Life is good, the SRSS experience is over and we went out like champions. That's all you can ask for and the champions is like whip cream on a blueberry pie. Speaking of pies and toppings, my mother use to always say "a pie without cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze"... I kind of always thought of that as nonsense, and believed it was all about the ice cream, but later I learned a good apple pie with a slice of old cheddar does have a particular brilliance to it.
You see in my own mind, months ago i thought "nobody will want to come to a show over the holidays so I'll just give a talk about the pro's and con's of the SRSS to nobody and it will be, as a whole a pretty neat piece of art". Kind of Monty Pythonesque... giving a talk on something nobody really cares about to nobody... but really getting in to it... making those points, and then asking for questions. Ahh the dream sequences...
But of course i got busy, 3 kids, full time job, 2 hockey teams, this albatross, and of course i never properly prepared. Well i did lie awake at night, or in the morning for that matter making points, in mumble form, to my pillow robbing me of needed sleep... if it wasn't this then it would be something else. But another amazing thing happened... it was like that movie "field of dreams"... people just came, they came to play, they came to be there... it was an actual event!
The band, people who i have collected, by the fate of making music, were going over chord changes before the show, I'm sure because they heard about the seminar, and knew that any seminar given at the SRSS can be done over music... its a solid law, much like the first law of thermodynamics, which of course states that energy cannot be created or destroyed it just moves from one form to another. It's the energy management of the SRSS that is the real trick... i speak in terms of band energy... if we were a band in the sense of a band that had a band mission statement there would be so much energy going into friction, persuasion and totally inappropriate assumptions that there would be little energy left for playing.
so it was like: this is a chance to play lets kick it:
Probably one of the more stressful moments for SR... a promise of wisdom, a good groove and a deer in the headlights imitation... i reached inside and tried to remember all the things i had thought about, and i remembered some of them, and i think i stayed on topic for the most part. The key thing was a few points were made we sounded good musically and we got out of the bastard before it got too old. That's the one thing people have a hard time doing... shut this down and do something else... keep the show moving. I learned that in a number of ways but the key one that was the fang that burst the bubble was after i published my paper "The Lynx Paw Courier", and all i heard was that the articles were too long... people don't have time for that, and then 24 hours came out and people were reading fresh copy after fresh copy. Now I'm not saying one should give people swill rather give them what you think quality in a format that is recognizable... but rather a little of the old in and out if you know what i mean.
******* KEY POINT **********************
I'm a way off the deadline and have forgotten much of what i felt, or the views from my perspective. Because it was the last show i thought i could really deliver one KING HELL blogaroo, but of course by not adhering to the deadline i did nothing, and now i sit among packed boxes wondering why i fell into the trap again. Much like all the big events i tried to do that just suffered from the differential of my dream state and my reality state.
Lets face it... I'm a supper show kind of guy... know your shit, have some skills and hit it unprepared over and over again. It's like moving... are you ready for the big moving day... no fucking way, shit's all over the place... but can you live with it? Sure no problem, it's only stuff, recovering from disaster is my strong suit... I go down with my ships, but I'm a marathon swimmer, so I'll find shore again build another ship, until a high rock and a low tide causes a new predicament.
All in all it was a great era, great highs, mind boggling lows and much real love from many fine people. When the going gets weird the weird turn pro is one of my hero said (H.S.T), and to adapt that to our city we could say When the no fun city gets no fun like, fuck it, have fun anyway... in the end it's your life, who cares what "the establishment" is looking for, they just want your money anyway, don't give them your spirit. Laugh hard and carry a big stick, and don't be afraid to use it, do unto others before they get a chance to undo to you... OK OK just being silly here.
Wishing Machine with Jack Freelance:
He got all the words right, which is king hell as far as I'm concerned... great job singing as well, but delivering and leading the song to it's proper place... that's teamwork. Wasn't even sure he was going to be there, but he came and he came correct... well done sport!
The Voters choice:
How bout that egg shake by Billy Johnson!
The Recurring Hurrah:
Johnny Wildkat finds his bass line in a few passes... the one he made up in the studio on the fly during the recording of the CD "One Little Dream"... when memory and ears work together.
Never Wanted to be Anyone:
The classic 21 tandem repeats theme song "I never wanted to be anyone I just want to be like myself" with Wildkat bass solo, and powered by the vocals of Sandra Bouza.
Mr Greenie:
Wildkat leads on bass after not playing the song for 2 years... SR does 60 push ups and 60 sit ups, 20 of them up on the street.
Dish Pig:
King Hell save by Christopher Johnson at the end of the song... or last song, almost went out on a train wreck but instead when out as listening musicians. Classic WB guitar solo, grand boogie piano by Jason Jones, total pro drumming by Shockk and a great lesson by Sandra Bouza. What is the lesson? It has to do with bands and people and parts... Fire-Man had a nice part repeating the dish pig that became part of the song... which you can actually hear the audience doing, so the part has been absorbed into the culture of the night. But Sandra missed those years and did what she did and at that part sang "I must be going crazy" in a most excellent fashion. Sometimes in crews when roles and parts are established you can miss the opportunity to reinvent songs and their nuances
Bent:
a good song to hit early... let people find their groove... get Sandra singing... good sharp ending by Shockk "the leader" on drums... don't let it go on too long, i believe we talked about that earlier.
On frozen Pond:
An ode to growing up in Canada before global warming destroyed the opportunity of pond hockey for the community... no worries you can always watch the made for TV NHL special around New Years to get your "modern" dose of Pond Hockey... and you can tweet about that one.
