Shelton Healy Bluesix 5-21-2008

last Wednesday I played at Bluesix in the Mission with Trevor Healy. We played without our electronics, which is our usual setup as the space is an acoustic only room. It wa a good change of pace for us, I brought along my Eb and Bass clarinets and Trevor brought his guitar, violin and some assorted percussion instruments. We focused on extending our ideas and going at a slow pace. Here's a video:

California Tour - Pt 3 - Sacramento

The week continues - on Wednesday the 20th worked during the day and then went up to Sacramento with Paper legs for a house show at the Fun Castle - we left Oakland around 7 and had a much better drive to the capitol than the last time we went - waiting for rush hour to die down is a good thing. We still had a little daylight left when we got into downtown Sactown - it was real nice out, the large trees and clean streets making us feel like we were in an old midwest town with better weather. Paper Legs invited me to play with them on this night, I brought my Bb clarinet and laptop. We were going to share the bill with Zac Nelson's Hexlove, but by the time we finished, he decided to not play - he said we put him in too good of a mood to play the loud rock that late - think we didn't finish until 11:30 - which isn't that late, but on a wednesday in someone's house it feels that much later. We played second and some kids from Davis played the set before, one with a variety of instruments and MSP electronics, one doing movement, one doing spoken word type ramblings.
our set felt good - though I hadn't played with brian yet, I have played with trevor and listening to them the few nights previously in LA and Oakland I knew how I wanted to try to get into the fold with them. I sat crosslegged the whole time and my left leg had fallen asleep by the end of the set.....we stayed there for the night and drank some rum mojitoes before going to sleep. The next morning we woke up early and left town by 7 am - passing by the state capitaol building where arnold schwarzenegger may have been working out - who knows? and Trevor and Brian dropped me off at work around 8:45 in emeryville. Some people do that commute everyday - crazy people.
The next day we did a recording session for them at my practice space. Recorded about 3 hours worth of improvisations and I joined them on a few. A busy full week - never felt stressed about things though - the way it should be.

California Tour - Pt 2 - Oakland & SF

So I got back from LA on a Saturday night, and had a long rehearsal with Tiny Lights on Sunday for our show on tuesday night at the Hotel Utah. But, before that was Monday where I had to work, and then do a two hour practice before a show in Oakland at 21 Grand of three duos - Paper Legs, Sudden Oak from SF, and my new duo with Weasel Walter. I wrote 4 pieces for alto saxophone & drums and bass clarinet and drums and we've had a number of rehearsals for this material which is definitely more complicated than my standard writing. Though harmonically simple - in keeping with the instrumentation - the variations and complications are mainly rhythmic, with changing time signatures and a need for exact counting for the two parts to line up the right way. All of the pieces start and end with written material that is related but non-repeating, and the improvising in most is highly related to what is written. We balanced the set with three improvisations that were succinct but active and varying. We'll definitely be working on this material more in the future. Sudden Oak are based in SF and are a guitar & sax player, both going through delay and overdrive pedals, creating a loud drone of sound that filled up 21 Grand.

The next night Tiny Lights (with Ben Bracken and Jacob Danziger) played at Hotel Utah in San Francisco. Our first show in a while and possibly our last for awhile as Jake will be moving back to Ann Arbor this summer. We were joined by Ben's roommate Max, who, in addition to being able to pitch in on multiple instruments (upright bass, glockenspiel & guitar) is a woodworker, has a good handle on audio recording and is an all around nice fellow. We played six songs all together for a set and shared the bill with Lulacruza and Efft. Hotel Utah is a nice and strange place to play - one of the oldest bars in the city, predating the 1906 earthquake, the sound man is actually pretty talented, but doesn't let it on while you're setting up - not really a talker... Lulacruza's set sounded great - I had to leave before Efft's show - sorry y'all - it looked like they had added a horn section though!
Playing with Tiny Lights is always nice - if only we could manage to play together more than once every 4 months or so it'd be that much better...

