Month: May 2003

It’s bad enough when you get screwed on a local gig (hasn’t happened to me in forever, if ever, but that’s easy when you play for next to nothing), but when you’re traveling it stinks. When you bring a busload of fans, it reeks.

After a final check on the bands to make sure the buses were on the road…we began our trip to Philadelphia. The buses left at 4 PM as we were told that load in was at 6:30, with four bands playing. The bands arrived prior to us and were prepared to load in on time. Imagine my surprise when I receive a panicked phone call from two bands sitting there with charter buses…because the venue had a sign on the door “CLOSED TONIGHT.” (However, posted beside the door is the schedule with the two bands names on it!) I made multiple calls to the venue and the booking agent. I got the voice mail for the booking agent…and for the venue owners I got a message that said “mailbox full.” Meanwhile, a cop strolls by and informs the bands that it had just happened a few nights before to four other bands. They got to sit in the rain and he didn’t think the bar ever opened that night!

Read the rest of this band’s ordeal with the Pontiac Grille

This just in – BECK will be playing the Electric Factory on Thursday June 5, 2003. I realize that by mentioning it here it increases the chances of it being sold out before I can buy tickets at 10:00AM this Saturday. I’m willing to take that risk, because I figure I like at least half of the people who read this site and that will bring more cool people to the show.

Buy tickets here.

I haven’t been to the Crab in ages, but I went last night because I heard Justin and Kevin were going to be there. The new guys who run the open mic now are pretty cool and seem interested in getting the sound right, which is a huge plus. I played “99%,”I Hope I Die on the Moon,” Nirvana’s “Serve the Servants,” “The Genius of it All,” and “Why Now Satan.”

I spent last weekend in the midwest for my Uncle’s wedding and I thought I avoided all the horrible weather.

doh!

I added a software category to the downloads section for programs I’ve written over the last few years. The three programs in there so far are Crazyball, a neat C++/DirectX demo with balls bouncing everywhere, Nuclear Beach Party, a game written in x86 Assembly where you must destroy the sun, and Sphere Renderer, a 3D sphere rendering program in Visual Basic.

You can download them here.

I forgot to mention John Shaughnessy’s gig a little while back at the Collingswood Farmer’s Market. I meant to, but I kept putting it off and now it’s over. He posted a recap of his $19.00 gig on a cold Saturday morning.

“When the Nor’easter passing through threatened to call it off I wasa little let down. But there was no more rain in the morning so the show went on. It was cold as HELL, but at least the sky had stopped leaking.”

Read the rest here.

There’s a great article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the growing under 21 music scene. They play in churches, community centers, VFW halls, and anywhere else. I’ve heard of a handful of the bands they mentioned.

All across the South Jersey and Pennsylvania suburbs, unlikely venues have become home to a thriving do-it-yourself music scene driven by kids in fledgling groups with names such as No Regrets, Jersey Calling, Missing Tomorrow, Break of Day, Six Foot Smurf, and A Modest Promise. Most of the band members are high school age, with some in their early 20s and some who are middle schoolers. These musicians have their own Web sites and write their own songs. Some have even raised the cash to record CDs.

Churches are popular venues because they have good-sized halls and often charge little or no rent. St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Springfield, Delaware County, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Malvern, and Grace Episcopal Church in Merchantville, to name a few, have all had concerts.

Bands have also played Pennsylvania YMCAs, firehouses in both states, coffeehouses, skate parks, even an Italian social club in West Chester. A few have landed gigs at the Pontiac Grille and Theater of the Living Arts, both on South Street.

When I was in high school South Jersey had the following options for bands –
1. Play at someone’s party
2. Plat at Down to Earth in Mt. Holly
3. Play at the Daily Grind in Browns Mills

Sounds like things are a lot better now. (found via More Boom in the Room)

Formerly known as the Living Room, the Tree House emailed me today and said they are definitely bringing back the open mic. Interestingly enough, the Christian open mics stayed open because the Christians agreed to work for free.

“the only reason why christian night stayed is because a few of us worked for free to keep the nights going

we will be bringing the open mic night back….We have a 4,000 dollar sound system that we just installed today and it is going to be a place for everyone….better food, atmosphere, and pretty much everything else. Its going to be up and ready in about 5 days I will keep you posted when open mic starts, within a week” – Matt of the Tree House

Sounds good to me. If I find anything else out, I’ll mention it.

Local band Phoenix Rise had to deal with losing their practice area when a nearby room was found to be housing a meth lab.

We were lucky enough to find a room in an industrial park in the northeast. It was a second floor loft and a comfortable size. but there were soo many windows that the heat we did have went right out in the winter. We got nailed with like a $290 heating bill trying to heat the whole thing so we had to rig a curtain and move the equipment beind that so we’d only have to heat part of the room and in the summer, heat rises… we were all in pretty good shape last summer! then the unbelievable happened.

We show up for practice and the entire building has been quarantined. DEA, police, and 10 other organizations had the building surrounded. TUrns out some guys were running a meth lab in a few of the rooms downstairs. we were locked out with out equipment for 3 1/2 weeks. finally we were able to get in and grab enough equipment to be able to gig and rehearse and we moved into a room at Ground Control Studios. Eventually after about 2 months of BS we were able to move into another room in the complex and it is slightly smaller but 10x better sound wise and comfort wise. this time it’s a basement office so we should be spared this summer.

Singer-songwriters don’t have these problems since we can usually play anywhere, but other bands are discussing it over at Origivation.

I know every time I see Adrien and her band play I rave about how great they are, but they were terrific last night. The last time I saw them was at 3 Beans in Haddonfield and the superiority of Grape Street’s sound system was impressive. Adrien’s voice sounded great, and the band sounded very balanced and extremely tight.

As you can see on my “Current” box to the left, I’m listening to their 5 track debut CD. Missing from the album is my favorite Reju song, Kaleidoscope, and I hope they plan to record it soon.

I ran into a few people I hadn’t seen in a while last night including Melissa, Jen, and Greg Dress, who is currently looking for a bass player after his previous one left to work for everyone’s favorite monopoly.

Tomorrow night you should defnitely check out the Reju CD release party at the Grape Street Pub. The band is fronted by my friend Adrien Reju, who I’ve mentioned a million times on this site. She’s really talented and writes terrific songs, and I’m sure you’ll be impressed. They go on first which usually tranlsates into a 9:00PM start. Three and 1/2 Stars, Polar Creep, and the Jesse Shurr Band go on later.