Round of solos for all
1st star- audience clapping solo
2nd star- Tambourine solo
3rd star- Sandra Scat solo
Thanks to everybody for being there and participating
that's it, cat's ass, no more
SR
OK one more thing, since we are a community and all i think somebody should have checked to see if the camera was framing the band properly... that said the right person got cut out of frame.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
December 21 re-cap
GoGo Bonkers, not Gongo Bonkers opened up the night... I hate it when i get a name wrong... such a simple thing to check and get right... but i failed.
GoGo Bonkers was set to play in November but there was a conflict where they received a paying gig so i threw them into this night... unfortunately there were many things set to happen so they only played for 13.5 minutes... but they took it like pros did their thing, and what a good thing it was. I was delivering mail the next day singing "green slime", although i didn't have the harmonies down like they did:
Next up was Chris Rzepa, a Vancouver cellist and scene builder herself. She had a looping pedal and set up some loops and played to them and then sang over them... very delicate and brilliant. I was sitting in the back with Rob from "Devilsplender" trying to enjoy the show while a couple of dudes were talking loudly over the show... i felt conflict. I believe i was barking on about stage volume and audience respect last week, and truth be told i have seen this shit for a long fucking time and in my heart i was just like... "enough is enough"... so panicked, nervous and conflicted i went up to the table and in my most polite manor asked the gentlemen if they would mind moving to the back room where their conversation would be less disturbing to the performance that was happening. they looked at me incredulously and suggested i move closer to the stage so they wouldn't be between myself and this apparent performer that it seemed so fucking important for me to be able to hear... i tried to re-explain but there was nothing... apparently they were done anyway and they left but they made sure to let me know that i was way out of line.
Oddly enough a few weeks ago... after the 30th show there was improv acting crew and i was at the back and king Dinosaur was telling stories and a lady came up and told king Dino that his voice was a very dominant presence in the room so we immediately moved to the back... it is what it is. You know people do things, and it's one thing to not listen but it is another thing to put up competition for sound waves... and believe it or not i think most people might want to catch the performance than rather hear about what happened between you and your co-worker and why you feel crossed by their actions.
After they left some patrons thanked me saying "I didn't realize how much that was annoying me"... It is an unfortunate part of the Vancouver Music scene... almost like an irremovable culture... one that i will not miss.
Chris Rzepa was was solid on the loops, killer on the melody, and sang like an angle... and then Shawn Killaly joined her and put on a clinic himself:
Next up it was the 21 Tandem Repeats collective marked by the return of Alvaro Rojas on bass... forgot what a treat that is! He really is a Bobby Orr type player... solid defensively on the bass but yet easily able to shift into offence with a quick bass run and then back patrolling the blue line holding it all together. Shawn Killaly on drums never hurts of course, neither does Sandra Bouza singing, finding spots and harmonies like she has heard the songs a hundred times. First time 21 tandem repeats had Cello, and Chris Rzepa was totally solid... did i mention Johnny Wildkat and Willingdon Black on twin guitars. Kind of going out with a line of Division 1 hockey players for a division 8 game... total control, good passing collecting your own rebounds.
We had decided to play "Hey Rock's Living room" before the show and Super Steve and Willingdon Black were going over some old western Hockey league trivia book... there was mention that it might be a good idea for anybody answering and questions to know some Portland Buckaroos trivia... i snatched the book out of Super Steve's hands and tried to remember that "In 1960, Portland was granted a franchise in the minor league Western Hockey League (WHL) for its newly-built 10,500 seat Memorial Coliseum, and the Buckaroos name was reincarnated. The new Buckaroos were composed mostly of players and coaches from the New Westminster Royals, including its head coach Hal Laycoe. The Buckaroos went on to beat the Seattle Totems in the league championship and win the Lester Patrick Cup in its first season of existence.That 1960–61 Buckaroos team was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
But that proved to much so i made sure that WB was too far away from a mic and that he would have to shout questions to Sandra who had never heard the song before and in the chaos i would slip the noose of being embarrassed by those who carry themselves as Western hockey trivia elitists. I wonder if Harper would know this stuff? The press releases say he has an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey, but the press release might just say that to make him feel Canadian to the average consumer... i mean voter. Hard to know for sure but you know it's bad when you are doing a song and wondering if Harper could help you:
We also did that hockey song written by that nobody:
King Hell thanks to GoGo Bonkers for letting us use their bass amp and guitar rig and Rob for doing sound when Johnny was pulled from the soundboard and on to Ian's guitar rig.
Tomorrow is the last Super Robertson Supper show for sure... I know there has been some confusion... i kind of did the last "big one", on November 30 cause i knew we had a good band and i also knew that December is a very busy month haunted with all kinds of sickness, obligations and debauchery... so i didn't want to try to rally the troops at such a time, but it appears that the troops have rallied themselves and we have a good crew coming out to play tomorrow... Oh yea i was going to give a seminar on how to run a SRSS... i do have some notes... and at a supper show you can always improvise something over improvised music... as the sound man from the old Malcolm Lowery room use to say... "It doesn't matter nobody is listening anyways."
GoGo Bonkers was set to play in November but there was a conflict where they received a paying gig so i threw them into this night... unfortunately there were many things set to happen so they only played for 13.5 minutes... but they took it like pros did their thing, and what a good thing it was. I was delivering mail the next day singing "green slime", although i didn't have the harmonies down like they did:
Next up was Chris Rzepa, a Vancouver cellist and scene builder herself. She had a looping pedal and set up some loops and played to them and then sang over them... very delicate and brilliant. I was sitting in the back with Rob from "Devilsplender" trying to enjoy the show while a couple of dudes were talking loudly over the show... i felt conflict. I believe i was barking on about stage volume and audience respect last week, and truth be told i have seen this shit for a long fucking time and in my heart i was just like... "enough is enough"... so panicked, nervous and conflicted i went up to the table and in my most polite manor asked the gentlemen if they would mind moving to the back room where their conversation would be less disturbing to the performance that was happening. they looked at me incredulously and suggested i move closer to the stage so they wouldn't be between myself and this apparent performer that it seemed so fucking important for me to be able to hear... i tried to re-explain but there was nothing... apparently they were done anyway and they left but they made sure to let me know that i was way out of line.
