we played a show, we played with amelia royko


on saturday night, we braved the elements and found ourselves crammed onto a little stage in madison's "willy street" community. namely, at mother fool's which i guess has been voted the best coffeehouse for live music in madison. i can attest, this saturday it truly was.

we got there early. scott helped me get the stage cleared and set up. we moved tables, chairs, plants, and put up the PA, the piano, and set our chairs for the rest of us. there was barely a foot of floorspace between each of us--we really crammed onto the stage. jesse found his way there, followed by emily and kara. we had time enough to do a sound check before amelia royko came up and did a sound check. then we were informed that she was opening for us, so we all found seats in the rapidly filling shop.

amelia put on a great show with just herself and her guitar. she is a wonderful singer-songwriter and i hope we get to see her again. she said several times that she was looking forward to hearing us play, so that was nice. i'm not sure if, afterwards, she felt like it was worth the wait.

anyway, she played for an hour or so, then we took the stage and rocked through a set of neo-folk noise. jesse droned, emily and kara stringed, jessica played piano, scott thrummed the bass, and i kept time with acoustic guitar and swaying. everything sounded good despite a few missed notes and forgotten lyrics. it was cold outside, but inside the warmth of the music spread from the front of the building to the back. some folks left during our set, but quite a few stayed. alas, this was mostly amelia's crowd--older, artistic-looking people--and i'm not sure if they knew what to do with us. i can't imagine a better crowd, though. they were very polite and quiet and gave us full attention.

our last two songs, "hello, hospital" and "magnets and mediums", were the most powerful of the evening. jesse's guitar theatrics added the perfect amount of drama and tension to our set.

so now it's on to chicago. we're storming the gates at 8!

steev

because it's friday and i love you

well this has been a slow day. i'm in the midst of one of my creative down times--wanting to write new songs but not having time or energy to do it. will there be practice this sunday at the coffin factory? who knows? no one from the band ever e-mails me back.

kara our violaist is coming back to the area soon and is interested in playing with us again. that would make 7 people in the band. i don't know yet who is playing on the 27th at mother fool's, but it'll probably look like this:

steev, acoustic guitar
scott, bass
emily, cello
jessica, piano
jesse, guitar and banjo
kara, viola

we'll be playing mostly "solo" material--the more folk-oriented stuff--with a few TIC songs thrown in. amelia royko is opening for us. she is an award-winning singer-songwriter from madison. i'm a little nervous about that because we have not won any awards.

steev

this month's blog reveals some rather interesting things--

the new kentucky quarter opened at the new moon last friday night. the guitarist blew an amp, then when i let him use mine, he said it was not loud enough. so i guess i need a louder amp. but they were very good--a singer/songwriterly americana-leaning bunch--i only wish they could have played a bit longer and not had the equipment problems. we will play a show with them again, probably not until late winter or early spring of 2005. so then this jazz band comes up--burt klein and the jazz vampyr arkestra. don't get me wrong, i like to laugh at ironic pop-culture references like the rest of the kids. just don't get me wrong. this band was costume-wearing, joke-spoutin', bass/piano/drums jazz. they didn't get finished until after 10pm, which leaves us to set up our crap and attempt to get our levels mixed right. anyway, we played until after 11:30 and the venue was only open until 11. sorry kids.

we sold some cds and made some new friends. our next show is november 27 at mother fool's in madison. this is a drummerless show, but will be a good time to come and listen to the music and lyrics and drink some fine coffee.

steev