Oops...........
So last night (10/29/04), local Houston jam band Blendt held a party for their first studio release at The Rhythm Room and asked LBP to open up the evening.
It was a very memorable night..............................for Blendt.
Sometimes, no matter how much love, energy, focus or "whatever" you put into a set, it just doesn't work out. Although the night was fun, the vibe was good and the crowd seemed like they had a great time, we felt like we played well below the bar that we normally set for ourselves. There were some very cool moments but a lot of silly mistakes (which are out of character for us). If it were a football game the stats would be something like - 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and 3 fumbles (that's a loss every time). It's so weird how bad shows happen, it's like catching the flu, there's nothing you can do - just take your medicine and ride it out.
I guess we didn't drink enough or maybe we drank too much or Beatty had too many Red Bulls or Marc was thinking about his new puppy or it was the sound man's fault or there was an eclipse or Marty was pissed that he was missing the Peanut's Halloween Special or Tyson's pool is dirty or Phyve's t-shirt was too tight or Mt. Saint Helens was erupting or Conrad was trying to decide if voting for Nader is really that good of an idea or Ashley's lip sync tape fucked up................. or maybe it was my fault (no - that's just silly).
Now Blendt on the other hand had a great night - a pretty good size crowd, a few costumes and a lot of energy. Good for them, I hope they enjoyed themselves and sold some CD's.
So anyway it's back to work next week (3 gigs - including a live 90.1 KPFT radio show on Friday and we headline Last Concert Cafe on Saturday).
(Marc gave me a hard time about the way I spell "thanx")
So...........
THANX again to Blendt for asking us to open,
THANX to everyone who came out,
THANX for reading my silly little Blog,
and THANX as always for your support,
Coy - LBP Bass
Well Beyond Expectations
So you get the call from Clear Channel Entertainment- "Do you want to play the side stage at The Woodlands Pavilion on Saturday and the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in San Antonio on Sunday before the Allman Brothers concerts?" Um...if you insist. You appreciate the nod from a huge music conglomerate like Clear Channel, you know you're going to get to play on a big outdoor stage, you know your sound system (P.A.) will be great, and you know you get free tickets to a great show. What you don't expect is an audience (A Clear Channel rep would later tell us that he's seen 100 of these side stage deals and it's always background- we were the first band he had ever seen hold a huge crowd)-
foreshadowing.
We met at the Woodlands Pavilion at 2pm on Saturday. Right away we were treated with a level of respect and appreciation that blew us away. There was special parking, a special entrance, and passes that would get us anywhere on the grounds that we wanted to go (except backstage, but keep reading). The stage was just inside of the park's main entrance, our soundman was already there with the entire P.A. set up and waiting for us. Sound check was quick and we had a little time to hang out before they started letting people in (we knew this was the time to drink since we could get beers with no line). We soon figured out that (at $7 each) if we had many beers we would drink up our entire profit for the gig. We didn't care!
Doors opened at 4pm, and there were at least 1000 people in the park within the first 10 minutes. They had to walk right by us and our stage to get in (a few mumblings of "I wonder what's going on over here" and then they've walked on by, which is what we expect during the set but don't care because we have two objectives today- 1. Impress Clear Channel so they will want to work with us again, 2. Have fun). Waiting to play is funny (not just this show but always) because we all bitch about the driving, the lugging of equipment, never getting enough sleep, not having enough time with our families/significant other, etc. And then you see your gear set up on stage and it all fades away and all you want is for it to be 4:30 (in this case) so that you can play the music you love with the friends you love.
4:30 comes and we're starting the show. As we fade into our first song (Slippery), I laugh to myself as I realize that we can be playing the first song of our set at the smallest of clubs or the Woodlands Pavilion, and either way Phyve is nowhere to be found, and I just have to trust that he'll show up in time for his first lyric (he always does). A few of our friends have come to watch us or maybe they came for the free Allman Brothers tickets we hooked them up with. Either way, having a little of the chateau crew there meant that instead of playing to 2000 people who don't care, we'd be playing to 2000 people who don't care and 5 who do (sounds silly but it's much better). That was apparently not to be. It wasn't long before our little are of the grounds was packed (I mean packed). Now everything has changed. Instead of having fun playing for each other, we have an audience to entertain (a concept that we are quite comfortable with). Everything about this gig just seemed to get bigger and better as our short little set went on (one hour to most bands is a normal length set but for us that's just enough time to warm up). We were pretty song oriented but fit in plenty of improv. We had joked before the set about playing Sweet Home Alabama (Lynard Skynard was playing before the Allman Brothers. I've tried hard to put off mentioning that but it seems the time has come). We get to this point at the end of the set where Marc, Conrad, and I all know that we are in the right key, at the right tempo and that if we are going to do it, now is the time. But it will be the WORST VERSION OF SWEET HOME ALABAMA EVER and we will be playing it for Skynard fans who won't get the joke and won't give us much slack. So of course when Marc gives me the "do it or don't do it" look, I smirk and nod. Insert southern accent here- "That's not how it goes, I know how it goes." So we give the torn blue jean wearing, fake blonde hair having, completely off key singing lady our microphone- she rocked. That's how one of the biggest shows we've had to date ended- Sweet Home Alabama led by a mid-life crisis Skynard groupie. Perfect.