Oddly enough a few weeks ago... after the 30th show there was improv acting crew and i was at the back and king Dinosaur was telling stories and a lady came up and told king Dino that his voice was a very dominant presence in the room so we immediately moved to the back... it is what it is. You know people do things, and it's one thing to not listen but it is another thing to put up competition for sound waves... and believe it or not i think most people might want to catch the performance than rather hear about what happened between you and your co-worker and why you feel crossed by their actions.
After they left some patrons thanked me saying "I didn't realize how much that was annoying me"... It is an unfortunate part of the Vancouver Music scene... almost like an irremovable culture... one that i will not miss.
Chris Rzepa was was solid on the loops, killer on the melody, and sang like an angle... and then Shawn Killaly joined her and put on a clinic himself:
Next up it was the 21 Tandem Repeats collective marked by the return of Alvaro Rojas on bass... forgot what a treat that is! He really is a Bobby Orr type player... solid defensively on the bass but yet easily able to shift into offence with a quick bass run and then back patrolling the blue line holding it all together. Shawn Killaly on drums never hurts of course, neither does Sandra Bouza singing, finding spots and harmonies like she has heard the songs a hundred times. First time 21 tandem repeats had Cello, and Chris Rzepa was totally solid... did i mention Johnny Wildkat and Willingdon Black on twin guitars. Kind of going out with a line of Division 1 hockey players for a division 8 game... total control, good passing collecting your own rebounds.
We had decided to play "Hey Rock's Living room" before the show and Super Steve and Willingdon Black were going over some old western Hockey league trivia book... there was mention that it might be a good idea for anybody answering and questions to know some Portland Buckaroos trivia... i snatched the book out of Super Steve's hands and tried to remember that "In 1960, Portland was granted a franchise in the minor league Western Hockey League (WHL) for its newly-built 10,500 seat Memorial Coliseum, and the Buckaroos name was reincarnated. The new Buckaroos were composed mostly of players and coaches from the New Westminster Royals, including its head coach Hal Laycoe. The Buckaroos went on to beat the Seattle Totems in the league championship and win the Lester Patrick Cup in its first season of existence.That 1960–61 Buckaroos team was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
But that proved to much so i made sure that WB was too far away from a mic and that he would have to shout questions to Sandra who had never heard the song before and in the chaos i would slip the noose of being embarrassed by those who carry themselves as Western hockey trivia elitists. I wonder if Harper would know this stuff? The press releases say he has an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey, but the press release might just say that to make him feel Canadian to the average consumer... i mean voter. Hard to know for sure but you know it's bad when you are doing a song and wondering if Harper could help you:
We also did that hockey song written by that nobody:
King Hell thanks to GoGo Bonkers for letting us use their bass amp and guitar rig and Rob for doing sound when Johnny was pulled from the soundboard and on to Ian's guitar rig.
Tomorrow is the last Super Robertson Supper show for sure... I know there has been some confusion... i kind of did the last "big one", on November 30 cause i knew we had a good band and i also knew that December is a very busy month haunted with all kinds of sickness, obligations and debauchery... so i didn't want to try to rally the troops at such a time, but it appears that the troops have rallied themselves and we have a good crew coming out to play tomorrow... Oh yea i was going to give a seminar on how to run a SRSS... i do have some notes... and at a supper show you can always improvise something over improvised music... as the sound man from the old Malcolm Lowery room use to say... "It doesn't matter nobody is listening anyways."
Monday, December 19, 2011
A Spectre was blasting the Railway Club
From the boys themselves-
After the show one of them members asked me if they lived up to the "ace freak show" billing? I said that they had and it was mentioned that they are not usually that self deprecating... which was odd seeing that their review of their summer show started "Our first live show in two years went off like slightly damp firecrackers in a rented paper bag..."
Who can tell anything anymore... at the show on the 30th there happened to be a woman from the garden who got called out for inadequate watering and happened to read about it in the S. Robertson Man Gardening Blog and was perhaps a slight bit offended... apparently certain blogs have been known to bite... from time to time. Never be hurt by the truth, the truth is your ally, the truth needs to be circled like a prey and eaten, digested and absorbed.
So what about the show?
You want the truth?.. Can you handle the truth?
The band was really good, Wildkat loved them, Tyz loved them, Super Steve was diggin' it, some people came to see "the gig" that the band didn't know because they heard about it and liked the band.
On the negative side they emptied a room full of people hanging out... who moved to the back, but it was mentioned by one server that the band is driving away customers. The rock and roller says "fuck it... you don't like it fuck off", but the supper show kingpin says " A SRSS is about playing to the audience that is there".
A number of factors have me saying the word "meh"
1) I'm fucking out of here in a few weeks
2) Last time a band blasted a room clear it really bothered me and i tried to resolve it, but nothing was heard... as we say in the business, "it is what it is". Know what you can control and live with what you can't.
3) It was billed as a gig... i kind of saw it coming, but as John Candy said, or his character said in the movie "The Blues Brothers" ... "Now hold on I haven't even seen these guys play... alright"
I found it... It's the looking over the glasses on the "alright" that kills me.
