at Rittenhouse all but dried up since I went on tour, it was time to try to find some other spots. I had two meetings today, one at Lickety Split and another at Zot two bars in Philly, Lickety more established, Zot, a place that has had difficulty establishing itself as an original music powerhouse. I believe that I can put asses in seats in both places.
I spent some time on the phone with Jake (My Bassist) and Rob (My Drummer) and we scheduled a rehearsal for Tuesday at Noon. It feels like forever since we last played together so I’m really looking forward to it.
First things first. I hadn’t touched my electric guitars, two Fender strats mainly (I have a Les Paul that I hardly play) Dagger (A modified white lefty strat) and Maverick (A Black Strat, my first electric guitar, I switched the pickups out a while back) in quite some time and I was pretty keen on doing that so I went down to go over some stuff and just play. I’m a lot rustier than even I thought. I suck horribly. My brian hasn’t thought about lead guitars in two months, not to mention I’ve has to press really har donly playing my acoustic during downtime on the road. I got a long way to climb and three weeks to do it.
A quick shower and I get a 10PM time for my Zot meeting so I schedule 11 for Lickety Split. I need a shower before I hit the town. My folks come in around 6, they have a party to go to. It’s been a little strange going back to the daily routine. We haven’t spent a whole lot of time together since California but I’m sure we’ll get to that.
Headed out to Zot. I’ve always been a pretty focused driven guy as a musician. As a business man I’m even more so. I love music and working with bands but I’m in it to make money, especially now that this is my only job. I get there 20 mins early. I’m handed a beer and told that Gina would be out in a minute. She comes out contract in hand. We talk briefly and I sign on the dotted line. We officially have a show on may 8th. I turn my focus to Lickety Split
Lickety Split was a place my band played every Friday from the fall of 2007 till the end of the year. We had a First Friday gig as well before I left for tour. I had walked in Wed and DanI Mari mentioned that they might need help booking Wed nights. So I went there tonight to solidify that. Looks like a start may 13th and they would tell me what Fridays I have later. I ran into one of the kids I used to teach when I ran a Performing Arts camp in high school. She has two kids now and was out with a friend of hers. Weird to see them grown up.
I got a pickup and headed home. Lots of stuff to figure out. Goin with my buddies to see Amy Reagan tomorrow. Very excited.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Boy Wonder: Porfessional Musician 51
Day 50 - April 30th 2009
So I guess I’m famous now (looks at watch sees about 10 minutes left) lol
I woke up to my phone ringing off the hook, phone calls and text messages from people who stayed up and watched Kimmel to catch a glimpse of me, we all ended up getting more than we bargained for. Mostly everything was positive in terms of the feedback. People I hadn’t heard from in years shot me texts and emails and phone calls telling me how rad they thought the Kimmel appearance was.
I go on-line ot see if Push Push is up yet and I see the reviews on You Tube from people checking it out, they range from support
shatteredglassart (12 hours ago)
fuck all you haters. Bang Camaro ROCKS!
have you never played Guitar Hero or Rockband..they're on both.
shatteredglassart (12 hours ago)
I love Bang Camaro ^_^
To the mean spirited
spineK (17 hours ago)
this is so bad.. they cant sing individually so they have to cover it up with 15 guys... not even good sounding.
o0o8ra1no0o (15 hours ago)
booooo
To the kinda funny
VerdammtX (4 hours ago)
This is what happens when a frat house has one too many kegs to drink.
But of all of them so Far this has to be my favorite
LamotteROCK (18 hours ago)
NIGGA
Cause it’s either a show of Black Solidarity or this guys got some serious issues with racism. Either way it elicits a chuckle. People who know absolutely nothing about you, what you’re doing, or what you’re trying to say have no problems casting judgment. My heart goes out to actual famous people that deal with this on a daily basis from the entire world. It’s the culture we live in. If I don’t like something (Like Say The Jonas Brothers or Lady Gaga) I usually respond by turning it off and finding something I do like. It’s funny that people can’t handle that situation the same way.
I enjoyed a little bit of this sort of fame as I sat at the lap top and did some job apps and tried to find some rooms to book in, O.N.E. wants to move to Mondays so if I want to make any money at this I’m gonna have to try to find some place else to do so. Zot looks like it’s back on, so I’m gonna try my best to put that show back together. Got some great bands so we’re gonna score pretty big I think. We should make back our original investment.