California Tour - End of April 2008 Part 1 - LA

The last week and half has been a busy one - four shows with that many groups in that many cities bookended by recording sessions. It all started last thursday night with a set-up session for Ton Trio - we went into the studio to record seven pieces. We've been playing the music for a bit now so it was time to get it down properly. A recording should be available sometime this summer.
Drove down to LA on Friday the 25th with Trevor Healy. He set up some show down there for his duo Paper Legs and included Settled on the bill at the Echo Curio, a storefront space in Echo Park. It was an afternoon show on a Saturday, and a hot one at that. LA can get hot - I think it was in the low 90s, and the summer isn't quite here. The Echo Curio stayed pretty reasonable though - Settled played first out of three bands. The crowd that came sat on the concrete floors and let me take my time with my set - though I hadn't done a performance of that music since December, I felt comfortable with my set up and made music unhurried. Gang Wizard played the second set, five folks playing drone-based noise music. They chose to play in a small room in the back of the Echo Curio, which was a bit cooler temperature wise due to its location without windows and being lower a foot or so. A good setting for the wizards - almost a cave. Paper Legs played third - Trevor on acoustic guitar and effects is joined by Brian Osborne, who lives in Brooklyn and plays small percussion through effects for this group. Their music is slow changing, with deliberate choices made to keep the music moving forward. An almost sleepy ending to the afternoon show, the sunlight always threatening to take over, but not quite doing so. Afterwards we had a great meal of South Indian food and Trevor and Brian gave me a ride to the Burbank airport where I flew back to Oakland that same night.

Ton Trio Bluesix 4-12-2008

Bluesix is a performance space in the Mission - it's a storefront space with wood floors and windows in the front - a good place for music. Ton Trio has been playing - we actually played a week and a half ago at the 1510 space. We've been working on music getting ready to record in a few weeks. It was an unusually warm night in San Francisco following a hot day - might've been in the 80's during the day, and one of those rare nights in the bay area when you don't need any kind of jacket at night.
Damon Smith and Kristian Aspelin played a duo set first - they played well together, playing active improvised music, with a wide array of sounds and motives, while allowing distinct moments to happen. When listening to good improvised music like that, you wonder why you need to write anything down.

By the time Ton Trio played our set some people had showed up and the room was comfortably filled. I felt good about our set, we're getting more comfortable with each others playing, so are able to push things a little farther along in terms of making connections between the improvised and written material. I played alto saxophone and bass clarinet. just got some work done on the BC which makes a huge difference with that old horn. Warm enough in the room to make it feel like summer - unusual in these parts........

Shelton Healy Nelson 3-6-2008

Played at 1510 8th Street in West Oakland this night, with Trevor Healy and Zac Nelson, a drummer from Sacramento who we met just a few months ago - Trevor & I went up there, met him and his friend Carson McWhirter at a studio up there across from a Safeway with a silver horse statue and recorded improvisations for 3 hours. Good stuff came of it. Zac's drumming style is aggresive, rhythmically solid and different from other drummers I play with - good times. Tonight as a trio we played three different roles, Trevor creating complex layers, Zac being the rhythmic base and me playing fast and loud on top - it felt good - I had gotten into a frustrated mood before leaving my place - a result of being cooped up at the job during the week after a nice few weeks without doing the 9-5 - but playing always helps. We had Jeremy of Sophisticuffs join us on our third improvisation - he played baritone saxophone and it was a welcome addition.

George Chen and Steve Santa Maria (Chen Santa Maria) played the 2nd set - drum machines, George on guitar through a few effects - sounded good in the space - thanks to them for playing!

Dragons 1976 Krakow 2-25-2008

Our last date of the tour was at Alchemia in Krakow. We left Wroclaw pretty early and drove south in Poland towards the foot hill country. On the way to Krakow we stopped in a small town that had a historical park - a 17th century polish farming village was preserved there. We met Marek there, the man who books the jazz at Alchemia and other places in Krakow. We had a great lunch ther e- I had zupa di pomodora and trout with almonds. Trout two times in a week - I'm hooked. We walked around the village and enjoyed the weather - it may have been in the high 50s and it was very sunny and the afternoon sunlight made everything that much better. We drove the last 20 kilometers to Krakow, I fell asleep just as we entered the city and then Ajemian woke me up to point out some of the very old buildings that line the river. Alchemia is a great cafe on the ground floor with the venue down in the basement - it seats alot of people and is definitely designed for listening - the building is very old and its reputed that the owners bought it for $100 when the neighborhood (the old jewish quarter) was not the place to be.
I took a walk around the area and returned around 6 o'clock to do a rehearsal - the two trios combined that night on two songs, India, and my song Atlantic. I wrote a complimentary bassline and created a harmony for the melody and we learned the form. This was the rare night where we didn't have dinner before the gig. One of the best things about the Polish crowd is that they show up when the concert is listed to start - well the only place where it didn't happen was in Warsaw. The concert started at 8:30 i think, Dragons played first - a god set, alot of energy for the crowd which was our largest of the tour. The light also played a set full of energy, and when I joined them on stage for Straight Up and Down it felt very good. We saved the double trio for the third set - the two songs probably ended up being about a half hour long total. This concert was recorded too - it'll probably be the best playing documented. We stayed at Alchemia the rest of the night and stayed at an apartment close by. I talked to the fellows of the Light about the possibility of doing more playing together in the future - maybe this fall.. I've got to work on my Polish!
I woke up pretty early the next morning to give my self some time to walk around this old city. My flight left at 14:00 and after a transfer in Munich we followed the sun all the way back to the west coast. It was cool to see the sun almost set while we were very far north and then rerise as we started heading south. A great trip - hopefully we'll be back soon.