Now again i feel sidetracked... Just spent some time watching John Candy clips on Youtube... Where was i? I think i was dancing around the idea that in my version of a perfect world it is totally unacceptable to play high volume at a Supper Show... you want to play nice and quiet so all the fucking ass holes can talk over your whole set... the dilemma. I go for low volume cause i like my hearing... it seems insane that people who go into music because apparently they love music and end up going deaf as a result. Very human... full of spirit but yet dumb as a post.
For Wednesday December 21 2011:
We have Gogo Bonkers, Chris Rzepa, and a retro 21 Tandem repeats line up featuring Shawn Killaly, Willingdon Black, Alvaro Rojas and Super Robertson... perhaps more...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
December 7 re-cap
The Last Super Robertson Supper Show done by Cam and Jesse under my watch… and the time was ten to eight, Brian and his lovely wife all finished their dinner and NO FUCKING MUSIC!
But hey things happen, we are all imperfect… no point going to town over this issue and ruffling feathers blasting ultimatums and such. The good news was there was no Super Steve, because he would have been looking at me and then looking at his watch and then insinuating that there is a clear leadership issue going on that is bringing peril to the SRSS in general. Have no fear... peril is coming to the SRSS, or perhaps it will finally take off once it looses it's human anvil.
In the end the world didn't stop, the beer didn't turn into arsenic water, bats didn't fly into the club shooting lasers decapitating the patrons… No no, Cam and Jesse just played a Supper Show, it was just a bit shorter, and considering a lot of the songs had words changed to things like Super Robinson and xx-censored-xxx , perhaps a shorter set was in order… what the good doctor ordered as a matter of fact.
Actually Cam and Jesse were really (as we say in Vancouver) "pumping my tires", while Shawn Killaly and myself heckled from the back… good times.
I requested the song "Wake up, Wake up" by Jesse Matheson which always reminds me of a song called "Movie life" which gets played on the radio a lot... i know i heard the Jesse Matheson song a few years before the other... very similar... hit song:
I played the Dave Hind number "Jupiter" after chickening out of giving the Cam Owens song that i have been working on called "None of these things mean that much anymore" a try. Truth be told I wasn't actually thinking of playing... i was tired and only went down to keep my streak alive. But the boys gave me a fine tribute... that was the "pumping the tires" bit i mentioned earlier, so i couldn't pass. In good Cam and Jesse SRSS fashion i forgot the song and had to take a restart...
On Wednesday December 14 2011 we have A Spectre Is Haunting Europe:
Best quote i have about them is from the Mule "ace freakshow"... I love it!
http://www.facebook.com/events/284763774884948/
But hey things happen, we are all imperfect… no point going to town over this issue and ruffling feathers blasting ultimatums and such. The good news was there was no Super Steve, because he would have been looking at me and then looking at his watch and then insinuating that there is a clear leadership issue going on that is bringing peril to the SRSS in general. Have no fear... peril is coming to the SRSS, or perhaps it will finally take off once it looses it's human anvil.
In the end the world didn't stop, the beer didn't turn into arsenic water, bats didn't fly into the club shooting lasers decapitating the patrons… No no, Cam and Jesse just played a Supper Show, it was just a bit shorter, and considering a lot of the songs had words changed to things like Super Robinson and xx-censored-xxx , perhaps a shorter set was in order… what the good doctor ordered as a matter of fact.
Actually Cam and Jesse were really (as we say in Vancouver) "pumping my tires", while Shawn Killaly and myself heckled from the back… good times.
I requested the song "Wake up, Wake up" by Jesse Matheson which always reminds me of a song called "Movie life" which gets played on the radio a lot... i know i heard the Jesse Matheson song a few years before the other... very similar... hit song:
I played the Dave Hind number "Jupiter" after chickening out of giving the Cam Owens song that i have been working on called "None of these things mean that much anymore" a try. Truth be told I wasn't actually thinking of playing... i was tired and only went down to keep my streak alive. But the boys gave me a fine tribute... that was the "pumping the tires" bit i mentioned earlier, so i couldn't pass. In good Cam and Jesse SRSS fashion i forgot the song and had to take a restart...
On Wednesday December 14 2011 we have A Spectre Is Haunting Europe:
Best quote i have about them is from the Mule "ace freakshow"... I love it!
http://www.facebook.com/events/284763774884948/
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
November 30 Re-Cap
I just uploaded the videos for the night, and i think i can say we stomped some balls. I had a great time, perhaps because i aborted my attempt to try to do a high quality video with audience interviews and all... that's the kind of thing that surely would have thrown me into a classic Robertson "Failure" complex. For the record I think I have mined some good material out of the failure concept... Hobbs once said that "Failure" and "Wishing machine" are the same song looking from opposite sides... i can see that.
I didn't put much effort into putting this show on, besides the 6 years of setting the standard, but for sure it was in the top percentile. As a songwriter first, the elements in need were all in place... King hell drummer (Shawn Killaly), siren singers (Sandra Bouza and Genny Trigo), ace bass and piano players (Christopher Johnson and Jason Jones), overzealous tambourine player (Billie Johnson) and a contingent of volunteer singers from the crowd when needed. There was heavy representation from the V5T postal code, and the word i got was "why didn't i come out to this sooner"... perfect. No Super Steve however, he was flying to Las Vegas the next day... i doubt he made a 100 dollar bet for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup, but you never know. I know he was thinking of betting on L.A last year, but didn't, which turned out to be a good thing for him.
We took a request that i wasn't expecting to play, but hey ask and you shall recieve:
First time i played bass in a long time... I knew it was going well when i saw King Dinosaur by the side of the stage... that's where he goes when it is a real 5 alarm show... when the back bar just ain't cutting it.