After the set we're hanging out, signing autographs, meeting more people than we can count who apparently think we're ridiculously cool, (you know, your basic rock star stuff) when we find out that during the set someone from the Allman Brothers crew had heard us and was nice enough to give us backstage passes (and buy a CD- maybe Greg Allman is listening to Urban Ocean right now). The night is young and we have free access EVERYWHERE. (We each go backstage but it's pretty lame- for now).
8:30- Lynard Skynard plays (whatever).
9:25- Marc, Phyve, Beatty, and I don't know who else are backstage. (I F-ing missed it, I didn't want to lose my quality spot on the lawn.) The Allman Brothers are slowly making their way to the stage. Marc's got a story about Derek Trucks tuning right next to him, Phyve has a story about a guy showing him pictures of us on stage that he had taken earlier in the day, and come to find out he's Oteil Burbridge's brother and so they take pictures together. I don't know if Beatty or Marty have a story or not (like I said, I F-ing missed it).
A few key moments during the Allman Brothers set- A very drunk Calum almost gets arrested when he throws his lit cigarette over his shoulder and hits a State Trooper, Jeff has Tyson stand in front of him so that nobody will notice that he's peeing into an empty beer cup in the middle of 30,000 people (of course Tyson moves, of course we all notice, and of course Jeff tries to talk everyone into taking a sip of his "beer"- Marc (of course) almost does until everyone cracks up and he thinks twice), Tyson and (either Marty, Beatty, or Jeff-I forget) get a little mixed up in the dark, sit in someone else's chairs and finish the popcorn and soda that was left behind before they realize they are in the wrong spot with the wrong popcorn) and Derek Trucks blows the roof off the place.
As Phyve and I head to the chateau for even more (whatever) Phyve tries to talk me into just going to his house and crashing since we had a long drive and another gig coming up on Sunday. This is quite out of Phyve's character so I figure he must be wrong- we go to the chateau.
Sunday, we left Houston at 1pm and headed for San Antonio to do it all over again. Somehow the energy level wasn't quite as high. We were amazed to see that we were able to pull a great crowd again on Sunday (not nearly as big as Saturday but they had us play earlier, there weren't very many people there yet). The Verizon Wireless Amphitheater treated us great. This time we got passes to the VIP tent and tickets for free dinner (just what we needed, a quiet, no heavy drinking Sunday evening). Most of us left soon after (we had a good laugh at Lynard Skynard's expense when we noticed that their set was exactly the same as the night before right down to what the singer, who we affectionately refer to as Lynard Himself, said and wore) and then we were out of there.
So I know this has been ridiculously long but trust me, I've left a lot out. It was a great couple of days in Little Brother Project history and we want to make sure that we thank Clear Channel Entertainment, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in San Antonio, The Allman Brothers Band and of course Lynard Skynard.
Thanx for your continued support,
Coy - LBP Bass
P.S. Happy Birthday Phyve
P.S.S. See you soon Debbie
A Rainy Night At Deans
Hi Kids,
Yesterday was "the first Thursday of the month" and the fact that Houston was nearing the end of a 48 hour downpour meant that downtown was VERY quiet. If you missed the show last night (and almost all of the planet did), you missed a really fun night. We started playing at our normal 10pm and there were less than 10 people at Deans. Well I guess you could count - LBP members, Steve (Deans Co-Owner/Bartender) and the Bar Back whose name I can never remember (I always have to ask him for stuff like drinks, help with gear etc...and I have to think of a new pronoun every time "hey Dude..., excuse me Bro..., YO G...") then the count was maybe 15. Like I said, we started at 10 and since Jim Morrison (Phyve) strolled in around 11, we had a lot of improving to do. Marc and Conrad have been on this kick to be "different" so our jams are starting to evolve. They are becoming a little less open and a little more structured. We started with an almost Salsa sounding piece that the two of them have been working on (it was cool, I felt like we were actually the Jazz band that we claimed to be in order to secure the Deans gig in the first place). That opened the way for an hour or so of cool jamming. If I have a complaint about LBP, it would be that we need to be as brave to go completely out on a limb at packed shows as we are when there's nobody there. So when Phyve made his rock star entrance we were ready to play an actual song or two (it's very easy to forgive him for being late when he walks up to the mike and sounds amazing as usual). We played a second set that started off fairly serious and ended up silly. Toby (Deans other Co-Owner and Mr. Rock Singer Dude) joined us on stage (I love it when he does) and we muddled our way through a few covers - The Doors, Hendrix, some 12 bar blues...we rock. Anyway it was fun and having Conrad's long distance lady in town and sitting at the end of the bar (Hi Debbie) made it that much better. Not to mention Lad sitting in with us on Jimbe (I doubt that's in spell check), it's always cool to have our friends jam with us. So now it's off to The Woodlands and San Antonio to open for The Allman Brothers and Lynard Skynard, like I said WE ROCK!!
So we'll see you all soon,
Thanx for your support,
Coy - LBP Bass