Dragons 1976 Wroclaw 2-24-2008

We lobbied for some extra sleeping time so left Poznan a little later than expected, probably close to noon. We got in to Wroclaw without very much daylight left, we dropped off our instruments at Firlej, the club we were playing that night and then went to the Old town square of Wroclaw. It was similar to the square in Poznan, but the scale was larger - the building a little taller, the church more massive. I learned alter that night that Wroclaw was in Germany before and during WWII and most of it's buildings were not destroyed during the war. Especially one very large synagogue that we would see later in the night. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant that was modeled on the food and culture of Lwow, a city now in the Ukraine, but at one point in Poland, the borders being changed after wars obviously displacing people families and cities. Not something we think about much in the states. Firlej is a solid venue - a good size room with a large stage, though shorter ceilings. Our set started out a bit rough and it took us a good few songs before I felt comfortable with our playing. We recorded this concert as well - looking forward to hearing these recordings. I played two songs with the Light trio this night - In addition to playing Straight Up and Down we played India by John Coltrane. Every night we played with the Light we could hear them adding more energy to their playing - I would like to think that we influenced them in some ways. Once we were done we went to a bar that looked very old, and had a very catacomb like basement. By the time we made it back to the bed & breakfast we stayed at the caretaker had fallen asleep - we rang the bell many times but nothing. Ajemian had left the door to a balcony connected to his room open and we managed to push him up high enough to climb onto the second floor landing - the next morning the woman thanked us for not calling her boss! We didn't have that number to cal, so big thanks to squirrel.....

Dragons 1976 Poznan 2-23-2008

From Torun to Poznan, another short trip on two lane roads with lots of passing on the sides...got into Poznan early in the afternoon, had plenty of time to check into our rooms and walk around the old town square which was only a block away from the rooms. A beautiful day, it was probably fifty degrees - sunshine, a light breeze. We played that night at Estrada, a very nice jazz club in the format of a black box theatre. This night we also recorded the concert - they have a good assortment of microphones there and the acoustics of the space are on the dry side, good for live recording. We played the first set and played well - Ajemian played a particularly long solo in which he really got into a bass rubbing thing. But, during his solo the photographers phone rang - why is it always during the most quiet moments?

Audrey Chen was in town the same day as us and she played a concert not a block away at a cafe / club called Dragon. Small world. We tried to go after our set, but were not allowed in by the doorman, though she had told him to let us in during the set. Not sure where the miscommunication was, but it was there. After the concerts we all went to Lawrence's place where he had prepared for us a very delicious dinner featuring baked trout. We stayed there late into the night drinking big Heinekens and listening to his music collection.