Did i mention there was a mosh pit at then end of the night? Not bad for a Super Robertson Supper Show... And then of course we had an english and spanish version of the song "Never wanted to be anyone":
I had the camera set up but it got knocked over on the opening curtain pull so i threw it back up randomly as i was in mid song or early song for that matter... it could have been better, but as we all know i could have been worse.
On Wednesday December 7th 2011, we have the Cam and Jesse Show... they have yet to email me with their plans, but i have yet to remind them to email me. I wouldn't doubt if we saw Santa suits and blue humour.
I didn't put much effort into putting this show on, besides the 6 years of setting the standard, but for sure it was in the top percentile. As a songwriter first, the elements in need were all in place... King hell drummer (Shawn Killaly), siren singers (Sandra Bouza and Genny Trigo), ace bass and piano players (Christopher Johnson and Jason Jones), overzealous tambourine player (Billie Johnson) and a contingent of volunteer singers from the crowd when needed. There was heavy representation from the V5T postal code, and the word i got was "why didn't i come out to this sooner"... perfect. No Super Steve however, he was flying to Las Vegas the next day... i doubt he made a 100 dollar bet for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup, but you never know. I know he was thinking of betting on L.A last year, but didn't, which turned out to be a good thing for him.
We took a request that i wasn't expecting to play, but hey ask and you shall recieve:
First time i played bass in a long time... I knew it was going well when i saw King Dinosaur by the side of the stage... that's where he goes when it is a real 5 alarm show... when the back bar just ain't cutting it.
Did i mention there was a mosh pit at then end of the night? Not bad for a Super Robertson Supper Show... And then of course we had an english and spanish version of the song "Never wanted to be anyone":
I had the camera set up but it got knocked over on the opening curtain pull so i threw it back up randomly as i was in mid song or early song for that matter... it could have been better, but as we all know i could have been worse.
On Wednesday December 7th 2011, we have the Cam and Jesse Show... they have yet to email me with their plans, but i have yet to remind them to email me. I wouldn't doubt if we saw Santa suits and blue humour.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Lets call a spade a spade...
It was a really good time last week @ the SRSS, but there was a certain fuck up I made that i believe should be analyzed and put in print for the world to see. I really shit the bed on the song "Nothing is heard"... one of those ones where some said it will be interesting to hear after... kind of like it would be interesting to watch a hernia surgery... on your own personal abdomen!
Since it was such a failure on my behalf i decided to post it on the Internet:
Classic musician on stage fiasco... I was busy worrying about my guitar picking pattern matching the pocket of the groove... over focusing on it... and then i sang the words at double speed, which opened up a whole series of what we shall call "secondary errors". The good news is that the band was king hell, so, when the leader was self administering the proverbial swirley, we basically sounded OK. So to turn a negative back into a positive, i think we sounded pretty good with me sucking the big one. I don't think i have ever been mistaken as a good singer, but it is very rare for me to get lost in phrasing like that. I'm glad it happened... it's like an attack that penetrated various levels of security from within my "stage mind". The result of course is to go over the things you think you know as an absolute and be aware of various things that can go wrong. One of our strong suits over the years was coming out of a train wreck, or dealing with an improv. I guess that's why the disaster was marginalized... i subliminally improved us into a train wreck and they were like "yea man water off a ducks back".
Should we analyze the version of "On Frozen Pond"? It should be noted that Westworld magazine has on the cover the words "On Frozen Pond" because of course Pond Hockey is making a great cultural come back... apparently. I'm always a few years ahead of the curve:
The interesting part of this one is that after the show certain members of the band asked me what i was thinking during the drum solo when we took a very bizarre turn... they were worried i was annoyed. In my own mind i was thinking "what line am i going to sing when we come out of this and back to the song"... if we come back... i need to make it look natural. For the record i should always go with the Edmonton line... a genesis thing. In my original blog the Super Robertson chronicles that was set inside the Roadbed website i wrote a post about this song, which came to me in a dream in probably summer of 2001. I had gone for one of my patented afternoon naps... one of the ones where you wake up with drool on your face, your arm is asleep and you are wondering what day it is and did you just sleep in for work, but in fact it is just early evening and everything is A OK. I had this dream i was in a classroom and the teacher was playing an auto harp and all the kids were singing "In Edmonton it's the same as it's always been, and i hope the Pond freezes over" and with each recurring turn i moved farther away from the room. I think that's the way it went, you can look it up, if you give a damn about total accuracy... in my mind that's what blogs are for... to capture the reality of the perspective of a moment in time. If you catch me trying to powder coat a post to make myself look good and hide the reality make sure to send an insult my way... perhaps something like "You poorly bearded scene sucking consumer!".
Should we keep analysing? I guess I'm calling the shots and I'm the one who has to wake @ 5:40 am for a savage day of labour, child minding and then the upcoming supper show and piss tank session.
Lets break down One Little Dream:
Total Pro on Willingdon Black for spanking down the guitar parts. I wish i knew and had developed the relationships that i have now way back when when Willingdon Black joined me as the first member of 21 Tandem Repeats, other than myself of course. He took a lot of hard years and showed up the only way he knows how to... correct! The first year of 21 Tandem repeats was basically a duo, we even played on the radio one time as a duo.
There is a certain guitar line i added to this song that I wanted in there that was added it after the recording was done... actually WB played it and of course it then becomes part of his library of song parts on 21tr songs. I do love improv, but part of it is i can't stand to manage people and what they play... but to hear the part i want to hear at the point in the song i want to hear it is a thing of beauty. Never hurts with Shawn Killaly on Drums... Jason Jones, Christopher Johnson and Jan Toren are no slouches either... nice vocal By Jan.
