Solo Set 21 Grand 5-26-2006

Played a solo set at 21 Grand last Friday night. It's the first time that I've played a solo show out here - and one of the few times in general. Instead of bringing saxophone, clarinet, etc I used my computer to make the music. Similar to what I do when playing with saxophone & computer, but more static and with more attention paid to the different layers of sound coming out of the audio output. For the set I used two long drum samples, one of Johnathan Crawford, one of Steve Hess & samples of my saxophone, clarinet and trumpet, one each. I got to 21 Grand a half hour after the show was supposed to start - I got my times all wrong and had my folks in town so had brought them up to the Armstrong Redwoods and Goat Rock State Beach up in Sonoma County. But set up quick and was ready to play my opening spot within about 5 minutes - that's a nice thing about just bring the saxophone or just the computer - no big setup system, no microphones etc... There were two other sets - one with Matt Davignon and the last with the group Mire that features pedal steel gutiar, drums & laptop. Unfortunately I had to leave in the middle of their set as my folks were getting tired & wanted to get back to the hotel. I made the mistake of leaving my jacket with the car keys basically on the stage, so had to slide my way up there while Mire was playing - sorry 'bout that...
- glad to play the solo set though and looking forward to doing more -

Pink Canoes Luggage Store 5-18-2006

A thursday night in the summer in San Francisco - that was yesterday when the Pink Canoes played at the Luggage Store on Market Street. Across the street was Phil Lesh & Friends doing there thing, so in addition to the regular tenderloin crack headed madness there were gaggles of hippie-kids getting ready for their show. San Francisco street scenes are tough to beat sometimes.... First show in a few weeks for the Canoes - they had actually played a show down in LA on the 5th opening for a Nels Cline group, but I couldn't make that show. It seems everytime I play with the Canoes it's a little different and I bring some different permutation of my set-up. This night I brought my soprano and the computer. I liked using the soprano in the group - the higher range worked well in being able to be heard without having to play overly loud. Using an instrument sans neckstrap also works well when needing to put it down to concentrate on the computer. Afterwards we all went to the Kerry House, a bar in Oakland away from the tourists. We talked about how to get people to come see our music. If anyone has a suggestion, let us know.