Dragons 1976 Torun 2-22-08

The drive from Warsaw was about 3 or 4 hours. A two lane road most of the way, the style in Poland is to do a lot of passing of other cars - slower ones tend to even hug the shoulder to make it easier for others - especially drivers that still drive the older eastern european stock cars that are very small. When we arrived in Torun, we immediately went to the hotel and had some time to relax. A few hours later we went to where we played in the Old City - very old - and surrounded by the old castle walls as well. It was all very clean and by asking some people I learned that Torun is a university town - the source for its scrubbed appearance. The venue for the night was called - - and was originally served as a home to the duke form that area. A beautiful building - with nice high ceilings and ornate wall paper and chandeliers. ONe pretty amazing painting of a fellow killing a multi-headed creature with heads of snakes and body of a dog - I believe it was cerberus. The special part was the position in which he was holding one head and preparing to cut it off....the room we played in was a nice size, the height of the ceiling and amount of wood on the walls created a long echo, but one with a pleasing effect, as opposed to the sound made in concrete rooms. I think we played our best concert of the tour this night, in terms of music. The sound of the space allowed us to take our time with the music - I played a bit more sparsely to give more room to the echo, and Ajemian had a great shotgun solo - shotgun for the sound he was making by striking his strings and it bouncing off the walls. We played first, a long set with encore. the Light Trio played second, and I sat in with them for one song - Straight Up and Down, by Dolphy. While waiting to return to the stage after my set I laid down on the floor in a large room that acted as our green room - the sound of the building so good that I could clearly hear every note they played.

Dragons 1976 Warsaw 2-21-08

Last year, the third Dragons 1976 album was put out by a label in Poland, MultiKulti, it took a little while, but they asked us to come to Poland to play, and this week was the trip. Our first stop was Warsaw, the capitol of Poland and an iconic remainder of communisms influence in architecture. We got in on the 20th and had a day to reset our internal clocks - worked out for me, but I think Ajemian had a harder time.
Our first show was at Klub Aurora, a spot that is kind of a complex of clubs - though in a good way, not a bad one. We toured with a trio from Poland made up of Waclaw Zimpel, Wojtek Traczyk and Robert Rasz - Bass clarinet, bass and drums. Younger fellows than us, Multikulti released their first album this month. The concert started around 8:30, the crowd a bit light as the trio began their set. By the end of the set more folks had shown up, and we were able to hear the music - I was glad to hear their aesthetic was honest and in some ways similar to Dragons - strong melodic and harmonic aspects grounded the improvisations.
We played second - and this was our first time playing together in awhile - we did a long set - about an hour and fifteen - it felt good, the crowd was a listening one, we played an encore. A good start to the tour. After the show we stayed at Aurora and there was a dance party - a mix of the last 50 years of american music, but when the polish pop came on the crowd got real into it.

Son of Gunnar Ton of Shel 1/15/2008

last weekend I went to Big Sur with jen - January is the best time to go I think - the crowds are gone - the campsites are fresh - the waves are big - the trails empty. a good time. got back into oakland and got a reminder message from my friend sarah palmer that we were sharing a bill on tuesday night at El Rio in SF. A bar I hadn't been to ever and was down with it - in the California tradition they've got a shuffleboard table and a great big outside area that's used more on saturday afternoons.

Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel hadn't played since November, and Steini just got back into town the day before from a trip to New York, so the timing was right. We played a set in between Jenn Harper's band (with Jordan Glenn, Andy Strain and a violinist whose name I missed), and Efft - Sarah, Noah Phillips, Alee Karim and....Jordan Glenn (those good drummers end up playing in alot of bands). So, we hadn't played together in awhile, but as always the way Steini and I play together usually works well - I go high, he goes low, I create a bed of sound, he assembles a full texture to go with. I felt a little exceptionally aggressive on this night, mainly to let things happen with thinking too much - it felt good. I used Alee's bass amp for the electronics, and I was able to get some low feedback to work for us, not against. I brought my trumpet along, as I've been getting back into practicing it - the way that trumpet sounds when processed is so tempting. I need to work on it more.

Detroit December 18, 2007

A short drive from Oberlin. The authorities of the Ohio turnpike were friendly to me. Got up to the Bohemian National House around 6. Was able to have a good set up and talk a bit to Frode Gjerstad, Paal Nilssen-Love and Oyvind Storesund who were a bit past midway on their on tour that had crossed paths in Lexington with the Engines a few days after I did in Columbia. Not much of a turnout this night - it was quite cold outside. After playing my set for a week, I'd become much more comfortable with it and was able to enjoy its' slow-movement quality. Allowing the music to develop, not forcing any changes. Letting things be. The music felt settled, complete. I'm looking forward to working more on this music and creating a full album. For now, the music can be heard from the flash player on my site.

Thanks to Joel at the Bohemian.