The Voters Choice:
I like this tune... i like it better when Sandra Bouza is singing it with me, but you can't always get what you want EH! I find the song relevant and a smart woman I went to high school with years ago helped me rephrase the opening line while in a facebook chat.
For Wednesday November 30 2011... 21 Tandem Repeats with a full band for a full hour rocks the Super Robertson Supper Show for the last time. Shawn Killaly on drums, Jason Jones on piano, Christopher Johnson on bass, Super R on guitar and Vocals, and Genny Trigo on Vocals... there might be more, you never know what's going to happen when you do a Supper Robertson Supper Show.
Since it was such a failure on my behalf i decided to post it on the Internet:
Classic musician on stage fiasco... I was busy worrying about my guitar picking pattern matching the pocket of the groove... over focusing on it... and then i sang the words at double speed, which opened up a whole series of what we shall call "secondary errors". The good news is that the band was king hell, so, when the leader was self administering the proverbial swirley, we basically sounded OK. So to turn a negative back into a positive, i think we sounded pretty good with me sucking the big one. I don't think i have ever been mistaken as a good singer, but it is very rare for me to get lost in phrasing like that. I'm glad it happened... it's like an attack that penetrated various levels of security from within my "stage mind". The result of course is to go over the things you think you know as an absolute and be aware of various things that can go wrong. One of our strong suits over the years was coming out of a train wreck, or dealing with an improv. I guess that's why the disaster was marginalized... i subliminally improved us into a train wreck and they were like "yea man water off a ducks back".
Should we analyze the version of "On Frozen Pond"? It should be noted that Westworld magazine has on the cover the words "On Frozen Pond" because of course Pond Hockey is making a great cultural come back... apparently. I'm always a few years ahead of the curve:
The interesting part of this one is that after the show certain members of the band asked me what i was thinking during the drum solo when we took a very bizarre turn... they were worried i was annoyed. In my own mind i was thinking "what line am i going to sing when we come out of this and back to the song"... if we come back... i need to make it look natural. For the record i should always go with the Edmonton line... a genesis thing. In my original blog the Super Robertson chronicles that was set inside the Roadbed website i wrote a post about this song, which came to me in a dream in probably summer of 2001. I had gone for one of my patented afternoon naps... one of the ones where you wake up with drool on your face, your arm is asleep and you are wondering what day it is and did you just sleep in for work, but in fact it is just early evening and everything is A OK. I had this dream i was in a classroom and the teacher was playing an auto harp and all the kids were singing "In Edmonton it's the same as it's always been, and i hope the Pond freezes over" and with each recurring turn i moved farther away from the room. I think that's the way it went, you can look it up, if you give a damn about total accuracy... in my mind that's what blogs are for... to capture the reality of the perspective of a moment in time. If you catch me trying to powder coat a post to make myself look good and hide the reality make sure to send an insult my way... perhaps something like "You poorly bearded scene sucking consumer!".
Should we keep analysing? I guess I'm calling the shots and I'm the one who has to wake @ 5:40 am for a savage day of labour, child minding and then the upcoming supper show and piss tank session.
Lets break down One Little Dream:
Total Pro on Willingdon Black for spanking down the guitar parts. I wish i knew and had developed the relationships that i have now way back when when Willingdon Black joined me as the first member of 21 Tandem Repeats, other than myself of course. He took a lot of hard years and showed up the only way he knows how to... correct! The first year of 21 Tandem repeats was basically a duo, we even played on the radio one time as a duo.
There is a certain guitar line i added to this song that I wanted in there that was added it after the recording was done... actually WB played it and of course it then becomes part of his library of song parts on 21tr songs. I do love improv, but part of it is i can't stand to manage people and what they play... but to hear the part i want to hear at the point in the song i want to hear it is a thing of beauty. Never hurts with Shawn Killaly on Drums... Jason Jones, Christopher Johnson and Jan Toren are no slouches either... nice vocal By Jan.
The Voters Choice:
I like this tune... i like it better when Sandra Bouza is singing it with me, but you can't always get what you want EH! I find the song relevant and a smart woman I went to high school with years ago helped me rephrase the opening line while in a facebook chat.
For Wednesday November 30 2011... 21 Tandem Repeats with a full band for a full hour rocks the Super Robertson Supper Show for the last time. Shawn Killaly on drums, Jason Jones on piano, Christopher Johnson on bass, Super R on guitar and Vocals, and Genny Trigo on Vocals... there might be more, you never know what's going to happen when you do a Supper Robertson Supper Show.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
A couple back to back 21 Tandem Repeats shows coming up...
Super R and his crew will be rocking the SRSS this Wednesday and next Wednesday (23rd and the 30th) for probably the last time (Shawn Killaly on drums)... well there might be a little session on December 21 but it's so close to Christmas and i have yet to nail down a drummer for that show... but alas... I can't think to far ahead. Write, drink, chuckle, sleep, wake, bike, work, bike, kid, supper, other kids, eat, skytrain and then SRSS...
Lets not get too far ahead of our protocol here... Last week it was the LFM Horn Orchestra with good old Super R on guitar, but playing it like a bass. I had a pretty good time sitting in the back finding the note of the song and letting er rip. I stomped balls on the song "Aliens" just nailing the main riff in d minor and played 'the cat came back" pretty good too. Of course the comedy of me on stage holding down a song for a horn band when they lyrics to the said song describe how the maker of the horns and his honking nearly put me in the loonie bin. Full circle indeed, now I'm playing for him... but it is easier... one can get away with hitting a lot of bad notes in the horn band... in fact you could spend a whole song trying to find the right thing to play and then after the show have people telly you that you fit in seamlessly. I brought my electric guitar and forgot to put my little recorder in so we have no footage of the show... we definitely had some good moments.