Phone rings. It’s Dick Valentine from Electric Six, they’re in town tonight (like I would forget that) playing at Johnny Brenda’s on Girard and Frankfort. I planned on hanging out with them during the day but I remembered I needed to get my hair done so I would have to wait until the show to hang.
I washed my hair again and by the time I was done Yoni was there to do my hair. I’d been without braids since Friday and I’d had that ponytail since Saturday. It was nice to get the hair clean again and get it braided the way I usually do, lookin like my old self. Mind you I only look like my old self.
I went to the show and got the biggest hug from Emily (Electric Six Merch Girl) I associate this band with so many great memories from the tour. The rest of the band came in and we shared warm greetings. They tell me that they’re staying at The Crown Plaza Hotel on 18th and Market…the first place I ever worked. We shot the shit for a little while and Zach (who was my plus 1) and I pushed ourselves to the front.
The show was amazing like always. I’ve seen them more than ten times and they still blow me away as I succumbed to the Dance Epidemic. A douche bag threw a shirt on-stage and hit Percussion World (the drummer) right in the face he throws it into the crowd immediately and of course it hits me and drapes over my head. He was so apologetic, of all the people to hit. I almost died laughing. When they were done we spoke and hugged and all that and I went home.
I went another day without playing guitar. That can not happen again.
So I guess I’m famous now (looks at watch sees about 10 minutes left) lol
I woke up to my phone ringing off the hook, phone calls and text messages from people who stayed up and watched Kimmel to catch a glimpse of me, we all ended up getting more than we bargained for. Mostly everything was positive in terms of the feedback. People I hadn’t heard from in years shot me texts and emails and phone calls telling me how rad they thought the Kimmel appearance was.
I go on-line ot see if Push Push is up yet and I see the reviews on You Tube from people checking it out, they range from support
shatteredglassart (12 hours ago)
fuck all you haters. Bang Camaro ROCKS!
have you never played Guitar Hero or Rockband..they're on both.
shatteredglassart (12 hours ago)
I love Bang Camaro ^_^
To the mean spirited
spineK (17 hours ago)
this is so bad.. they cant sing individually so they have to cover it up with 15 guys... not even good sounding.
o0o8ra1no0o (15 hours ago)
booooo
To the kinda funny
VerdammtX (4 hours ago)
This is what happens when a frat house has one too many kegs to drink.
But of all of them so Far this has to be my favorite
LamotteROCK (18 hours ago)
NIGGA
Cause it’s either a show of Black Solidarity or this guys got some serious issues with racism. Either way it elicits a chuckle. People who know absolutely nothing about you, what you’re doing, or what you’re trying to say have no problems casting judgment. My heart goes out to actual famous people that deal with this on a daily basis from the entire world. It’s the culture we live in. If I don’t like something (Like Say The Jonas Brothers or Lady Gaga) I usually respond by turning it off and finding something I do like. It’s funny that people can’t handle that situation the same way.
I enjoyed a little bit of this sort of fame as I sat at the lap top and did some job apps and tried to find some rooms to book in, O.N.E. wants to move to Mondays so if I want to make any money at this I’m gonna have to try to find some place else to do so. Zot looks like it’s back on, so I’m gonna try my best to put that show back together. Got some great bands so we’re gonna score pretty big I think. We should make back our original investment.
Phone rings. It’s Dick Valentine from Electric Six, they’re in town tonight (like I would forget that) playing at Johnny Brenda’s on Girard and Frankfort. I planned on hanging out with them during the day but I remembered I needed to get my hair done so I would have to wait until the show to hang.
I washed my hair again and by the time I was done Yoni was there to do my hair. I’d been without braids since Friday and I’d had that ponytail since Saturday. It was nice to get the hair clean again and get it braided the way I usually do, lookin like my old self. Mind you I only look like my old self.
I went to the show and got the biggest hug from Emily (Electric Six Merch Girl) I associate this band with so many great memories from the tour. The rest of the band came in and we shared warm greetings. They tell me that they’re staying at The Crown Plaza Hotel on 18th and Market…the first place I ever worked. We shot the shit for a little while and Zach (who was my plus 1) and I pushed ourselves to the front.
The show was amazing like always. I’ve seen them more than ten times and they still blow me away as I succumbed to the Dance Epidemic. A douche bag threw a shirt on-stage and hit Percussion World (the drummer) right in the face he throws it into the crowd immediately and of course it hits me and drapes over my head. He was so apologetic, of all the people to hit. I almost died laughing. When they were done we spoke and hugged and all that and I went home.
I went another day without playing guitar. That can not happen again.
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