On my way back to Chicago I took some photos of this bridge in Ann Arbor:

Oberlin December 17, 2007

A cold pretty uneventful day long drive from Philly to Ohio - I changed my route to avoid the tolls and found myself in some nice out of the way places in central pennsylvania. They got alot of snow the day before which made for a gorgeous drive. Glad I didn't have to drive through the storm. Made it to Oberlin Ohio around 6 - it's not a big enough town to make it onto the map I had with me, so I had to get a little creative to find it after I stopped following the google map I'd printed out. No worries though, just got in a little later. Drove to Jeff Christiani's place which is right next to the Oberlin campus. We went towards Cleveland to get Indian food with a crew of his friends and on our way back we got off track - a long day of being off track. He was interested in learning about Mills and when I found out he was St. Louis I was able to almost shock him with my second hand knowledge of that city that I've learned from Jen.

Didn't end up playing until around 9:30 or so - and I played the only set in a small chapel called Fairchild. A reverberant space - stone walls, wooden pews. I did my best with it and tried to bring the sound to a full loud level. I think I did it for awhile. It was good to play there, a cold cold night in rural Ohio. Jeff showed me around the next day as I didn't have far to go for my next date. Oberlin's an interesting little place - students from the coasts, living away from lots of things, forces them to stay active, get creative. I remember having an Oberlin poster in highschool for some reason - didn't really know what it was, it seemed like it was on a higher level....

Philadelphia 12-16-2007

With the Red Room show being done not so late, I was able to get up early and have a nice full day with my sister and family in Baltimore before heading up the Toll filled 95 to Philadelphia. My original show had been canceled and Audrey Chen (cello, vocals) arranged a date for us to play with Katt Hernandez, a violinist originally from Ann Arbor. It was at Big Jar, a bookstore in Old City. The weather was supposed to be real bad, but was instead only quite cold with strong winds. Audrey was headed to Baltimore from NYC after a string of dates there. We played one set together with Katt and Audrey beginning. Very patient exploration of held tones, slowly shifting with minuscule rapid changes occurring throughout. I joined them best I could. Playing that style of music and making it work is difficult - playing with Audrey and Katt worked well. The second set was a duet between Katt and Erik Ruin, who creates live visuals via paper projections. Erik did quite a bit with paper cutouts and a projector - I imagine getting the same result with a computer would be near impossible.

Baltimore 12-15-2007

An eight plus hour drive from south carolina to maryland - with a stopover to get some fireworks for my nephew. Played at the the Red Room - it was a three set night starting with the trio of Catherine Pancake, Dan Conrad (brother of Tony), and Kate Porter; followed by my set, and a final set where I joined the trio. Catherine played drums, I hadn't seen her play drums before and I really was glad to hear her. Kate played cello, she's a good player with a strong classical background I believe. Dan played what is called a Veena Bambina - an instrument he built himself out of a large PVC tube with a single string on the outside. Alot of variety from a simple instrument.

Despite the cold snap in Baltimore there was a good turnout, and when I played my set I felt that the audience was there to listen and had no preconceptions - which is a great thing. I felt very comfortable with my set and thought it was one of the best performances of the tour. The quartet set was fun - we played two longer improvisations - I used both saxophone and laptop. The only thing I wanted to take back was at the end of each I and Dan were still playing and I prematurely turned off the output sound of the laptop - should of extended the endings....


Thanks to Samuel Burt for the hospitality, and thanks to Devin Hurd for this posting:

http://hurdaudio.blogspot.com/2007/12/shelton-from-storm.html

Columbia December 14, 2007

Stayed an extra day in Asheville to visit some family and went down to Columbia on early friday afternoon. Got into town and went looking for sweaters at thrift stores with Ross - even though it was warm enough there that they were unnecessary. on this day my tour was crossing with the Engines tour - Dave Rempis, TIm Daisy, Jeb Bishop and Nate McBride. We shared a bill at the School of Music at the University of South Caroline in this super nice recital room that featured a gigantic pipe organ. The crowd showed up pretty much on time - and I played first. Tim Simmons brought the PA for me to use and as I got into the louder part of my set - which is a drone based on overblown low-tones - i noticed these kids (actual kids) in the first row covering their ears - sorry bout that one kids. I had some technical issues with this set and realized that I needed to change some things in my patch to make certain things easier to access. I want to get to the point that I can change parameters with no more than three movements on the keyboard - a tough task. The Engines set was very good - they all contribute pieces and all the arrangements combine different sections and feels - a good band for sure.