Great story in the SRSS and the LFM: The Moral is that you are not always doing somebody a favour being nice to them, and sometimes a little tough love would be the best response. As you may or may not be aware... "In the beginning... " I had this show and a band and i set out to play songs, involve people, and try to jam a bit. Well there was always one jammer that cast a threat and stormed the stage to add the same C or D or perhaps F "like" honking to stymie and overpower whatever we were doing, as well as alert any other jammers that there was no point trying because the end result is a solid constant. This went on for fucking years, cause I'm a nice person, and i didn't want to harm a friend even though the friend was seriously wounding me, my team, and our will to play. Finally i had to ban him after a series of mind boggling jam spoils... he was angry and it hung heavy in our social circles for like half a year, but then he shook it off and got his band in order learned some cool original tunes and is now a fine strong artistic branch of the SRSS collective and actually has a busier more successful band than myself.
It's a problem i have, constant through my life, i let people do whatever the hell they want and just try to make it work... I come from an insane family of non listeners... apparently I'm insane and what the TV tells you is on the money, otherwise it wouldn't be on TV right? Some people like me for that because there is a sense of freedom, and most people who write songs have exact ideas they need people to reproduce in order for them to be happy. My system can work great but to really optimize it you need to hand pick each person and set them up in a role, which is hard to do in a live show that is making turns left right and center. So long as people can play... have ears, and some chops we can roll for the most part. And you need a really good drummer... don't forget that.
Same story happened with Eric Eyes years ago... terrible improv drummer but wanted to play drums so badly and could sense i was weak and all he had to do was show up and pressure me and he would get a shot... next thing you know you are on stage sucking and you see some people you know walking out perhaps waving at you as to say by by, we came down to see you but clearly you suck, I'll never come again. So i banned Eyes with the same speech and he put something together and came back with a band and played a set, and they did pretty well. I could see it was important to him when he got off stage and he came over and asked if that was OK... yea he done good. They rehearsed and had some songs and played them... improv drumming live is not an easy thing at all... it's fun however.
For the record i still have people that meet me and say "your the guy in that crazy horn band right". If only i could move to a new town and start all over again. Then it's up to me when i meet that talented insane overzealous "want to be involved" person, i become the person who lays a rigid framework to help bring the best out of everybody... or i go soft and suffer another cycle.
Before the show last week Super Steve said to me "I see your Oregon Ducks beat up Stanford last weekend". Super Steve is a classic sports fan a man with the real Tim Russert Philosophy... You cheer for your home town. I remember reading some stories about Tim Russert and how he would phone friends in the middle of the night... should they be working on the wrong coast, because their home town had won a big game, and he was excited for them and wanted to share in their joy.
Speaking of games, i had to jet after last weeks SRSS as the Crown Royals had a game @ 9:30 in North Vancouver... our line put on a clinic racking up 7 goals... I think we won 7-5.
Anyhoo, let's rock tomorrow... did i mention that some woman from the choir i sing in came up to me after choir on Monday and asked me if i was playing with the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn orchestra @ the railway last week... she was there and so was I.
Also if there was any confusion and you were thinking that Classical Revolution was playing this week, they are not. I had booked them but then, as the SRSS goes, things often change and it falls back to me and my crew... which works just great for me in this instance. Odd thing that on this event the Globe and Mail called the Railway club, which then emailed me, to whom i forwarded to my contact... the article has gone to press and we missed a chance to get a supper show a national nod. Another good lesson: you can't choose your audience, and you never know what a show might bring. I know it says in various places on the Internet that Classical Revolution is playing the SRSS tomorrow at the Super Robertson Supper Show, but really I can't change that now. I try to be organized and get the word out, but you can't take things down off the Internet. Not like the old days when a poster you put up on the street would survive a record 3 months and you would get excited every time you would see it thinking what a good thing you did putting it there and having it survive for so long. Now there is enough damming irrevocable evidence of my incompetence on the Internet I'm screwed. My policy was always let the truth sit, but the problem with my policy is that people aren't like me...
A Local Musician named Randy Ponzio disappeared and was found dead last week. Terrible shame, and now many hack news sources are posting youtube videos of him playing that were shot live and have levels peaking out with just plain bad sound, making him appear not as good as he really was. It just got me thinking about what you really want out there... If i died i would rather be linked to a solid version of a good song, but there are clips of me in a woman's dress hitting a cowbell... could cast a different light on my existence.
So for Randy, who i didn't really know to well, lets put this one up:
Good solid stuff and in the end he goes on to preach compassion for the kids involved in the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot. When it happened i thought about myself as a 17 year old caught up in massive disappointment and a mob mentality and how, yes it might have been possible for me to end up in a smashing frenzy. I'm not saying it would have happened for sure, but it is possible i could have got swept up in the festivities, and in the end i turned out to be a good member of society (pay taxes, donate time to neighbourhood improvement, raising 3 responsible, aware children). So perhaps vilifying kids for a moment of insanity and punishing them so severely might not be the best thing for society... given that the people who run society do a lot of pre-meditated damage and all. At the same time, anybody who came to incite riot should spend the rest of their lives in a cell with the shady bankers and war profiteers.
Lets not get too far ahead of our protocol here... Last week it was the LFM Horn Orchestra with good old Super R on guitar, but playing it like a bass. I had a pretty good time sitting in the back finding the note of the song and letting er rip. I stomped balls on the song "Aliens" just nailing the main riff in d minor and played 'the cat came back" pretty good too. Of course the comedy of me on stage holding down a song for a horn band when they lyrics to the said song describe how the maker of the horns and his honking nearly put me in the loonie bin. Full circle indeed, now I'm playing for him... but it is easier... one can get away with hitting a lot of bad notes in the horn band... in fact you could spend a whole song trying to find the right thing to play and then after the show have people telly you that you fit in seamlessly. I brought my electric guitar and forgot to put my little recorder in so we have no footage of the show... we definitely had some good moments.
Great story in the SRSS and the LFM: The Moral is that you are not always doing somebody a favour being nice to them, and sometimes a little tough love would be the best response. As you may or may not be aware... "In the beginning... " I had this show and a band and i set out to play songs, involve people, and try to jam a bit. Well there was always one jammer that cast a threat and stormed the stage to add the same C or D or perhaps F "like" honking to stymie and overpower whatever we were doing, as well as alert any other jammers that there was no point trying because the end result is a solid constant. This went on for fucking years, cause I'm a nice person, and i didn't want to harm a friend even though the friend was seriously wounding me, my team, and our will to play. Finally i had to ban him after a series of mind boggling jam spoils... he was angry and it hung heavy in our social circles for like half a year, but then he shook it off and got his band in order learned some cool original tunes and is now a fine strong artistic branch of the SRSS collective and actually has a busier more successful band than myself.
It's a problem i have, constant through my life, i let people do whatever the hell they want and just try to make it work... I come from an insane family of non listeners... apparently I'm insane and what the TV tells you is on the money, otherwise it wouldn't be on TV right? Some people like me for that because there is a sense of freedom, and most people who write songs have exact ideas they need people to reproduce in order for them to be happy. My system can work great but to really optimize it you need to hand pick each person and set them up in a role, which is hard to do in a live show that is making turns left right and center. So long as people can play... have ears, and some chops we can roll for the most part. And you need a really good drummer... don't forget that.
Same story happened with Eric Eyes years ago... terrible improv drummer but wanted to play drums so badly and could sense i was weak and all he had to do was show up and pressure me and he would get a shot... next thing you know you are on stage sucking and you see some people you know walking out perhaps waving at you as to say by by, we came down to see you but clearly you suck, I'll never come again. So i banned Eyes with the same speech and he put something together and came back with a band and played a set, and they did pretty well. I could see it was important to him when he got off stage and he came over and asked if that was OK... yea he done good. They rehearsed and had some songs and played them... improv drumming live is not an easy thing at all... it's fun however.
For the record i still have people that meet me and say "your the guy in that crazy horn band right". If only i could move to a new town and start all over again. Then it's up to me when i meet that talented insane overzealous "want to be involved" person, i become the person who lays a rigid framework to help bring the best out of everybody... or i go soft and suffer another cycle.
Before the show last week Super Steve said to me "I see your Oregon Ducks beat up Stanford last weekend". Super Steve is a classic sports fan a man with the real Tim Russert Philosophy... You cheer for your home town. I remember reading some stories about Tim Russert and how he would phone friends in the middle of the night... should they be working on the wrong coast, because their home town had won a big game, and he was excited for them and wanted to share in their joy.
Speaking of games, i had to jet after last weeks SRSS as the Crown Royals had a game @ 9:30 in North Vancouver... our line put on a clinic racking up 7 goals... I think we won 7-5.
Anyhoo, let's rock tomorrow... did i mention that some woman from the choir i sing in came up to me after choir on Monday and asked me if i was playing with the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn orchestra @ the railway last week... she was there and so was I.
Also if there was any confusion and you were thinking that Classical Revolution was playing this week, they are not. I had booked them but then, as the SRSS goes, things often change and it falls back to me and my crew... which works just great for me in this instance. Odd thing that on this event the Globe and Mail called the Railway club, which then emailed me, to whom i forwarded to my contact... the article has gone to press and we missed a chance to get a supper show a national nod. Another good lesson: you can't choose your audience, and you never know what a show might bring. I know it says in various places on the Internet that Classical Revolution is playing the SRSS tomorrow at the Super Robertson Supper Show, but really I can't change that now. I try to be organized and get the word out, but you can't take things down off the Internet. Not like the old days when a poster you put up on the street would survive a record 3 months and you would get excited every time you would see it thinking what a good thing you did putting it there and having it survive for so long. Now there is enough damming irrevocable evidence of my incompetence on the Internet I'm screwed. My policy was always let the truth sit, but the problem with my policy is that people aren't like me...
A Local Musician named Randy Ponzio disappeared and was found dead last week. Terrible shame, and now many hack news sources are posting youtube videos of him playing that were shot live and have levels peaking out with just plain bad sound, making him appear not as good as he really was. It just got me thinking about what you really want out there... If i died i would rather be linked to a solid version of a good song, but there are clips of me in a woman's dress hitting a cowbell... could cast a different light on my existence.
So for Randy, who i didn't really know to well, lets put this one up:
Good solid stuff and in the end he goes on to preach compassion for the kids involved in the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot. When it happened i thought about myself as a 17 year old caught up in massive disappointment and a mob mentality and how, yes it might have been possible for me to end up in a smashing frenzy. I'm not saying it would have happened for sure, but it is possible i could have got swept up in the festivities, and in the end i turned out to be a good member of society (pay taxes, donate time to neighbourhood improvement, raising 3 responsible, aware children). So perhaps vilifying kids for a moment of insanity and punishing them so severely might not be the best thing for society... given that the people who run society do a lot of pre-meditated damage and all. At the same time, anybody who came to incite riot should spend the rest of their lives in a cell with the shady bankers and war profiteers.
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