Asheville December 12, 2007

drove down from lexington - a five hour trip - got into town in the late afternoon, hard to find a parking spot in asheville these days. went to a coffee shop - izzy's - waited there until meeting up with shane perlowin at the bobo gallery around 6. the show was going to be three sets - one by his trio Mind vs. Target, my solo set and then one with all of us as a quartet playing some of their music, and some of mine. I brought two tunes played by the Ton Trio - the Old Way and Internal Frame. We had a short rehearsal at six to check out the music - well, Shane, Joseph and I did - Michael, the drummer, wasn't able to come - but, later on he filled in perfectly, picking up on the pacing of my two things quickly.The show was good - people starting showing up around 9. I felt good about my set, I allowed things to take their time and develop. The quartet set was good times - Shane, Joseph and Michael are all real good listeners as well as players - we didn't let the improvisations go on for too long, they didn't fall too far away from the feel of the tunes they were a part of. After hanging at the Bobo for a while longer we ended up going to Shane friend's house for the ending of a holiday party - lots of sugary snacks were there along with a member of Negativland who lives in Asheville. a good time - special thanks to Shane and Brad from the Bobo Gallery

Lexington December 11, 2007

Drove down from Chicago to Lexington - six hour drive, the same distance from Oakland to LA. Going through Indianapolis the rain was hardest, but then the temperature rose about 30 degrees, from 35 to 65.....got out of Chicago right before a promised ice storm that I don't think really happened.
So I played down here at the Icehouse, the big space run by Ross Compton. I always like playing in Lexington, people are interested in creative music, the crowds that come are listening crowds, not talkers. There were two other short sets, one guitar player with some electronics - some processing, some playback; and a fellow, Jason _____ who used a canvas as an interface with contact mics to manipulate video and create audio that he then processed further. I played through four speakers, though in mono. I set up the speakers in a half circle stretching out towards the audience in an attempt to fill up the space (a large one with very high ceilings) with sound. I think I got there during one section. I felt like I got off the game plan a little bit this night - a couple things threw me off and my pacing wasn't where it should be. A goal with this music is to let it take it's time and develop, and not rush it through. The show was done early, Ross and I talked for awhile, it was good - sometimes I feel like I get in and out of town without having a chance to talk to him - glad this time was different.

Chicago December 7th and 8th, 2007

It's called a practice gig - usually the first time a band plays the music all together - that's when things get internalized, mistakes are made but then corrected by the players without having to discuss them. That's pretty much what happened on Saturday night at Heaven - I flew into town on Friday and had a rehearsal with Josh Berman, Jason Roebke, Jeff Parker and Frank Rosaly - I had brought the Flockterkit music to have them play. Seeing as Roebke and Rosaly were in the original lineup of Flockterkit it made sense to have them play in the group again. Now that the music is more robust than it was a few years ago, adding Berman and Parker were good choices.
We had a three hour rehearsal on friday, going over the charts and even working on Peltep, with electronics. During the practice the electronics were interacting well with the group, and I was satisfied with having two speakers, though it would be ideal to have four. It seemed like in the space a quad set-up wouldn't necessarily be effective, as the room is wider than it is long - in about a two to one ratio. The night of the show at Heaven, Saturday, we weren't able to sound check, as there was a show going on at Enemy and we were going to use their PA once that ended. That ended up being important.
Jason Roebke and Ayako Kato performed as Art Union Humanscape along with Josh Berman. The group, which focuses on small gestures by the musicians and free flowing movement by Ayako, has been developing their style as a trio - it was very good, they used the dimensions of the space to their advantage, Ayako using the bodies of Jason and Josh in someways like obstacles to move around, her movement was much more active than I had seen before. Compared to times I've seen them in the past there was more music to be heard - a result of the addition of a second musical instrument.
So the Chicago version of Flockterkit played second, and though there were moments, it was definitely a run-through for Sunday night at the Hungry Brain - the one piece I regret that it didn't go better was Peltep - the lack of the sound check really made the electronics a non-entity in the the piece, the interaction wasn't happening as it should. Our set at the Brain went very well. The timing of the music was right on - the playing was great. Having a different set of musicians play the music was a good experience, hearing the different interpretation was valuable.
I played my first solo set of this tour at the Brain as well. Using the pieces I've created as basics of the set, I felt that I was able to flow from section to section and have multiple layers of sound happening at almost all times - even though I had heard the PA was not so good, I was able to get the sounds out of it that I wanted.